Catholic Bishops Will Key on Issue of Women : Equal rights: They will again tackle problem they have wrestled with for 9 years--how to denounce ‘sin of sexism’ while allowing men only into the priesthood.

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops next week tackle a problem they have been trying to iron out for nine years--how to assure a fair deal for women within the bounds of church policy.

That policy restricts the priesthood to men, and bishops aren’t inclined to defy the Pope on that rule. But otherwise, they’re considering a strong call for equitable treatment of women.

“They are different, yet equal,” says the third and latest draft of a proposed pastoral teaching letter on women. Denouncing the “sin of sexism,” the draft adds:

“We are convinced that sexism is so deeply rooted in the fabric of society that it tends to permeate human relationships and lead to other evils that deeply disturb women and evoke our strongest condemnation.”

Shaping the proposed 18,000-word statement has been a long and bumpy process, and some bishops think the whole project should be dropped.

A main uneasiness about it is that while insisting on equal worth, dignity and prerogatives of women generally, the document still would bar them from the church’s key, priestly role.

Some critics--both women and men--say this is a basic inconsistency that makes the proposed document embarrassingly equivocal and that it should be scrapped.

The third draft is “riddled with contradictions” says a joint reaction by leaders of 24 Catholic organizations, including numerous reform-oriented women’s groups, such as the National Coalition of American Nuns.

They say issuance of the draft would be a “major embarrassment for the U.S. church.” The six-bishop committee produced the document with advice from five women consultants. Bishop Joseph Imesch of Joliet, Ill., chairman of the group, says he is hopeful that the bishops eventually will accept it.

That is the likely prospect, says William Ryan, a spokesman for the bishops. However, that is not planned at their discussion of the document at their meeting June 18-20 at Notre Dame University.

They aren’t expected to get around to a decision on the matter until their fall meeting in Washington, but the Notre Dame parley will be their first full exchange.

Ordinarily, teaching documents are developed in less than half the time that has already been spent on the women’s issue. But this one touches a sensitive nerve in the historically male-ruled church.

Summoned by the Vatican for consultations about it, bishops on the drafting committee met in Rome with Vatican officials and 13 bishops from other countries in May of last year.

Afterward, a second draft of the letter that had been turned out in 1990 to replace a first draft of 1988 was revised into the current third draft, which is toned down.

Condemning sexism as a “moral and social evil,” the draft says women have been unjustly treated at “all levels of society.”

The modified draft avoids any direct criticisms of church policies regarding women, but does say that women criticize church practices that seem not to live up to equality principles.

Concerning women’s ordination, the draft cites a Vatican prohibition, saying it “affirms an unbroken tradition . . . of calling only men to ordained priesthood.”

“This constant practice constitutes a tradition which witnesses to the mind of Christ and is, therefore, normative,” according to the draft. It says, “Difference of gifts is not contradictory to equality of membership.”