U.S. Bishops Condemn ‘the Sin of Sexism’

A panel of U.S. Roman Catholic bishops released a draft of a pastoral letter on women today that condemns sexism as a sin--a “social and moral evil”--but reiterates the church’s ban on women priests.

The 164-page letter, which will be the topic of church discussions around the nation, says the church has perpetuated sexism by historically interpreting Scriptures as teaching that women are inferior to men and through insensitive priests who even today are known to tell women to “offer up to God” the abuse of their husbands.

“We therefore regret and confess our individual and collective failures to respond to women as they deserve,” the panel said. “We call the people of God to join us in personal and corporate contrition for the sins of sexism that violate the basic tenets of our faith.”

Official Church Teaching

The pastoral letter, which the bishops decided to write five years ago, will represent official church teaching if it is approved by the full body of nearly 380 bishops. In the meantime, dioceses will solicit comment to help the bishops prepare their final draft next year.

The document is expected to raise controversy within the church’s all-male hierarchy. While it upholds official church teachings in areas where the Pope has forbidden dissent, the letter also shows compassion for women who disagree with these positions and even challenges lesser prohibitions on which Rome has not barred debate.

For example, the six-member bishops’ committee indicates support for using girls as altar servers. Prohibiting girls to join boys in assisting priests on the altar remains a “contradiction to our call for women’s more direct involvement” in the church, the bishops wrote. Noting that women are capable of performing the duties of deacons, the letter also calls for a “thorough investigation” to determine whether women should be admitted to the all-male permanent deaconate. Deacons, who include married men, perform some church sacraments but are not allowed to celebrate Mass or hear confessions.

But the prelates reiterated official church teachings that ban women priests. They acknowledged that many women believe women’s ordination is key to gaining equality and cannot accept the church’s official reasons for maintaining an all-male priesthood. Yet, the bishops wrote, “the church is not free to depart from the tradition.”

In 1977 the Vatican declared that women could not be priests because they do not physically resemble Jesus Christ and because there were no women at the Last Supper. The bishops in their letter asked for more studies to find ways to make the reasons for the exclusion more acceptable.

The bishops also failed to depart from the church’s prohibition against artificial contraception. But after stating what they described as “the official” church position, the bishops called for more “dialogue” on the question and “compassion toward those who in good conscience” practice artificial contraception. Survey show that most Catholic women ignore the church’s birth control ban.

‘Better Policies’

“Consulting with women on matters pertaining to birth control will contribute to church teaching on human sexuality,” the bishops wrote. “Women’s experience will lead to the formulation of better policies and preparation for family planning that can be more widely communicated to engaged and married couples.”

Most women who participated in sessions held to help the bishops draft the document favored the church’s teaching that abortion is immoral, the bishops said. Surveys show, however, that only a small minority of Catholic women believe abortion should be illegal under all circumstances.

Job discrimination against women in the secular work force was roundly condemned by the bishops, who also called on corporations to provide child care services. But the panel refused to endorse the equal rights amendment, citing the possibility that it could be used to preserve women’s right to abortion.

Within the church, many parishes exclude women from decision-making posts, and “women as a rule are under-represented or not represented at all at the administrative level,” the letter says. “Instead of valuing women as peers and partners, some priests treat them as competitors or inferiors,” the panel wrote.

Women Consultants

Bishop Joseph L. Imesch of Joliet, Ill., who headed the panel, wrote the letter along with Archbishop William J. Levada of Portland, Ore.; Bishop Matthew C. Clark of Rochester, N.Y.; Bishop Thomas J. Grady of Orlando, Fla.; Auxiliary Bishop Alfred C. Hughes of Boston and Auxiliary Bishop Amedee W. Proulx of Portland, Me. Seven women acted as consultants.

Levada described the letter as “an attempt to take seriously the sentiments and ideas and the concerns” expressed by women in a series of 1985 meetings held in preparation of the pastoral document. In a telephone interview, Levada said he considers the document “pretty perfect as it is” and hopes his fellow bishops will not want to change it significantly.

Levada also said he saw no contradiction in the bishops’ strong condemnation of job discrimination and their support of a prohibition against women in the priesthood. “The priesthood is not a job . . . ,” the archbishop said. “We consider that a vocation . . . a question of the church’s sacramental life and the way in which it constitutes the mission of Christ as the Shepherd.”

Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, who with the rest of the American bishops received advance copies of the letter, called it a “good vehicle for comment and a good start.” He described the section upholding the ban on women priests as “appropriate” but called the support of altar girls a “discussable issue.” Pilarczyk said he personally does not approve of them.

“I stress that this is a vehicle for reaction,” he said. “I suspect that many will find it hopelessly bland and others will find it hopelessly liberal. I found it pretty balanced. I think the committee has done a good job up to this point.”

Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, who wrote a pastoral letter on women last summer, refused to comment. He said through a spokesman that he does not comment publicly on draft reports.

Sister Sara Butler, one of the women who advised the bishops on the letter, called “inevitable” the bishops’ citations of church teachings on women priests and artificial contraception. “I think people are aware of the limitations under which the bishops must operate right now,” said Butler, a theologian in Philadelphia.

Cynthia Yoshitomi, a feminist Catholic who served on a Los Angeles archdiocesan task force that preceded that drafting of the letter, said she was “absolutely astonished” that the bishops acknowledged sexist church practices.

“I think women’s voices have been heard, and that’s what I’m astonished at,” she said. “I think it’s a major breakthrough. . . . The ball is in the women’s court now.”

Pat Reif, who heads a master’s degree program in feminist spirituality at the Los Angeles Immaculate Heart College Center, said she was “astounded and very grateful” that the bishops declared sexism a sin. “That has never been said quite that clearly and strongly in an official document that I’m aware of,” she said. “To me, this is a first.”

But she said she sensed the bishops were “conflicted” at times. “It seems to me the bishops on the committee are pretty sympathetic to what women want but their hands are tied,” she said. “They are not going to create a schism between what they are teaching and what Rome continues to say.”

Ruth Fitzpatrick, national coordinator of the Women’s Ordination Conference, a Virginia group that lobbies for women in the priesthood, described the letter as “schizophrenic.” Even though the bishops repeatedly described and sympathized with women who are at odds with church teachings, they usually concluded by citing those teachings anyway, she said.

“They are acting as though women want compassion,” she said. “Women don’t want compassion. They want justice.”

Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, a Washington group that opposes the church’s position on birth control and abortion, said she was impressed that the bishops called for “dialogue” on the question of contraception. “But,” she added, “we haven’t seen any movement toward dialogue on those issues.”