Women in the Church and Society:
Reflections at the Beginning
of the 21st Century
National Council of Catholic Women
September 27, 2001
Sister Sharon Euart, RSM, JCD
Servant Leadership
The tragic events of
two weeks ago have made us all aware of the fragility of our human
existence. They have also quite simply frightened us with their
demonstration of the depths to which hatred can reduce people when
they harbor it in their hearts. Yet our national crucifixion has
also been accompanied by signs of the resurrection. We have seen
these signs in the heroism of firefighters, police, health care
workers, and rescuers -- people who have made it their duty to walk
into danger when the rest of us in good conscience can walk away
from it. We have also seen signs of the resurrection in the
generosity of millions of people all over our nation giving blood,
donating money and other resources to those in need.
These people have shown themselves to be servant leaders. Whatever
their faith, their spirit has been that of Christ who told us that
the Son of Man did not come to be served but to give his life as
ransom for the many.
Christ's self-definition of his mission is also the definition of
ours, not only in times of crisis but in our everyday lives when
life is more ordinary. Every Christian is called not to be served
but to serve, whatever their position within the Church. For while
the Church is a hierarchical communion in which some have offices of
authority, over the years, decades and centuries, truly those who
are remembered are not necessarily those who held these offices but
those who demonstrated servant leadership. Among these women have
been among the most dedicated. When all but one of the men who were
the members of the first apostolic college of which our hierarchy
are the successors deserted Christ in the hour of his death, his
mother and the other holy women remained faithful. In the Gospel of
John, it was Mary Magdalene mournfully keeping watch in the Garden
of Gethsemane who saw the stone rolled from the entrance to the tomb
and who told Peter and John what she had seen. It was to her that
Christ first appears and announced his ascension to his father.
We know from the letters of St.Paul the extent to which devout
women, empowered by the Holy Spirit, were essential to his
missionary work. The First Eucharistic Prayer -- the Roman Canon --
contains the names of women who were among the martyrs -- the
witnesses -- whose blood watered the seeds of faith: Perpetua,
Felicity, Agatha, Anastasia, Agnes, Lucy, and Cecilia. After the end
of persecutions, the zeal for the faith embodied in the martyrs
became centered in the monks and nuns. Beside the tremendous figure
of St. Benedict, the father of western monasticism, we see St.
Scholastica, his sister, who also consecrated her life to God.
Throughout the Middle Ages, hardly a time we associate with women's
rights, women -- religious and lay -- made so great an impression on
church and society that we honor their names today, St Catherine of
Sienna, St . Bridget of Sweden, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, to name a
few. In our own times we find other examples of women whose lives in
pursuit of love of God and love of neighbor made a difference in the
Church - women like Mother Katharine Drexel, Edith Stein and Mother
Teresa. Many more names through many centuries demonstrate that
holiness is the goal of the Christian. It is what raises up the
lowly, while its absence will cause the mighty to be deposed from
their thrones.
Our saints -- the Christians we choose to remember from age to age
-- are not confined to the great ones of their times. In fact
sometimes the great ones of an era are all but forgotten, while some
who were the least in the eyes of the world are now venerated as
saints.
So while it is right and good for the Church, as I will discuss
shortly, to recognize the baptismal dignity of all, of women and
men, of lay people, and of those in orders and consecrated life, and
to open church ministries as widely as possible, history proves the
truth of Christ's words that those who would be first must be the
servants of all.
Introduction
The role of women in
the church at the beginning of the 21st century is a story of
servant leadership, a story of many women who make a difference in
our church and in our society every day. It is also a topic that
evokes a variety of responses: hope, optimistic expectations from
some persons; disappointment, conflict, anger and even alienation
from others. Regardless of one's response, few would deny that the
role of women in the Church is one of the most important and
pressing issues in the Church at the beginning of this 21st century.
In our time together this morning, I would like to share with you my
reflections on some of the changes regarding the role of
women in the Church that we have witnessed during the past 35 years
and some of the issues, challenges, and opportunities that
face us at the beginning of the 21st century.
There is no doubt that women have made and continue to make a
positive contribution to the mission and ministry of the Church. To
appreciate the scope of this contribution, it is important first to
reflect briefly on the Church's teaching on mission and ministry.
Second Vatican Council
The context for
change is the Second Vatican Council. While some people have
exaggerated the break with the past represented by the Council,
especially in terms of doctrine, which remained intact, it would be
hard to exaggerate the break which the Council made with the past
attitude toward the world which existed, if not since the 16th
century Council of Trent, certainly since Vatican I in 1870.
It was an attitude which viewed the Church as being under siege by
forces of the modern world which were trying to bring it down and
which had even infiltrated within its walls. Modern historical
studies, the scientific method, and freedom of thought and
expression seemed all to be attacks on the Church's foundations --
whether on the Bible itself or on tradition. In the 19th and early
20th centuries, there was probably good evidence for at least some
of this hostility on the part of the modern world. But if the Church
had preserved itself from real threats, it had also closed itself
off to much of what was good in the world and from fully
understanding the needs of the world to which it might hold the key.
The Council recognized, in a more balanced way, however, the
deficiencies, the benefits, and the needs of our times.
The Council also decided to look at the Church itself, first of all,
in its totality. Many expected the Council Fathers to treat the
Church primarily according to its hierarchical structure, beginning
with the Pope and Bishops and working its way to the laity. Instead,
before discussing the Church's hierarchical structure, the council
spoke of the people of God and the fundamental equality of the
faithful, all of whom -- women and men -- receive in baptism the
commission for service to the Gospel.
The Council Fathers affirmed the "priesthood of all believers,"
which had not been emphasized since the Reformation due to the
reformers' rejection of the Church's teaching on Holy Orders. The
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, affirms
that while the ordained priesthood and the common priesthood differ
"essentially and not only in degree," they exist for one another (LG
#10). Pope John Paul II wrote in 1990 that the ordained priesthood
"is not an institution that exists ‘alongside' the laity or ‘above'
it. The priesthood of bishops and priests, as well as the ministry
of deacons is ‘for' the laity, and precisely for this reason it
possesses a ministerial character, that is to say, one ‘of
service.'" (Holy Thursday Letter to Priests, 1990, #3). The
ordained priesthood and the common priesthood are to work together
for the sake of the Gospel.
Thus from the Council comes the affirmation that the mission of the
Church belongs to the whole people of God on pilgrimage to the
Kingdom. Each of us is called to accept the responsibility of giving
witness and service to the world in the name of Christ. Each of us
is incorporated into the body of Christ by baptism. And as a result
of this incorporation, every Christian shares in each aspect of
Christ's threefold mission: to teach, to sanctify, and to govern.
At the same time, related to this changed understanding of
responsibility for mission, there also developed within the
Church a different and broader insight into the notion of
ministry. In the vision of the Second Vatican Council the
sacraments of initiation (baptism, confirmation and Eucharist) are
the starting point for any consideration of the Church's ministry,
for it is through these sacraments that each person is called to and
empowered for ministry. The Council went on to say that each person
committed to further the mission of the Church should be recognized
by the faith community as actively participating in the Church's
ministry. Thus the Council emphasized that there is one People of
God but many forms of service.
Since the Council did not look on the world as totally bereft of
God's saving presence, the Church's mission was now not solely a
one-sided one of bringing salvation to the world. It is also a
mission to identify the grace-filled riches present in the mysteries
of human life, of which the world itself may not yet be fully aware.
Thus the Council also spoke of mission and ministry in
the context of the human experience. We find the clearest expression
of the integration of the Church and the world in Gaudium et Spes,
the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, which
represented the beginning of an effort to bridge the estrangement of
Church and world. Gaudium et Spes described the relationship
between Gospel and culture. Its perspective was determined by its
vision of the human person and the rights and duties belonging to
each one.
But even before Gaudium et Spes, the Church had begun to
recognize a new situation developing with regard to a more equal
role for women in society. Pope John XXIII, in his 1963 encyclical
Pacem in Terris, identified "three things which characterize
our modern age." The second of these signs concerned "the part that
women are now playing in political life." Pope John went on to
write, "Women are gaining an increasing awareness of their natural
dignity. Far from being content with a purely passive role or
allowing themselves to be regarded as a kind of instrument, they are
demanding both in domestic and in public life the rights and duties
which belong to them as human persons" (Pacem in Terris, #
41). Gaudium et Spes recognized the urgency to further the
cause of treating all women and men with dignity and equality,
emphasizing the rights and freedom of every person (GS, 60). The
document refers to "new social relationships between men and
women"(GS, 3) and for the first time refers to marriage as "an
intimate partnership" (GS, 60), an emphasis and focus that were new
at this level of the teaching of the universal Church.
The Second Vatican Council also called for a recognition of the
equality of persons within the Church. In Lumen Gentium, the
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, the Council recognized the
wonderful diversity in the Church and taught that there is "in
Christ and in the Church no inequality on the basis of race or
nationality, social condition or sex" (LG, 32). All share a true
equality with regard to their dignity and to the common activity of
all the faithful for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Role of Women in Society
Turning now to the
changing role of women, I want to look first at how this is
occurring in society at large. When we look at some of the societal
changes of the past 35 years in our country, it seems fair to say
that during the last generation the change in women's roles can be
described as increased freedom, that is, the degree of legal and
social freedom women experience themselves as enjoying. These
changes include shifts in patterns of relationship between men and
women in marriage and in family life, new opportunities in public
life and the business world, legal protections in the workplace and
in education, and a new awareness of sexism in virtually every
social structure including the Church. In addition, both men and
women are developing skills and confidence in a variety of roles
that were once the domain of the other gender.
The really profound change, however, is in the self-understanding
among women, in a movement toward autonomy and self-determination,
where women do not see themselves over against or in competition
with men, but side-by-side with men in mutual, collaborative, equal
relationships whether in the home, the community, or the workplace.
Some equate this developing self-awareness with a denigration of the
traditional roles of wife and mother. On the contrary, this enhanced
self-concept is not only compatible with these roles; it makes a
contribution to living them in a more salutary and fulfilling
fashion.
The signs of change and progress, if you will, are all around us.
Women now occupy positions of leadership at all levels of society.
Women have headed some of the most important and largest nations on
earth, such as Great Britain, India, and Israel; and today preside
in Ireland and Indonesia. Two women serve on the Supreme Court of
the United States, as governors, cabinet members and advisors to the
President, and a woman recently served as U.S. Secretary of State.
An increasing number of women serve in the Senate and House. A woman
entered the presidential race a few years ago and was considered a
serious and viable candidate. Women are now in board rooms as well
as classrooms; they serve as presidents and chief executive officers
of major corporations.
Still, more is needed by way of reform. For example, what about pay
equity, that is, equal pay for work of equal value? What about the
women, especially single mothers, who do not have the economic and
educational resources needed to move upward in our society? Their
choices are few, and the pressures are many.
There has been progress, yes, but there still remains a cycle of
helplessness among so many women who struggle to survive against
overwhelming odds of poverty, violence and marginalization with
barely enough resources to live by. Progress in our society
is sporadic.
Role of Women in the Church
What progress can we
identify in the Church? Over the past thirty-five years, many
official church voices have been raised on behalf of women's
increased participation in the Church. The documents of Vatican II,
papal statements, statements of individual bishops, synodal
statements, the many statements of Pope John Paul II especially his
letter On the Dignity and Vocation of Women, the 1995
statement of the U.S. Bishops, Strengthening the Bonds of Peace,
and the 1998 statement of the Bishops' Committee on Women in Society
and the Church, From Words to Deeds, all speak eloquently and
persuasively to the principle of equality.
Changes in the role of women in the Church, however, have also been
shaped by circumstances unforeseen by the Fathers of the Second
Vatican Council. For example, the number of lay women and lay men
wanting to play a more formally active role in Church ministry and
the unexpected decline in the numbers of active clergy and religious
in the United States are phenomena that have significantly
influenced changes in who is ministering in the Church at the dawn
of the 21st century.
There is no doubt that today more women are involved in numerous and
varied ministries on both the parish and diocesan levels than there
were in 1965 or 1975. Some of these changes reflect a shift in the
deployment of personnel in traditional forms of ministry. For
example, we have experienced in our country, and will continue to
experience, a decrease in the number of women religious serving in
schools and hospitals. At the same time, the number of women serving
in parish-based ministries (such as religious education, youth
ministry, sacramental preparation programs, services for the sick,
the elderly, and the disabled) has continued to increase over the
same period. A study conducted by the National Pastoral Life Center
in NY for the Bishops' Subcommittee on Lay Ministry reports that 82%
of parish lay ministers are women. In addition, growing demands for
pastoral ministry have witnessed increasing numbers of women
providing institutional pastoral care in health care facilities, as
prison chaplains, in direct services to the poor and homeless, and
in services to women and children.
More recently, perhaps over the past ten years, the number of women
holding leadership positions in parishes and dioceses has increased
as well. Today women serve as parish coordinators, pastoral
associates or assistants, heads of diocesan departments and
secretariats, chiefs of staff and chancellors, positions
traditionally held by ordained priests. A 1999 study by the National
Association of Church Personnel Administrators (NACPA) for the USCCB
Committee on Women found that over 40% of the diocesan
administrative and professional positions, including about
one-quarter of the top positions, are held by women.
As a canon lawyer -- a discipline an increasing number of women are
studying, let me say a few words about the Code of Canon Law and its
treatment of the role of women in the Church. When the revised Code
of Canon Law was promulgated in 1983, Pope John Paul II described
the code as fully corresponding to the nature of the Church,
"especially as it is proposed by the teaching of the Second Vatican
Council." "In fact," he stated, "this new Code could be understood
as a great effort to translate [the]...conciliar doctrine and
ecclesiology into canonical language."1 Citing elements
that characterize the "true and genuine image" of the Church, the
Holy Father identified the conciliar teaching on the "doctrine
according to which all the members of the people of God, in the way
suited to each of them, participate in the threefold"mission of
Christ. He spoke of a "fidelity in newness and newness in fidelity"
in the revised law's expression of the Council's teaching. It is in
the code's acknowledgment of a proper role for the laity in the
mission and ministry of the Church that the revised law has helped
to promote the role of women in the Church. Lay persons, and
therefore women, are permitted to perform certain liturgical
functions and hold a number of ecclesiastical offices heretofore
open only to clergy.
However, while we acknowledge the undisputed fact that many more
positions in the Church are now open to women than were thirty-five
years ago, progress has not kept pace with the call issued by the
Holy Father and the institutional Church itself, in a spirit of
co-discipleship, for increased participation of women in Church
service.
Women, for example, are still prohibited by law from exercising
certain liturgical functions such as preaching the homily and being
officially installed as lectors or acolytes. Women are still barred
from holding certain offices in the Church, particularly those which
require the exercise of the power of governance or jurisdiction; nor
can a woman be appointed an episcopal vicar, say, for example, Vicar
for Religious. At times qualified women are excluded from
consideration for offices or positions that are legitimately open to
them, and for which ordination is not a requirement, simply because
of their gender. Though statistics show that many more women are
being appointed to leadership positions in the Church, questions
about the scope of their responsibility and their inclusion in
decision-making structures and processes remain. Are women's gifts
and experience being used and are their voices being heard?
So, despite the beginnings of progress, there remains a cycle of
frustration among those women in the Church who want to be genuine
partners in ministry, who seek better ways to serve the Church and
her people, who want to be judged by their character and competency
and not by their gender or by preconceived notions of their roles,
and who want the Church as an institution and community to be
committed to creating an environment of collaboration in which the
dignity of every person is respected and each baptized believer is
called and given a chance to use his or her gifts for building up
the kingdom.
Issues and Challenges for
the Future
At this moment in
our history, what then are some of the issues and challenges that we
face at the beginning of a new century?
I have selected three areas in which I believe women can be
influential in effecting further change for the lives of women in
the Church in the 21st century, areas that present both challenge
and opportunity in shaping that future.
First, Pope John Paul II, in his various statements and addresses,
as well as the bishops of the United States, have given attention to
societal reforms that would support women's right to equality in
society at large, such as equal pay, equal opportunity for
advancement, equal pension and benefit plans, child care provisions,
flex-time, family leave, and alternate work schedules. In an effort
to eliminate obstacles to fair treatment in the Church, it seems to
me that the first and foremost challenge we face is to be
advocates for women in our society, especially for those who are
economically disadvantaged. We should be concerned about such issues
as just wages, equality of women with men in the workplace, equal
opportunities for education, the recruitment and retention of women
of color, and the value of parenting and family life. As we all
know, the concerns of women are not confined to the Church. They are
present at all levels of our society and in the communities in which
we live.
The second area of challenge concerns models for ministering in the
Church. In his exhortation on the vocation and mission of the lay
faithful, Christifideles Laici, Pope John Paul II states that
"it is necessary that the Church recognize all the gifts of men and
women for her life and mission, and put them into practice" (#49).
The Holy Father goes on to encourage the "coordinated presence of
both men and women...so that the participation of the lay faithful
in the salvific mission of the Church might be rendered more rich,
complete and harmonious" (#52). In support of such coordination, we
should encourage our bishops in their efforts to promote
collaborative models of ministry in which clergy, lay and religious
work together as responsible, capable persons in service of the
Church. In Strengthening the Bonds of Peace, the U.S. bishops
call for ongoing dialogue between women and men in the Church and
pledge themselves to continue the dialogue "in a spirit of
partnership and mutual trust."
Collaborative ministry, if taken seriously, will require parish
staffs and diocesan offices to promote the inclusion of women in
ministerial work and collegial decision-making. At the same time,
bishops and those responsible for seminary training might assess
their priestly formation programs to ensure that those preparing for
ordained ministry understand the Church's teaching on the dignity of
women and the role of women in Church and society and develop the
skills necessary for effective collaborative ministry.
Thirdly, if we are to enhance the role of women in the Church today,
women must take advantage of the opportunities to participate in
those areas of Church life that are legitimately open to them, that
invite women to use their gifts for the building up of the Body of
Christ and for its mission of salvation. It is true that the
opportunities for such service will vary from diocese to diocese and
even from parish to parish. Where they do not exist we should
advocate the opening of such ministries to women, where they do
exist we should encourage and affirm the participation of women as
readers of the Word of God, extraordinary ministers of the
Eucharist, altar servers, members of diocesan and parish councils,
team ministry participants, marriage and family life counselors,
child and adult catechists, spiritual directors, educators, members
of diocesan and parish committees, participants in diocesan synods,
and collaborators in decision-making and policy-setting processes.
To move forward Pope John Paul's "appeal to women of the Church to
assume new forms of leadership in service," ask your bishops to urge
the bishops of the United States to welcome this "contribution of
women" at all levels of Church leadership and to take the steps
necessary to put into action their own words, so clearly stated in
From Words to Deeds, to clarify the relationship between the
two sources of empowerment for ministry jurisdiction and ordination
and to distinguish those instances when the power of jurisdiction
and leadership in the community can be separated from the power of
orders..
Finally, we must go beyond encouraging and affirming the involvement
of others. Women themselves (you and I) must become active
participants in the mission and ministry of the Church. Pope John
Paul II urges us to put into practice all the gifts of men and women
for the life and mission of the Church, to make real the
possibilities that have already been stated by the Second Vatican
Council for the mission of the community (CF 49). The pope
goes on to say that the acknowledgment in theory of the active and
responsible presence of women in the Church must be realized in
practice (CF 153). He challenges us "to move from words to
deeds," a call taken up by the U.S. bishops, as we move forward into
this 21 century. The words of the Holy Father and the bishops are
clear, yet we know that actions often speak louder than words. For
the Church to be credible to the women of the 21st century,
especially the young woman of today and tomorrow, a new
understanding of the multiple and diverse roles and the changed
expectations of women will be needed. Actions that support women in
their new demands and struggles at home, in the workplace and in
society as well as their needs and concerns about leadership, power
and church processes will speak concretely to principles of
solidarity, participation and mutuality. The NCCW leadership
development program, "Spirituality and Service: A Formation program
for Catholic leaders for the 21st Century" is a wonderful example of
efforts to prepare women for leadership roles in their parish,
council and community.
Conclusion Observations
In concluding my
reflections let me say that as an organized community of people with
a body of belief and law that governs all, the Church will continue
to face the issues and the tensions associated with the role of
women in the Church. Women and men together should have more than a
passing interest in this issue, since it is undoubtedly one of the
ones contributing in large measure to the shape the Church takes in
the 21st century.
But there is another side of the story, one that should be
remembered especially by those grown fainthearted and weary in the
face of discussions -- and sometimes outright arguments -- over law
and theology. The Church exists not only as an organized society,
with leadership, structures and rules, visible for all to see, like
any other society. It is also the community enlivened by the breath
of the Holy Spirit who blows whither he wills and by the grace of
Christ which is not limited to the few but poured abundantly on all.
It is a community of believers seeking holiness among whom the
greatest is to be the servant of all. If you or I are ever
disheartened or grow impatient with the pace of change or are
tempted to forget how dynamic and alive our Church is and needful of
the gifts we have to bring, let us remember the hope and the courage
of those who have gone before us, women like Catherine of Siena,
Katharine Drexel, and the founding women of the NCCW whose legacy of
servant leadership continues to inspire us and challenge us to make
a difference every day.
Before beginning my remarks this morning, I want to acknowledge
first the horror of the events of September 11 in New York and in
Washington and to pay tribute to the many women affected by the
attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the women who
"make a difference every day." Let us remember the valiant women who
perished in the attacks and plane crashes, the strong women who weep
and mourn the loss of spouses, children, parents, siblings and other
loved ones, the faithful women who struggle every day to reassure
their children that they will be safe, and the many women in this
convention hall, in this country and around the world who pray for
peace. May God renew our hope and guide us all in the ways of wisdom
and courage.
*******
Recently I had the opportunity to visit Ireland for the first time.
I traveled with three other sister of mercy visiting the country
from coast to coast. For me, one of the most memorable places we
visited, besides the home of Catherine McAuley, foundress of the
Sisters of Mercy, was the Foxford Woolen Mills in County Mayo. The
mills were founded in 1892 by a nun, Mother Agnes Morrogh Bernard,
to help the people of Foxford improve the quality of their lives
following the devastation from the potato famine. Though Mother
Bernard and her community are no longer present in the mill, the
work she began and the spirit of courage and service she brought to
the people of Foxford continues today. Sustained by her faith and
unyielding confidence in God, she worked to alleviate suffering and
poverty in nineteenth century Ireland. As a women in the Church and
within her community, Mother Morrogh Bernard made a difference. She
was truly a servant leader.
Notes
1 John Paul II, apostolic constitution, Sacrae Disciplina Leges, English translation in Code of Canon Law: Latin-English Edition (Washington DC: CLSA, 1983) xiv.