When Catholic
Women
Are Equal Partners
By Mary E. Hunt
11 April, 2005
CommonDreams.org
Catholic
history is measured in centuries, not decades, and Catholic women have
been an integral part from the beginning. One would never know that
from observing the funeral, conclave, and plans for a new papacy following
the death of Pope John Paul II. A visitor from Venus would think that
men gesture, genuflect, and guard, while women pray silently under their
mantillas with candles and rosaries in hand. More important, men make
all the decisions while women, who at best can be their spokespersons,
are expected to abide by them.
By virtue of their
ordination, clergymen (not lay men or any women) run the church. Only
men are eligible for the top spot and to elect the one who will hold
it. The trickle-down sexism is legendary: prohibitions on women priests,
laws against women making sexual and reproductive decisions, official
policies that keep women from teaching in seminaries, and a clerical
culture that has no place for women. Ironically, women already do the
lions share of the ministry in the U.S. Catholic Church and elsewhere,
though the men reserve the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Penance, and
financial and theological matters to themselves.
Some wise person
decreed that when the pope dies virtually all official Vatican offices
are vacated and the new pope starts fresh. What might it look like if
by some act of the Holy Spirit, as the Cardinals like to say of their
politicking, the next papacy were to reflect women as equal partners
in the church?
The first change
would be to tone down the whole thing. With war raging, the environment
in peril, and people dying of HIV/AIDS, the current hoopla is simply
too much. Not even the deepest spiritual graces justify the expense
of the travel, costumes, and media surrounding this good mans
death. Women I know would have suggested a simple, dignified burial
and continuing on with the work he loved.
Another change would
be declericalizing the church. That does not mean simply ordaining women
and married men and going on with the show. What is transparent in this
interregnum (the word alone speaks volumes) is the wide gap between
clergy and laity, indeed between management and members, between the
ordained and the rest of us. The days of clerical privilege are behind
us. If sound theology were not enough to demonstrate that a discipleship
of equals is the preferred model of church, the pedophilia and
episcopal cover-up scandals are. Clerical secrecy is reserved for the
most private of situations; accountability is a two-way flat street
in Christian communities.
A third change would
be to start from scratch in terms of institution building, seeking horizontal
integration of a global church. The unique cultural, linguistic, and
religious contributions of each local community would become part of
a grand chorus, not erased in favor of the least common denominator.
This is the major challenge of the twenty-first century on every front,
not simply the religious. With technology, travel, and tenderness I
have every confidence it can be met. I have worked with women in international
settings and seen creativity trump static rules of order, translation
handled with skill and ease, new models of shared leadership tried with
great success.
Finally, Catholic
women want a church where love and justice translate into concrete social
political action, beginning at home. We want to use the moral energy
of our religion to stop war, eradicate greed, empower women, and eliminate
racism. But we want to do so as a modest community of believers, not
as a transnational religious corporation whose CEO is elected by the
board. We want to invite and include, especially those who have been
kept at the margins by princes of power. We want to be part of the action,
but only in a renewed church.
Mary E. Hunt,
PhD is a Catholic feminist theologian. She is the co-director of WATER,
the Womens Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual in Silver
Spring, Maryland. [email protected]