Catholic women are tired of being excluded

John Paul II, in his recent open letter to women worldwide, (1995) blandly assert the obvious truth that history has short-changed women. In the document, which he has called a reflection "on the problems and prospects of what it means to be a woman in our time," he says there is an urgent need for women to achieve "real equality in every area" of life today. It seems that this equality, however, must not extend to women;s role in the church. Once again he repeats his intransigent insistence that women can never become priests. The contradiction in this patent attempt to give with one hand while taking away with the other is manifest to any but the most uncritical both within and without the flock. It amount to an effort to keep all the structure of patriarchy intact while ignoring the oppression and ultimate violence against women that patriarchy perpetuates. Instead of reflecting on what it means to be a woman in our time, he needs to do more reflecting on what it means to be a woman in the Roman Catholic Church today. Indeed, the letter would have had vastly more cogency with intelligent Catholic women everywhere if it had tackled something even more basic: To what extent has the Catholic church contributed to violence and to the historical "short-changing of women" the Pope so deplores? Lest one be accused of "Catholic-bashing" for sharply raising such a question - and there are those who hurl that label whenever Vatican policy comes under review of any kind - it's a useful exercise to recall the clearest statement about the relationship between the Catholic church and violence against women I have yet to encounter. I'm referring to the pastoral Reflection on Family Violence issued by the Social Affairs Committee of the Quebec Assembly of Bishops in 1989. Called, Violence en heritage: A Heritage of Violence, this courageous document faces squarely not just violence in society at large but also the extent to which the church and violence are and have been inextricably intertwined. The preamble say: "The cause of family violence are deeper and go far beyond the behavior of any individual. The cause are social, economic and political. They have roots in a patriarchal system and its influence on institutions." One such institution, the bishops say, is the church itself. They call on it to become " the agent of change in society" by first of all "becoming aware of its own violence in society." It's impossible to stress this particular insight too strongly. The bishops specifically target all "customs, language gestures, attitudes, manipulations and structures" that discriminate against women and stated boldly that on this issue "silence is complicity." So. after describing the linkage between patriarchy in general and violence against women, the key passage in the report zeroes in on patriarchy inside the church. it asks: 'Isn't a patriarchal mentality present in the church itself when it: *Use exclusive language? *Excludes women by canon law from certain functions and positions of responsibility, for example, reader and acolyte (canon 230 par. 1): ordination (canon 1024); preacing and homiletics (canon 767, par. 1); judicial vicar and tribunal judge (canon 1420, par. 2)?" There is some humor and a great deal of tragedy about the present pope's refusal even to permit a discussion of the full ordination of women to the priesthood. it's funny watching him use the New Testament to support his stand when it nowhere describes Jesus establishing a separate caste of professional priests of either sex! True, Jesus commissioned 12 men as his apostles, but their function was unique and unrepeatable. The fact that they were all male is ultimately irrelevant, a cultural phenomenon of that time and nothing more. They were all Jews as well. The tragedy, apart from the link with violence cited by the Quebec bishops, is that the Catholic church today is witnessing an ongoing exodus of some to its best female minds and talent in North America and Europe. I have received letters from many of these women and their agonizing is very real and deep. They love their church and they want to serve Christ in the modern world. You have to empathize with them. They are tired of being excluded. They don't want to leave. But, in the end, as they say, one can only wait so long for truth and justice. Remember Galileo and weep.

T.H.   IN TORONTO STAR ON SUNDAY, JULY 23/95.