When She Speaks: Women's Power in Religious and Political Institutions

"Although we sisters are supposed to be invisible, God has nevertheless given me eyes and ears." - Sister Agnes, Conclave

I recently watched the movie Conclave and was moved by the themes in the film. I found myself particularly drawn to Sister Agnes, portrayed with quiet intensity by Isabella Rossellini, who embodies a reality faced by women in hierarchical institutions throughout history. Her character represents something profound about power, observation, and resistance that extends well beyond the Vatican's walls.

The Watcher in the Shadows

Rossellini described Sister Agnes this way in a recent interview: "In this long character that I play, I never speak because my role as a nun is to be a servant, to be subservient to men, and the Catholic church is a very strong patriarchal society. Cardinals are men. Popes are men. Cardinals vote, nuns do not vote, don't even, cannot even do mass."

Yet this limitation becomes her strength. "I wanted to be always incredibly alert, incredibly present, and silent…a shadow that follows everything that is happening, but in silence." In a world where visibility equals power, Sister Agnes inverts the equation; her invisibility becomes her superpower, allowing her to witness what others cannot or will not see.

Women in Religious Hierarchies

The Catholic Church, like many religious institutions, has historically relegated women to supporting roles. While nuns and sisters have been essential to the Church's educational, healthcare, and missionary work, they've remained excluded from clerical roles and formal ecclesiastical authority.

Despite these constraints, female religious figures have frequently been at the forefront of social justice movements, speaking truth to power from their position as witnesses. Dorothy Day, Sister Helen Prejean, and countless others have transformed observation into action, challenging institutional power while working within its framework.

The Power of Bearing Witness

This dynamic extends beyond religious institutions into political spheres. Throughout history, women in politics have often faced similar expectations of silence and invisibility. Yet like Sister Agnes, many have transformed these constraints into opportunities for observation and strategic intervention.

Consider figures like Eleanor Roosevelt, who leveraged her "ceremonial" role as First Lady to champion human rights, or Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, whose profound constitutional knowledge made her voice impossible to ignore during the Nixon impeachment hearings. These women, operating in spaces designed to minimize their influence, found ways to maximize their impact precisely because they understood the systems from positions often overlooked by those in power.

Standing Against Tyranny

History reveals a consistent pattern: those who experience institutional power from positions of marginality often develop the clearest vision of its corruptions. This explains why women have so frequently been at the forefront of resistance movements against authoritarian regimes:

• The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, demanding accountability for their "disappeared" children;
• Women's suffrage movements worldwide, challenging fundamental power structures;
• Contemporary activists like Malala Yousafzai, confronting extremism from a position of supposed powerlessness.

These figures understand the profound truth that observation itself is a form of power. As Rossellini notes about Sister Agnes: "And yes, when she speaks, whoa, she speaks." The impact of these voices is magnified precisely because they emerge from positions supposedly designed for silence.

The Challenge of the Shadow

Sister Agnes's character reminds us of a paradoxical truth: sometimes the most limited formal power creates the greatest capacity for moral authority. "It was a challenging role," Rossellini reflects, "because generally, you know, you notice the actors who are talking and who were yelling, those were big scenes. And my character had to be a shadow. And that was the challenge. And what I liked about playing Sister Agnes to be the shadow."

In both religious and political contexts, the watchers in the shadows – those who observe without the burden of defending institutional power – often develop the clearest moral vision. Their challenge, like Sister Agnes's, is finding the precise moment when observation must transform into voice.

The (Sometimes) Quiet Revolution

The parallel between women's experiences in religious hierarchies and political systems offers an important lesson about resistance. Power is not always wielded through formal authority or loud proclamations. Sometimes it lives in the quiet determination to see clearly, to bear witness, and to speak truth at the precise moment when truth is most needed.

In a world that still struggles to fully value women's voices in both religious and political spheres, the character of Sister Agnes reminds us that invisibility can be strategically transformed into its opposite – a form of seeing that ultimately cannot be ignored. The eyes and ears God gave her become not just tools of observation but instruments of moral clarity about, and within, institutions that sometimes lose their way.

The most revolutionary act may not be seizing power but rather using one's position – whatever it may be – to bear witness to truth and turn that witness into a catalyst for change. In both sacred and secular halls of power, these remain women's persistent and particular strengths.