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Translated by John Wijngaards
German text
7 March 2002
His
Eminence
Cardinal Josef Ratzinger
Prefect of Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith
Piazza del S.Offizio 11
I - 00120
Vatikanstadt
Cologne/Düsseldorf, 07 - 03 - 2002
Your
Eminence,
As
Presidents of the two largest Catholic Organisations for women in Germany we
approach you in your capacity as the Chairman of the Vatican’s
International Theological Commission. We are filled with deep anxiety in view
of news emanating from the Catholic News Agency that the International
Theological Commission in their last general assembly has spoken out against
admitting women to the diaconate. Our organisations of women, the
Katholischer Deutscher Frauenbund and the Katholische
Frauengemeinschaft Deutschlands, have committed themselves for many years
to the diaconate of women. For that reason we want to declare our position with
regard to the vote of the International Theological Commission and to highlight
some aspects that seem of crucial importance to us:
On
the basis of information available to us we regret that in the consultations of
the International Theological Commission no woman theologian was involved or
even invited as observer. The contribution which competent women make to
theology has taken on crucial importance and may not be ignored. We also regret
that those women theologians who have specialised in the diaconate of women and
who have proved their professional competence in this area through
scientifically recognised research, have not found a hearing by the
International Theological Commission.
We
experience the liberation of women -- their emancipation and equal
responsibility in shaping today’s world -- as a transforming event and as
a historical challenge not only for society but also for the Church. Already
Pope John XXIII saw in this development a “sign of the times”,
through which God influences the history of our era.
Even
though we Catholic Christian women appreciate the importance of Tradition in
the Church and though we respect in our movements especially also the great
women in Church history who are our guides and models, we cannot accept that
Tradition is manipulated as a tool to block new developments. Tradition is a
living process. The gradual unfolding of the total riches of our Christian
faith presents us all the time with new demands. In view of the changed
appreciation of women’s role in society, we expect that the Church too
opens itself to these developments, that it empowers women to benefit from new
forms of equal partnership, so as to draw on women’s gifts and enrich the
whole Church through them.
As
Catholic women we realise the meaning and the special value of the sacramental
dimension of the Church’s operation. Precisely because we realise this, we
are totally convinced of the need for the intense and manifold diaconal
involment of women to be inserted into the sacramental structure of the Church.
It is also at the same time our concern that in this way the diaconal character
of the Church be strengthened, as well the Church’s credibility in the
face of its needs today. In the unfolding of a Church of service which fulfills
itself in socio-charitable as much as in political areas, women as well as men,
have acquired a very high professional and human competence. When women, just
as men are through the permanent diaconate, will be empowered through
ordination, it will constitute an official acknowledgement of their charisms
and a recognition of their vocation. It will also highlight the ministry of the
Church as diakonia (service).
Your
Eminence, the approximately one million women who are members of both our
organisations carry to a great extent the burden of many thousands of parish
communities of the Church in Germany. They cooperate in the areas of
evangelisation and liturgy. They undertake many ministries in catechesis and in
charitable work. They give substance to political decisions in the Church and
society. These women are not on the perifery. They stand in the middle of our
Church which they feel is their home. At the same time not a few of them are
hurt by their experience of restrictions imposed on them simply because they
are women.
With
great urgency we implore you to take our concerns seriously and to subject the
vote of the Theological Commission to further tests and to reconsider it.
With
friendly greetings,
Prof.
Dr. Hanneliese Steichele
Präsidentin des Katholischen Deutschen
Frauenbundes
Kaesenstrasse 18
Köln
Magdalena Bogner
Präsidentin der Katholischen Frauengemeinschaft
Deutschlands
Prinz-Georg-Straße 44
40477 Düsseldorf
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