VATICAN CITY — Leading up to the canonizations of Blesseds John Paul II and John XXIII, the Pontifical Council for the Laity will publish a new webpage highlighting the emphasis both popes placed on the role of women.

Referring to the upcoming canonizations, Ana Christiana Villa, a consecrated laywoman of the Marian Community of Reconciliation and head of the Womens' Department of the Council for the Laity, explained to CNA April 16 that the new webpage is designed to bring attention to the effect of the popes' work through the voices of women themselves.

Containing testimonies from 11 women around the world, as well as writings on women from the magisteriums of both popes, Villa explained that her office thought of the webpage because they wanted to create something “to commemorate the two pope-saints.

“We thought to ask different women from around the world what they thought this canonization meant in general for the Church and in particular for Catholic women.”

“So we had a very beautiful group … from different countries and continents,” she said, who are “writing us with their reflections, their thinking, but also their testimonies of what these popes have meant in their lives.”

A great desire for the webpage, Villa said, is to take advantage of “this historical opportunity of two popes being canonized together, two popes who are very recent saints, who lived in our modern times.”

They both lived, she went on to say, “many of the challenges that we are living also today and showed us their witness of how to live these challenges as a Christian and with a deep Christian faith.

“[It] is a very beautiful moment for us to raise the voices of women thanking them for their witness and also for the teachings they developed on women. They both have important roles.”

Recounting how the idea of the webpage originally came about, Villa explained that it began when they were researching the works of John XXIII.

Drawing attention to his encyclical Pacem in Terris, which emphasizes the importance of peace in the world, the laywoman revealed that, in the document, John XXIII also “wrote very beautifully” about “the presence, the growing presence, of women in society and life.”

Observing how it was the early 1960s when the encyclical came out, Villa reflected that his words on women were “to be considered a sign of the times and something beautiful.”

“So we started digging into what other things he said about women, and so that’s how the idea came up of gathering a page of his magisterium on women, which is not as large as [that of] John Paul II, but it is very interesting because it was the very beginning of many changes.”

Highlighting how, at that time, John XXIII was “already there as a father, as a brother in Christ, illuminating from the Catholic faith these new paths that were opening in the lives of women,” Villa expressed that “we want to bring light to that — that he did speak about women too, and he had something to say in those very first years of many changes.”

“And also, obviously, John Paul II for women, and for women in particular in the Church, is a real father and a real point of reference,” she continued, adding that “his magisterium has been so rich, so deep.”

When asked if the page will remain a permanent part of the council’s website, Villa responded, “Yes, we’re going to leave it there.”

Revealing that the page will hopefully be launched the Thursday before the canonizations, which will be April 27, Divine Mercy Sunday, the laywoman explained that “it’s going to be there as a permanent homage to these two pope-saints and how they opened the way for women, each one in their own way.”