Vatican Miscategorizes Women’s Rights Advocates with Child Abusers
Twenty-seven Catholic organizations from around the globe
issue statement denouncing the oppression of women and the inadequate response
to child sex crimes
Yesterday, the Vatican issued a clarification of
its canonical procedures for how dioceses should handle priests who sexually
abuse children. As part of the statement, they have added that the
"attempted ordination of a woman" has now been added to the list of
"delicta graviora," or most serious crimes in church law, alongside
the sexual abuse of minors. Twenty-seven Catholic organizations issued the following joint statement in
response:
We, the undersigned, express our solidarity with Catholics who continue to seek
equality, including those who practice feminist ministries and those who are
ordained. We know these women and men to be firm in their faith and courageous
in their work as they seek an inclusive and accountable church, undeterred by
threats of excommunication or other canonical penalties. In addition, we stand
with our brother priests and bishops who are also being threatened by this new
policy for their support of women's equality in the church. Furthermore,
we take great offense that good faith struggles for gender equality could be
misunderstood as a sacrilege and placed on par with the sexual abuse of
children. In 1976, the Vatican's own Pontifical Biblical Commission concluded
there is no valid scriptural reason for denying ordination to women. Therefore,
we welcome such efforts to expand the scope and variety of ministry and we
celebrate women's faithfulness despite huge institutional obstacles.
We are gravely disappointed that the Vatican would largely repackage its sexual
abuse policy norms from 2001 in yesterday's re-issued statement without adding
many meaningful changes to canonical procedures on how to handle the sexual
crimes of its religious leaders. We stand with survivors in calling for the
release of the names of all credibly accused Catholic religious leaders and for
the Vatican's immediate adoption and implementation of global child protection
policies. Nothing less is adequate to the crying needs of a community torn
asunder by its own leaders' crimes.
Catholic
Organization Signatories
Association for the Rights of Catholics in the
Church (ARCC), USA
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