Hi Father. A question I thought was pretty interesting came to mind a few days ago, and I thought you might be able to answer it :) Why do we refer to the Church itself as feminine? For example, I might hear someone say "The Church and HER teachings" or something like that. Why is that so if the Church is Christ's(His) Church and was built upon Peter? Thanks so much for taking the time to answer this and all other questions, it really is a great help!
Great question. Part of it undoubtedly has to do with linguistic inertia: English doesn't give genders to its words, but as all those who struggled through some foreign language in high school know, most other languages do.
It's feminine everywhere: Greek (ekklesia), Latin (ecclesia), even Italian (chiesa), French (église) and Spanish (iglesia).
So that was easy.
But there's also a deeper theological meaning: St. Paul often calls the Church the "Bride of Christ" or the "Spouse of Christ" (perhaps most famously in Ephesians 5) so it's natural to use feminine imagery for her. The Book of Revelation does too, of course. So precisely because it's "his," the Church is a "she."
God bless you!
- Father Shane