While some say women’s participation in the Church has improved but could be a lot better, other females who hold senior positions in the Church warn of the dangers of playing purely a numbers game.
By Anthony Barich
Catholic women are still living with the “contradictions and tensions” in the Church that came to light 15 years ago, but are not insurmountable in ensuring the dignity of women is honoured and their gifts given space to flourish in the Church.
This was the message that Sr Sonia Wagner, the original deputy chair of the bishops’ Commission for Australian Catholic Women, told an August 27-28 conference hosted by a Council for Australian Catholic Women in Canberra last month.
The conference marked ten years since the launch of Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus, the report into the participation of women in the Catholic Church in Australia.
The report followed a nation-wide survey of women, practising and non-practising, after Sr Anne Lane PVBM wrote to Australian Catholic Social Justice Council chair Bishop William Brennan on behalf of the sub-committee of Women’s Issues, Catholics in Coalition for Justice and Peace, proposing an independent study on ‘sexism in the Catholic Church in Australia’.
Australia’s bishops responded to the One in Christ Jesus report on Social Justice Sunday 2000 with nine national recommendations and 31 for diocesan bishops.
A key recommendation was to “achieve a better balance” of men and women, clergy, religious and laity on councils, boards, organisations and advisory bodies in leadership and professional roles.
It was recommended that women’s involvement in decision-making be increased, that the nature of ministry and associated pastoral issues be examined, that “attitudes and practices considering gender and racial equality and equal opportunities be addressed, especially among indigenous women.”
There have been positive developments since then. By 2008, 24 of the 28 geographical and four of the five personal dioceses or eparchies had appointed contacts for women and 11 had established formal or informal Commissions or Committees for Women.
For 2008 and 2009, the Office for Participation of Women produced a kit for International Women’s Day to be used by parishes as a resource to affirm and acknowledge the contribution of women in the Church.
The Young Catholic Women’s Interfaith Fellowship was also established, as Decision 6 of the ACBC recommendations issued in 2000 called for formation and education programs.
Kerry Macfarlane, Perth’s liaison for the CACW, told The Record that many women at the Canberra conference believed the involvement of women had changed from just helping the parish priest to gaining theological training and taking pastoral roles previously undertaken by priests, like catechesis. She said the conference, attended by 66 women from around Australia, was also a good networking opportunity and shared ways of reaching out to women who had fallen away from the Church.
She is planning a similar conference in Perth on October 17-18 to be addressed by Sandy Cornish of the Australian Social Justice Council on what has been achieved over the past ten years and what the future holds.
Kimberly Davis, director of the bishops’ Office for Participation of Women, told The Record that in light of the bishops’ 2000 Social Justice Sunday Statement, “it’s important to recognise that in some instances women’s participation is at the same level it was ten years ago when the research was done”. For example, “we could work a lot harder” to activate Decision 7, where the bishops committed to recognising and promoting the contribution of indigenous and Torres Strait Islander women – though she conceded that this issue is fraught with its own unique set of complexities.
A Council delegation visited the Northern Territory this year, addressing this issue. The issue of having the voices of indigenous men heard is also important, Ms Davis said. Women in prominent roles in the Church in Perth have questioned the methodology of gauging women’s participation and just what the Council deems as “responsibility”.
Notre Dame Vice Chancellor Celia Hammond said that judging participation purely by the number of people is a “very limited measurement tool”, and that people can have a “profound influence in any community or organisation simply by reaching out to the person next to you”.
“I do often take umbrage at the approach that you have to be in a leadership position to have any influence or to have any involvement or responsibility,” she said, adding that she appreciates that she grew up in a time of not having to fight for the right for higher education like previous generations did.
“So when a person says position hasn’t changed in ten years, I say, first of all the position ten years ago wasn’t actually all that bad, and what are you truly measuring it against?”
Bronia Karniewicz, executive officer of Perth’s Archdiocesan Respect Life Office, said she was surprised by the assessment as, in her experience both in Perth and interstate, women are able to speak with bishops who are open to hear what they say regarding the direction of things in the Church.
Ms Davis also said that there had been improvements at a diocesan level in terms of women’s participation. Evidence of this is the Catholic Archdiocese of Perth, where several major Church-run agencies have women in leadership roles and even lead some of them, while many parishes have women as liturgists. The situation is also the case in other dioceses around Australia.
Anita Parker, director of Perth’s Catholic Youth Ministry Office, said that, as a female in the Church, she feels “fully supported by the clergy and bishops”.
“Everyone’s a different person with gifts. You wouldn’t necessarily put a female in a leadership position just because they’re female; it’s based on who has the skills and ability,” Miss Parker said.
Prof Hammond also said that the argument between having equal representation of women and appointing people on merit is being confused in the debate over women’s participation in the Church.
Sr Wagner noted that Cardinal Edward Clancy, then the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference president, said in his 2000 summary of the One in Christ Jesus Report that the active involvement of women in the life of the Church in all aspects “except ordained ministry” is very considerable, and significantly greater than that of lay men. The roles they filled, however, were “secondary, ancillary and even menial, which leaves women feeling hurt, angry and alienated”.
He said that both women and men were calling for women to have leadership roles and “a real voice” in the decision-making processes of the Church, but the Australian bishops would not, and indeed could not, action some of the report’s findings, like ordaining women.
“Many are of the view that this is achievable only if women are admitted to the ordained ministry,” Sr Wagner noted of the Cardinal’s summary.
“While we do not wish any persons or groups to be excluded from participation in the life of the Church, some positions voiced in the report could not be accepted because they are in conflict with Church teaching. While this teaching must be clearly stated and adhered to, the bishops remain ‘willing to dialogue with women about these matters for the sake of mutual understanding and in a spirit of Christian love,” Cardinal Clancy said. The issue of women’s ordination has long been problematic for the Commission, as its founding hierarchy spoke openly of favouring the practice, including Geraldine Hawkes, former chairperson of the CACW, who was reported to have said in 2001: “I can’t see why women cannot be ordained. I deeply resent that we’re forbidden to discuss the matter.”
Sr Wagner said in her book Into the Vineyard: “The refusal to admit women to ordination is just one of the symptoms of the disorder that exists in our Church.”
In 2000 the Bishops committed “to draw up policies of care to respond to the pain of people and groups of people within the Church who are struggling with the implications of Church teaching by provision of guidelines to assist in the pastoral care of those who are finding difficulty in understanding and accepting the Church’s teaching on the restriction of ordination to males”.
A major challenge facing the Church is a need to clarify the clerical and lay ministry, and what is meant by collaborative ministry, Ms Davis and Fr Brian Lucas, General Secretary of the ACBC, said in an April 2009 article published in the Australian Catholic Record journal on ‘The ACBC conference and the Participation of Women in the Catholic Church – ten years on’.
“A model of collaborative ministry which uses the gifts and talents of those in the community creates a supportive, vibrant community in which peoples’ needs are addressed, the priest is supported and all members are acknowledged for their contributions. Relations between clergy and laity in general and women in particular are important for the life of the parish.”
They added that the formation of future priests needs to take this into account.