Lay reform groups discuss equality of women, church governance at international meeting
The role and full equality of women in church life as well as the governance of the church were the two main issues discussed by delegates at the second international meeting of priest associations and lay reform groups here April 13-17.
In a statement at the conclusion of their four-day gathering, the 38 delegates from 10 countries, who seek to establish an international “network of networks” to develop strategies on church reform, said: “The election of Pope Francis has begun a new era in Catholicism.”
Speaking on behalf of participants, censured Irish Redemptorist Fr. Tony Flannery of the Irish Association of Catholic Priests said, “With the resignation of Pope Benedict we are at the end of an era, and this is our best chance to renew the church for a long time.”
According to Deborah Rose-Milavec, executive director of the U.S. reform group FutureChurch, it became clear during a very open and honest discussion among participants from the U.S., Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Germany, Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, and elsewhere that there is much pain over the exclusion of women from governance, leadership and ordained ministry.
Despite that, the mother of six and grandmother of 11 said the group focused on how they could bring the role of women forward. “We think there are many ways that the role of women can be improved within the church without even addressing ordination,” Rose-Milavec said as she outlined an idea the group says is “workable.”
“The pope has said we need a more incisive presence for women in the church and a new theology of women,” she said. “One suggestion we are putting forward is the creation of a council of women, like the commission for the protection of children and the pope’s Council of Cardinals, which would advise him and become a mechanism for launching something like a gender policy within the Vatican and the church.”
This gender policy could be based on the one adopted by the church in India, which another participant at the conference, laywoman Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, was instrumental in helping the bishops in India develop.
Rose-Milavec is more hopeful for the church under Pope Francis.
“There is a new open space. The system of silencing is being lifted to some degree,” she said. “He is stirring up the pot and asking for dialogue. If we have that kind of opening, we can bring in new elements.”
Nonetheless, the elephant in the room in Limerick was the church’s prohibition on the ordination of women to the priesthood. On the third day of the gathering, a group of female participants, including Kate McElwee of Women’s Ordination Conference, approached Flannery with the idea that one of the women might co-preside with one of the priests at their joint Eucharist.