The Catholic Church's ongoing problem with women has played its part in St Therese's story. For the first 1,970 years of its existence, Doctors of the Church were men only, and generally theologians. They, like Thomas Aquinas, were deemed to have made an important theological and spiritual contribution to the Church. Pope Pius XI, who beatified (in 1923) and canonised (1925) St Therese, baulked at making her a Doctor of the Church, because she was a woman. He refused the doctorate to St Teresa of Avila for the same reason.
In 1970, Pope Paul VI declared Teresa and St Catherine of Sienna Doctors of the Church, despite his worries that this might be used as a wedge to open the door to women priests.
He was assured by Vatican theologians this would not happen. Neither of the new Doctors had written any theological theses; in fact, Catherine was illiterate, whereas Teresa had said she knew nothing, and was once threatened by the Inquisition.
As the auxiliary Bishop of Lisieux, Dr Guy Gaucher, has said: "Paul VI shook up the traditional criteria and admitted women who had been denied access to knowledge previously reserved for men." But Thomas Aquinas had said there were two ways of speaking of God: the speculative way (of theologians) and the metaphorical way (the route most favoured by women, because of history).
Part of the reason Therese was made a doctor was her expressed desire to be such, and her book The Story of a Soul. But she also expressed a wish to be a deacon and a priest! She wanted to be "a priest, a deacon, a prophet, a doctor (of the Church), a missionary, a martyr . . .". This has not been missed by those in the Catholic Church who favour the ordination of women.