Women in the Church (First in A Series of Blog Entries on Church Related Issues)

A number of reports are currently surfacing on the status of women and American Society. Time magazine's current cover story and Maria Shriver's report for the Center for American Progress are two examples. I wanted to focus more specifically on where women stand within the Roman Catholic religious tradition.

Women religious have always had an active and influential role in the Church. Most of us older Catholics were taught by the nuns at some point in our lives. We often made fun of them and stories abound about how they rapped students' knuckles with rulers etc. Still there is no question that they had enormous influence in the development of generations of Catholics. Despite their efforts they have been undervalued - typically doing much of the work, but not considered when decisions needed to be made. Nuns always defer to the priest, because what would a woman know anyway. When it came to decision making, policy issues, or religious doctrine, women in the Church simply haven't mattered.

I must confess that in my mind there are also some negatives in giving women a greater role in Church leadership. Women in the Church have tended to promote some of the more excessive devotions bordering on superstition such as novenas, first Friday and First Saturday devotions. Many have also latched on to a rigid anti-abortion stance that leaves no room for accepting the fact that other people of good will may have a different view. Yet women in leadership in the Church have demonstrated wisdom, competence as well as many valuable virtues that some would consider feminine. These virtues which are often missing from our male dominated clergy and could provide a valuable counter balance to the operation of our Church might include gentleness, nurturing, compassion, and more open-mindedness.

Women in the United States continue to have many challenges as is pointed out in the reports on women that are currently emerging. Yet there can be no question that the status of women in our country is at a different place than exists in many other countries in the world including many western countries. Women in the US have achieved a level of equality and acceptance that is probably unique. The vast majority of Americans including men now believe that women can do essentially anything men can do and have a right to do it. Basically, it is discrimination pure and simple to say that women are not permitted to exercise certain functions. The denial of priesthood to women is essentially unamerican.

According to Time's "What Women want Now" almost 40% 0f women in the US are now the primary bread winners in the family. Eight in 10 respondents say that mothers are just as productive at work as fathers or childless workers. Husbands and wives negotiate family policies as to who does what to keep the family going according to 84% of those polled. Women serve as financial planners in 64% of homes, and as family accountants in 71% of families. Women also make 75% of the buying decisions. Again, women are clearly in a different place in American society than just about any other country. and what might be customary in other parts of the world does not work for American society. We need a church that is sensitive to the needs of women and the entire Catholic community in the US right now. John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter often cites the universality of the Church as a major reason why what Americans want cannot be the norm for Church action. It is time, however, for the US church to quit being denied what it needs to satisfy what might work for other countries in other parts of the world.

Biblical arguments are of course put forward as to why women cannot be ordained priests. A look at scripture tells us that womens' heads should be covered in church. It tells us that women should be obedient to their husbands. Clearly neither of these edicts of Paul are in effect today, and almost all would agree that these kinds of statements are conditioned by the mores of the time in which they were writtten. The notion that we should be held to such standards makes little sense.

The main argument put forward to rule out women priests is that all the Apostles were men. The tradition of the Church rules out the ordination of women. Yet there is clear evidence that women at least served as deacons in the early church, as well as in other positions of authority. Some scholars would go further and put forth evidence of female priests. The truth is it doesn't matter. There is nothing in the new testament that prohibits the ordination of women and the time has come. If Mary can be the Mother of God, surely a woman can preside at the Eucharist. The only impediment really is a 'good old boys network' in Rome who are set in their ways, don't understand societal changes and just like things the way they are - that's not good enough.

To be fair, women certainly have grown in stature in our Church particularly in our country. We do have female theologians, we even have female parish administrators, directors of religious education etc. But if there ever was a glass ceiling it exists in the Church. We are told the Church can't move cause much of the world is not ready for a greater role for women. Yet why should the western world, especially the United States, be prohibited from fulfilling its spiritual needs because others are not ready? We need more diversity in our Church and if countries make different choices why is that a problem?

So what happens now? The times cry out for change. The ranks of the clergy are thinning and are not being replenished with enough young priests. More and more often the faithful will be without access to the sacraments due to a lack of priests. The ongoing sex abuse crisis demands seeking alternatives to the current system.

Many Church issues are interrelated. What prevents us from moving ahead on women's issues is often embedded in church structure. The way decisions are made impacts our ability to make progress. No matter what large percentages of clergy and laity alike in Des Moines might feel, not only are they unempowered to make decisions regarding their needs, there is no forum for them to even voice their concerns. In fact if they should express their concerns, they may well be punished for having the temerity to speak up. That is why I wish to work on a series of articles on church related issues to illustrate how they are interelated and demand forceful action on the part of the Church, meaning Church as the people of God.