Bishops Back Male-Only Priesthood

In the latest draft of a disputed statement, a panel of U.S. Catholic bishops condemns sexism but, under Vatican pressure, has softened its discussion of altar girls and admitting women as deacons.

In the statement released today, the bishops, while defending the church’s tradition of a male priesthood, also assert that the willingness of priesthood candidates to treat women as equals should be considered.

The committee did not give in to the demands of some top church leaders that its pastoral letter, the highest-level teaching that can be issued by a national bishops conference, be downgraded to a pastoral statement, which would have less authority.

“This is not a revolutionary document. It’s a modest first step,” said Bishop Joseph L. Imesch of Joliet, Ill., who heads the drafting committee. He called the document a step toward “listening to the concerns of women and including them more and more in church affairs.”

The 81-page pastoral letter will be debated by the full body of bishops when they meet in June at the University of Notre Dame. It is expected to be voted on at the bishops’ November meeting in Washington.

The document condemns what it calls “the sin of sexism” in both church and society. Yet it affirms the view of Pope John Paul II that Christ called only men to the priesthood. “This constant practice constitutes a tradition which witnesses to the mind of Christ and is therefore, normative,” the letter says.

The letter was immediately criticized as unacceptable by a leading advocate of women’s ordination.

Ruth Fitzpatrick of the Women’s Ordination Conference, which claims 4,000 members, said her group would like the bishops to say that women are “called by God to minister fully in the Roman Catholic Church. If they can’t say that,” she said, “they should say nothing.”

The document, “Called To Be One in Christ,” has a contentious eight-year history, delayed both by criticism from women that the subject was inappropriate for an all-male hierarchy and by Vatican concerns that the U.S. church would move too far too fast in advancing women’s issues.

The new draft appears, however, to tone down some passages that offended church conservatives.