Welcome words on women in Church

A few weeks ago, a committee of the U.S. bishops issued an encouraging statement on the key role women play in the Church. Now an Italian cardinal has added his voice to that chorus, an especially pleasing sound to those women who felt rejected and dejected after the Vatican declared that the teaching barring women from priestly ordination is infallible.

In short, both the U.S. bishops and the Italian prelate are inviting women, who might be tempted to walk away from the Church, instead to take advantage of everything in the Church that is open to them.

Last month, the American bishops' Committee on Women in Society and the Church released "From Words to Deeds: Continuing Reflections on the Role of Women in the Church." In it, the bishops expressed appreciation for all the positive things women do in the Church, encouraged collaboration between men and women, and urged the appointment of women to leadership positions in the Church.

"Women have graced Church history with their holiness, courage, intellectual gifts, and works of justice and mercy," the bishops wrote. "Too often, however, women's contributions have gone unnoticed and undervalued." The bishops went on to encourage the Church to identify leadership roles open to women and recruit them to fill those positions.

Echoing that call last week was Cardinal Silvano Piovanelli of Florence, Italy, who said that women should occupy all of the offices open to them in the Church. He made his comments at a meeting of women theologians and theology students in Rome. That in itself is significant, he said, since for much of the century, women were not even admitted to graduate schools of Catholic theology.

As reported by Catholic News Service, Cardinal Piovanelli said it cannot be denied that the story of women in the Church "is made up of more silences than proclamations and announcements; the woman remains in the wings, while the man dominates the scene."

That happened in part, he said, because the feminist currents in society took a long time to reach and spark changes in the Church, which has "an insufficient ability to accept the new and to critically review the theological and exegetical baggage of our great tradition."

The cardinal said that as women seek their place in the Church, they must remember that as women -- and not despite being women -- they have been transformed into images of Christ. When the Bible says all believers are to share the image of God's son, it makes no distinction on the basis of sex, he pointed out.

"Being the image of Christ does not consist in sexual similarity to Him, but in conforming one's life to His," he said. "Theologically, women and men have the identical ability to be conformed to the image of Christ."

Cardinal Piovanelli urged Catholic women to "have the patience of taking small steps. Occupy with ease all of the spaces which you can occupy." Patience is necessary, he continued, because most changes in the history of the Church, including new roles and offices, started almost spontaneously and only later received institutional approval and adoption.

"One must recognize that if some of the journey has been made, much of it still lies ahead," the cardinal said.

We hope that the words of the bishops and cardinal do much to encourage women to keep contributing their skills and talents to the Church in the 2,000-year-old tradition of Mary, Helen, Catherine of Siena, Clare, Elizabeth Seton, Dorothy Day, and the three great women with similar names -- Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux and Mother Teresa -- who collectively demonstrated the power of women's minds, spirituality and charity.

(11-12-98)

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