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by M. Nadine Foley
from Women Priests, Arlene Swidler & Leonard
Swidler (eds.), Paulist Press 1977, pp. 53-59.
Republished on our website
with the necessary permissions
M. Nadine Foley, OP, was at the time a member of the General Council of the
Adrian Dominican Congregation. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the
Catholic University of America and an S.T.M. from Union Theological Seminary.
She was the co-ordinator of the task force which organized the conference Women
in Future Priesthood Now—A Call to Action in 1975.
The
Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith opens its Declaration by
citing the authority of Pope John XXIII’s encyclical “Peace on
Earth”(1) and the pastoral constitution “The Church in the Modern
World”(2) from Vatican Council II. These are followed by an allusion to
Pope Paul VI’s statement to the members of the Vatican Study Commission on
the Role of Women in Society and in the Church present in an audience with
members of the Committee for the International Women’s Year on April 18,
1975.(3) In this way the Declaration brings to the fore a sampling of current
Church observations on women to set the tone for the exposition which follows.
The selected texts respectively make three points which are typical of the
allusions to women found in contemporary Vatican texts:
(1)
the development and expansion of the social roles of women is a phenomenon of
our times, stemming from women’s growing consciousness of their human
dignity;
(2) discrimination according to sex, whether social or cultural,
is contrary to God’s intent and must be overcome; and
(3) equality of
rights must aim at that effective complementarity between men and women which
will build an harmonious and unified world according to the design of thc
Creator.
(1) The development and expansion of the social roles of women is a phenomenon
of our times.
In
“Peace on Earth” Pope John XXIII identified three characteristics of
the contemporary world: the working classes have gradually gained ground in
economic and public affairs; women are now taking a part in public life; in the
modern world human society has taken on an entirely new appearance in the field
of social and political life.(4) All three trends are embraced in one principle
set forth by Pope John: “Thus in very many human beings the inferiority
complex which endured for hundreds of thousands of years is disappearing, while
in others there is an attenuation and gradual fading of the corresponding
superiority complex which had its roots in social-economic privilege, sex or
political standing.”(5) Thc importance of this principle lies in its
acknowledgment that phenomena evident in social, economic and political life of
people today are part of an evolution in human consciousness coextensive with
the history of humankind. This insight is compatible with the emphasis that
“The Church in the Modern World” places upon the task of the Church
to scrutinize the signs of the times and to interpret them in the light of the
Gospel. For, it continues, “. . . we can already speak of a true social
and cultural transformation, one which has repercussion on man’s religious
life as well."(6) If the position of women is subject to true social and
cultural transformation, then it follows that that development has implications
for the religious life of the Church, the people of God. This fact of cultural
change, something which occurs in varying patterns and degrees in different
societies, is set forth in the statement from “Peace on Earth” quoted
in the Declaration. The part which women are now taking in public life “.
. . is a development that is perhaps swifter among Christian nations, but it is
happening extensively, if more slowly, among nations that are heirs to
different traditions and imbued with a different culture.”(7) As quoted in
the Declaration, this statement stands as an observation on the cultural
phenomena of the times as social institutions outside the Church are being
affected. In context, however, the statement expands upon one aspect of a
growing development in human consciousness toward liberation from the
superiority/inferiority complexes which have dominated human relationships
throughout a long history.
The
distinction is important. The tendency to observe changes in the social roles
of women in isolation from other cultural phenomena is one of many ways in
which women, and issues affecting women, continue to be marginated in the
widely-based concern for human development which is a challenge and a
responsibility for society and Church today. Human development, which is
largely concerned with eliminating the superiority/inferiority relationships
which have governed and controlled persons, races, societies and nations is the
crying need of the present day. Its imperative makes serious claims upon the
Church’s ministry.
Papal
and synodal documents such as “On the Development of
Peoples,”(8) “Peace on Earth,”(9) “A Call to
Action,”(10) “Justice in the World,”(11) and
“The Evangelization of the Modern World”(12)present to the
people of God challenges in ministry unprecedented in the Church’s
history. Merely to reflect upon the obstacles outside and within the Church
which are listed as possible hindrances to evangelization in “The
Evangelization of the Modern World”(13) is to realize the crises
affecting the Church’s mission today.
It is
also to call into question the adequacy of the prevailing structures of
ministry in the Church to meet the demands of the present and the future. To
have issued this Declaration at the present time and in separation from the
wider concerns about ministry which the contemporary world poses to all the
people of God, women and men, illustrates the continuing problem. Women are
consistently treated in separation from the mainstream of ecciesial issues.(14)
They are also categorized as a group and treated without respect for their
individual gifts of nature and of grace.
Despite this Declaration the Church has still to address the implications of
the development and expansion of the social roles of women for its own ministry
in the world today. It must do so by situating women within the people of God
as fully participating members of the ecclesial community by virtue of their
Baptism. The development and expansion of the social roles of women is symbolic
of their deeper realization of their personhood which calls the teaching Church
to a re-examination of its theological anthropology. The reconsideration will
not be adequate without women theologians participating in the endeavor. For
women are the bearers of the experience which has implications for the Church
today.
(2) Discrimination according to sex, whether social or cultural, is contrary to
God’s intent and must be overcome.
The
Declaration refers to the Second Vatican Council which, “enumerating in
its Pastoral Constitution The Church in the Modern World the forms of
discrimination touching upon the basic rights of the person which must be
overcome and eliminated as being contrary to God’s plan, gives first place
to discrimination based upon sex.(15) The text cited states, ”. . . with
respect to the fundamental rights of the person, every type of discrimination,
whether social or cultural, whether based on sex, race, color, social
condition, language or religion is to be overcome and eradicated as contrary to
God’s intent."(16) The notion that “The Church in the Modern
World” intended that “first place” belongs to sex among the
possible bases for discrimination in society today is a curious claim. Later in
the same document “first place” is given to race.(17) The emphasis of
the Pastoral Constitution seems better placed upon the fact that the several
forms of discrimination cited are contrary to God’s intent.
What
is contrary to the divine plan must seemingly be eradicated not only from the
economic and political fields, nationally and internationally, but also from
the Church. In paragraph three the Declaration quotes the “Decree on
the Apostolate of the Laity” to the effect that women must assume more
active roles in the Church. “Since in our time women have an ever more
active share in the whole life of society, it is important that they
participate more widely also in the various sectors of the Church’s
apostolate.”(18) More recently the Synod of Bishops in their document
“Justice in the World” have spoken similarly. “We also
urge that women should have their own share of responsibility and participation
in the community life of society and likewise of the Church.”(19)
The
argument for promoting the participation of women in the life and work of the
Church appears to be one of achieving a correspondence between developments in
society at large and those within the Church. It is at the same time an
apparent acknowledgment that social organization within the Church should
follow upon and reflect what is happening outside its ranks in this respect.
The
sources are weak in indicating why this should be so. The insurance of basic
human rights is the reason offered for the Church’s concern that
discrimination in all its forms should be eliminated in society. A firm
commitment to such a project for itself might inspire the Church to become a
paradigm of social organization in which the rights and responsibilities of
women are reflected in their sharing fully and equally with men in the
Church’s life and mission. Yet the Church agenda is tentative. Because
women are becoming more active in society today, they should also begin to
share more widely in the Church’s apostolate.
The
argument has its positive value insofar as it respects the fact that the Church
is enculturated as a human institution, that true social and cultural
transformation has a repercussion within the Church. It is deficient, however,
since as an operative principle it renders the Church a follower rather than a
leader in proclaiming and manifesting the full equality of human persons
achieved through the redemptive mission of Jesus Christ which the Church
serves.
(3) Equality of rights must aim at that effective complementarity between men
and women which will build an harmonious and unifed world according to the
design of the Creator.
The
Declaration cites the statement of Pope Paul VI to the Committee for the
International Women’s Year and other women gathered with them on April 18,
1975. He spoke of equality among men and women.
. .
. to speak of equalization of rights does not resolve the problem, which is
much more profound: it is necessary to aim at an effective complementarity, so
that men and women bring their proper riches and dynamism to the building of a
world, not levelled and uniform, but harmonious and unified, according to the
design of the Creator, or, to use the terms of the Holy Year, renewed and
reconciled.(20)
This
quotation neatly summarizes the prevailing official Church teaching on the
fundamental relationships between women and men to be achieved and maintained.
The key phrases are “effective complementarity,” “proper
riches and dynamism,” and “according to the design of the
Creator.” There is an abundance of contemporary material from Vatican
sources to expand upon the meaning of these phrases, and the presuppositions
upon which they are founded.
At
the root lies the position that in the order of creation, especially as Genesis
2 recounts the origin of man and woman, the sexes have been established in a
relationship of fundamental complementarity. Philosophically this means that
males and females have their respective proper or specific natures. From the
natural, divinely-established complementarity of male and female, or from their
respective proper natures, flow certain necessary characteristics appropriate
to each. Correspondingly certain social roles, especially in the family, must
be guarded and defended by the Church.
Generally Vatican statements do not devote tracts to elucidating the special
qualities and roles of men. But there are many devoted to the specific nature,
characteristics and proper roles of women. In his “A Call to
Action” Pope Paul Vl says,
We
do not have in mind that false equality which would be in contradiction with
woman’s proper role, which is of such capital importance, at the heart of
the family, as well as within society. Developments in legislation should on
the contrary be directed to protecting her proper vocation and at the same time
recognizing her independence as a person, and her equal rights to participate
in cultural, economic, social and political life.(21)
Again
in 1972 the Holy Father said, “. . . women’s authentic liberation
does not consist in a formalistic or materialistic equality with the other sex,
but in recognizing what the female personality has that is essentially specific
to it: woman’s vocation to be a mother”.(22) In his address on
“Reconciliation/the Way to Peace,” delivered at Christmas time in
1974 the Holy Father spoke of the qualities of women.
We
rejoice especially on the eve of International Women’s Year, proclaimed by
the United Nations, at the ever wider participation of women in the life of
society, to which they bring a specific contribution of great value, thanks to
the qualities God has given them. These qualities of intuition, creativity,
sensibility, a sense of piety and compassion, a profound capacity for
understanding and love, enable women to be in a very particular way the
creators of reconciliation in families and in society.(23)
The
several kinds of statements about women typical of Church pronouncements today
are derived from two kinds of evidence: that which ultimately has its source in
the consciousness and experience of women and is reflected and observed in
changing social roles; and that deduced from long standing principles of divine
order and nature that have remained unchallenged throughout a considerable
history. Recognizing the former, the Church attempts to accept it in terms of
limitations imposed by the 1atter. The result is a consistent qualifying of
women’s equality and rights according to what is perceived as
“proper” to her nature. The data from experience is accordingly
judged valid to the extent that it is compatible with the accepted principles.
The principles themselves remain largely unexamined in terms of insights
available from the human sciences and biblical studies as these disciplines
have developed in the last century.
Many
women and men today proceed differently with the same data. Given their
experience, their aspirations away from the superiority/inferiority structures
which have typified human interactions for centuries, they question the
absolutism of principles which are incompatible with their experience.
Experience shows that not every woman has gifts and traits complementary to
those of a particular man. There is a growing awareness that individual persons
are complementary to one another or not irrespective of sex differentiation,
that to insist otherwise is to subject individuals to the oppression of sex
role stereotyping. There is reason therefore to question a doctrine which would
assign behavioral traits, especially nurturing qualities, to women as
neccssarily typical of all without differentiation. There is further reason to
question that women can fill only those roles in society and Church which
conform to their presumed natural competencies.
The
problem seems to be that women are commonly treated in terms of their roles,
especially that of motherhood, rather than in the light of their essential
human personhood and variety of personal gifts. Paragraph three of the
Declaration which speaks of the decisive roles played in the Church by women
through their religious consecration or through their rearing of families is
particularly telling in this respect.(24) The fact that there is no place for
the single laywoman in this enumeration raises the key question. What value
does the woman have in herself, apart from her association with a male Church
or with a male partner in marriage? Until this question is answered in the only
way it can be answered there seems little point in writing treatises on women
in ministerial priesthood or in any other role. The needed ontology is
missing.
And
finally if the doctrine is presumably rooted in a divine order established in
revelation there is reason to reexamine the biblical interpretation which seems
to support an anthropology at variance with contemporary human experience.(25)
The
texts cited in the first paragraph of the Declaration under the heading
“The Role of Women in Modern Society and the Church” undoubtedly are
intended by the authors to document the Church’s awareness and affirmation
of the developments furthering the status of women today, as well as its
commitment to the elimination of discrimination based upon sex. The negative
position on the ordination of women to ministerial priesthood is then not to be
construed as stemming from opposition to women’s advance toward social
equality or from discrimination on the basis of sex within the Church. It
derives from a view of what is proper to women in terms of maintaining an
effectivc complementarity with men in the offices of the Church. Equality of
rights based upon the effective complementarity flowing from the design of the
Creator is then the principle providing the critical difference for the
positions developed later in the Declaration. It is not, however, the
completely adequate reason since the base of the discussion changes, and the
special influx of the “light of revelation” is invoked. “The
human sciences, however valuable their contribution in their own domain cannot
suffice here, for they cannot grasp the realities of faith: the properly
supernatural content of these realities is beyond their competence.”(26)
Women’s experience in moving from the superiority/inferiority dominances
to which they have been subjected throughout history is a “new thing”
emerging in the consciousness of peoples today. Pope John XXIII recognized it
and saw its importance. He did not elaborate on it in “Peace on
Earth” as he did on the implications of persons striving for economic
and political liberation. That is unfortunate. But the reality persists and is
the unique possession of women who strive to bring it to the life of the Church
as a contribution to its own agenda of continuing reformation. The “new
thing,” like new wine, cannot be put in old wineskins. Because it cannot,
the context in which the Sacred Congregation attempts to establish a position
on women in ministerial priesthood is inadequate.
Notes
1.
“Pacem in Terris,” Acta Apostolicae Sedis 55(1963), pp 267-268
; “Pacem in Terris” (Washington, D.C.: United Statcs Catholic
Conference
2.
“Gaudium et Spes, 29" (December 7, 1965); AAS 58 (1966), pp
1048-49; Gallagher (New York: The Guild Press, 1966), pp.227-228
3.
AAS 67 (1975), p265; Women/Disciples and Co-Workers," Origins 4 (May
1, 1975) p.718
4.
AAS 55 (1963), pp.267-268; NCWC text, pp. 11-12.
5.
Ibid
6.
AAS 58 (1966), pp. 1027-1028; The Documents of Vatican II.
7.
AAS 55 (1963), pp.267-268; NCWC text p. 11
8.
“Populorum Progressio,” AAS 59 (1967), 256 299 “On the
Development of Peoples” (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic
Conference 1967).
9.
See note 2.
10.
“Octogesima Adveniens,” AAS 63 (1971), pp 400-444,
“A Call to Action” (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic
Conference, 1971)
11.
“De Justitia in Mundo,” (November 30,1971), AAS 63
(197l), pp.923-94 . Synod of Bishops, “The Ministerial Priesthood”
and “Justice in the World” (Washington, D.C.: National
Conferencc of Catholic Bishops, 1971),pp.35-52
12.
Synod of Bishops, “The Evangelization of the Modern World,”
(Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1973)
13.
Ibid., pp. 3-4.
14.
This is illustrated by the special document “The Role of Women in
Evangelization” from the Pastoral Commission of the Vatican
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. See Origins 5 (April 22,
1976), pp. 702-707. The Synod of Bishops study document “The
Evangelization of the Modern World” has six pages of guidelines and
practical applications for promoting evangelization today (pp. 14-18). A wide
range of issues is set forth, but there is no reference to women either as
requiring special attention in evangelization or as having a particular role to
play. The issuing of a separate treatise on women’s role in evangelization
suggests that what is said in general of the Church’s responsibility
cannot be addressed to women without distinctions. Yet the issues of
evangelization are well known to women in ministry and they perceive their
ability to respond in ways not now open to them This is the development in
women’s consciousness which must be addressed within the Church.
15.
Declaration, par. 1.
16.
AAS (1966), pp. 1048-1049; The Documents of Vatican II, pp. 227 -
228.
17. Ibid., pp. 1080-1081; and p. 266. The latter reads “. . .
discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, nationality, religious or social
conditions."
18.
“Apostolicam Actuositatem, 9" (November 18, 1965), AAS 58 (1966),
p. 846; The Documents of Vatican II. p. 500.
19. “Justice in the World,” p. 933; and p. 44.
20.
AAS 67 (1975), p. 265; “Women/Disciples and Co-Workers,” p.
718.
21. “A Call to Action,” pp. 410-411; and p. 8.
22. “The Right to Be Born,” An Address to the Italian Catholic
Jurists, The Pope Speaks, Vol. XVII, No. 4 (1973), p. 335.
23.
Origins 4 (December 26, 1974), 431. See also Pope Paul Vl,
“Women/Disciples and Co-Workers,” Origins 4 (May, 1975), p.
719; “The Role of Women in Contemporary Society,” The Pope
Speaks, Vol. XIX (December 8, 1974), 314; and especially “The Role
of Women in Evangelization” from the Pastoral Commission of the
Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Origins, 5
(April 22, 1976), pp. 703-704.
24.
Origins 6 (February 3, 1977), pp. 519-520.
25.
See Report of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, “Can Women Be
Priests?” Origins 6 (July 1, 1976), pp. 92-96. “In Genesis
1 man and woman are called together to be the image of God (Gen. 1, 26f.) on
equal terms and in a community of life. It is in common that they receive rule
over the world. Their vocation gives a new meaning to the sexuality that man
possesses as animals do” (p. 92). This kind of insight needs to be brought
to bear upon the developing knowledge of human sexuality unknown before the
present time.
26.
Declaration, par. 34. This is a truth that involves much complexity. Pertinent
to it are the kinds of issues raised by Avery Dulles, S.J. in his address to
the Catholic Theological Society of America, June 12. 1976. Cf. “What Is
Magisterium?” Origins 6 (July 1, 1976), pp. 82-88.
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