Women call for transformed church

National Catholic Reporter, May 14, 2004 by Barbara R. Bodengraven

It was probably unintentional on his part, but Boston's Archbishop Sean O'Malley provided a good deal of the material for conversation at Boston College's latest installment of its Church in the 21st Century series, the one titled "Envisioning the Church People Want."

Catherine Brunell, 27, questioned how O'Malley, during an April 6 homily, could have equated feminism with the drug culture and divorce as a factor negatively affecting the religious practices of the baby boom generation.

"In my peer group, feminism is a good thing," Brunell said. "When the church links feminism to something evil or detrimental, people my age opt out of the church." She and her peers, she said, could explore their spirituality somewhere "more life-affirming."

Christopher Morck, 29, alluding to O'Malley's decision to omit women from the traditional Holy Thursday foot washing he conducted in Boston this year, suggested, "The church can't be a true witness of Jesus Christ unless it is totally inclusive."

O'Malley eventually issued a clarification of his comments as well as a defense of his record on women, citing activism on a range of issues (see accompanying story). It is questionable, however, whether his statement would have blunted the criticism of some at the conference.

Irene Desharnais, an older woman with a grown daughter wanted to know why "I should continue to put my energies into a church that does not respect me or my daughter as women."

Brunell, Morck and Desharnais were among the approximately 600 attending Boston College's latest Church in the 21st Century session April 16 and 17 at the Jesuit university's satellite campus in Newton, Mass.

Boston College has taken the lead in exploring issues underlying the clerical sexual abuse crisis by providing a forum and resources aimed at helping to move the church from crisis to renewal. According to conference organizers, the session on women drew more attendees from a wider geographic spectrum than any other event sponsored by the college in the past year.

Jennifer Tilghman-Havens, director of the college's Women's Resource Center and co-chair of the event, said registrants came from as far away as Ireland, Nova Scotia and California. She said the wide interest "speaks to a hunger, of wanting to be nourished in a church where women don't always feel entirely accepted and embraced."

In a keynote address, Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, a native of Cuba who has developed a theology from the perspective of Latinas in the United States, redefined the very foundation of the church.

"Holy, catholic and apostolic," in the words of Isasi-Diaz, should be translated "humble, pluralistic and prophetic."

Other keynote speakers on Saturday included noted author and theologian Elizabeth Johnson, editor of a series of essays written by several of the conference's presenters called The Church Women Want, and Miriam Therese Winter, composer, author and musician as well as a founding faculty member of the Women's Leadership Institute at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. The roster included Bishop Matthew H. Clark of Rochester, N.Y., activist/author Edwina Gately, author Mary Gordon, renowned biblical scholar Pheme Perkins and author Thomas H. Groome, director of the college's Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

Johnson spoke to a standing-room only audience, outlining the history of patriarchal attitudes toward women in the church, providing context for the hierarchy's current policy that she said denies women full participation in the church today.

"A huge ambiguity about women runs through our Christian heritage," Johnson said. "Tertullian said women are the second Eve, the gateway to the devil. Augustine said women's souls are OK but their bodies are not in the image of God. Aquinas said that women are defective males. We are all heirs to this way of thinking. And, as with any prejudice, the prejudice becomes accepted. Women have internalized this inferiority and it becomes a pervasive idea that affects men as well as women."

Johnson outlined the difference between the patriarchal versus the prophetic messages of the Christian tradition, stating that the church as institution has chosen to emphasize the patriarchal, which has been used for centuries to predetermine unequal roles men and women play.

"The hierarchy cannot deny the growing participation of women in the life of the church today," said Johnson. "More than 80 percent of ministry in parishes is done by women--we're the bulk of religious education directors, teachers, parish administrators and those offering Communion services. What's more, the sex abuse crisis has undermined the trust in the hierarchical structure, and the Vatican bureaucracy is clueless about the seriousness of what's happened. The church needs transformed structures that are fully transparent."

In a series of workshops following Johnson's address, conference attendees discussed strategies for change within in an institution that many here would say denies itself the full gifts and participation of all members.