{"id":5107,"date":"2018-10-26T23:48:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T06:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=5107"},"modified":"2018-10-27T21:22:58","modified_gmt":"2018-10-28T04:22:58","slug":"post3-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=5107","title":{"rendered":"“Vatican Faces Modern-Day Suffragists, Demanding Right to Vote”, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Elisabetta Povoledo, Oct.26, 2018<\/p>\n

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VATICAN CITY \u2014 Two modern-day American suffragists had a plan.<\/p>\n

During this month\u2019s Synod of Bishops<\/a>, an international gathering at the Vatican, Deborah Rose-Milavec and Kate McElwee, who lead groups dedicated to advancing women in leadership roles in the Roman Catholic Church, made sure that Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the synod\u2019s general secretary, was presented with a hefty pink folder.<\/p>\n

Inside was a petition<\/a> with more than 9,000 signatures and one specific request: Allow female religious superiors at the synod to \u201cvote as equals alongside their Brothers in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petition\u2019s request, said Ms. Rose-Milavec, the executive director of Future Church<\/a> and Ms. McElwee, who holds the same post at the Women\u2019s Ordination Conference<\/a>, was a minor volley in what has seemed to be an insurmountable battle to get the male-centric Catholic Church to pay serious attention to women, who represent about half the world\u2019s 1.3 billion Catholics but count for little where it matters.<\/p>\n

Vatican synods are held every few years. Women have emerged as a major concern of this one, which opened earlier this month and focuses on how the church can better minister to today\u2019s youth in an era of emptying pews.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe presence of women in the church, the role of women in the church,\u201d has been repeatedly raised, in the synod\u2019s plenary meeting and within smaller working groups, said Sister Sally Marie Hodgdon, the superior general of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambery, and a synod participant. \u201cThe youth bring it up, as have some of the bishops and cardinals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly,\u201d she added, the issue of women will be in the final document, which will be voted on Saturday.<\/p>\n

But women, who make up about a tenth of the 340 or so synod participants<\/a>, won\u2019t be among the voters. Until this synod, only ordained men were allowed to vote on recommendations to the working document, whose final draft is given to the pope, who can include as much as he wants in his own post-synodal reflection.<\/p>\n

This year, though, two men who are not ordained but are the superiors general of their respective religious orders have been granted the right to vote. Sister Hodgdon, too, is a superior general, but she has no voting rights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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For some Catholics, the difference clearly smacks of the sexism that \u201cunderlines the grave marginalization of women in the church,\u201d said Lucetta Scaraffia, the editor of a monthly insert on women<\/a> in the Vatican\u2019s newspaper, L\u2019Osservatore Romano. \u201cIt\u2019s a clamorous injustice. It demonstrates that the criteria they use is not between priest and lay people, but between women and men,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The cover of the October insert, \u201cWomen, Church, World,\u201d<\/a> depicted a woman shouting angrily. The intent of the issue, Ms. Scaraffia said, was to encourage debate and to get women \u201cto protest every time there is a reason to protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are they afraid of? One woman voting, honestly!\u201d said Ms. McElwee, of the Women\u2019s Ordination Conference<\/a>, who helped to draft the petition and was an organizer of a protest<\/a> that coincided with the synod\u2019s opening, on Oct. 3.<\/p>\n

Standing outside the gates that lead to the synod hall inside Vatican City that day, several dozen women and men chanted: \u201cKnock, knock.\u201d \u201cWho\u2019s there?\u201d \u201cMore than half the church.\u201d The protest was peaceful \u2014 \u201ca prayer groups is more disruptive,\u201d Ms. McElwee said \u2014 but still drew the attention of the police, <\/a>who brought the protest to a halt, identified all the protesters and forced some to delete footage of the demonstration from their mobile phones.<\/p>\n

The petition to allow female superiors general a synod vote was a \u201cstrategic\u201d move toward their more equal participation in church matters, Ms. McElwee said, adding that she realized it confirmed the \u201cultimate fear\u201d of some clerics who see it as a step down a \u201cslippery slope that could eventually lead to women\u2019s ordination\u201d as priests.<\/p>\n

Such ordination, Ms. McElwee said, was \u201cthe last door that\u2019s closed to women,\u201d though there are many doors in between. Church teaching says that women can\u2019t be priests because Jesus chose only men as his apostles.<\/p>\n

Various studies<\/a> of religious affiliation<\/a> in the United States show that young people are leaving the Catholic Church in greater numbers than before for many reasons. Women have traditionally been the bedrock of the faithful, but a study last year by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) <\/a>of Catholic women<\/a> showed that they are less engaged than in the past.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Those numbers have not raised the loud warning bells in the Catholic Church that they should have, critics say.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time in history women are leaving at greater rates than men,\u201d said Ms. Rose-Milavec. \u201cThat is a deep dive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pope Francis has spoken often of a more-incisive presence for women<\/a>in the church, and six women occupy senior roles in the five dozen departments that make up the Catholic Church\u2019s governing body, the Holy See. Critics say he needs to do more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In 2016, Francis appointed a commission to review the place that female deacons had in the early church, a move seen by some as possibly opening the way to female deacons in the modern era. But the commission has not made its finding public, and the cardinal who heads it made clear last June<\/a> that advising the pope on modern-day female deacons had never been on its agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough his positive statements, Pope Francis has really raised women\u2019s expectations about the changes that he plans in order to bring more women into leadership roles,\u201d Petra Dankova, the advocacy director of Voices of Faith<\/a>, replied in a written response to questions. \u201cBut concrete actions have followed slowly and without an overarching plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voice of Faith, based in Liechtenstein, is pushing for women to gain full leadership roles in the Catholic Church. It has urged the close-knit group of cardinals who advise the pope on various issues that it should establish a special advisory board for women, Ms. Dankova said.<\/p>\n

The question of their involvement in the church, she added, \u201cis too complex and it cannot be expected to be somehow solved on the side without a concentrated attention and without the collaboration with women themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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That suggestion has fallen on deaf ears, although some top prelates at the synod have been vocal in their support of women.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, speaking to reporters at a daily Vatican briefing, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, chairman of the German Bishop\u2019s Conference, said that the issue of women\u2019s roles in the church was \u201cimportant for the entire church,\u201d which must understand the evolution of women\u2019s equality as a gift from God.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would be foolish not to make use of the potential of women,\u201d Cardinal Marx said. \u201cThank God we are not that stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Male religious superiors at the synod have also been supportive, and the umbrella groups of both male and female superiors general have drafted a concrete proposal to allow women superiors to participate as voting members in future synods. If ratified by their respective boards, the proposal would be presented to the pope, Sister Hodgdon said.<\/p>\n

After living in Rome for eight years, Sister Hodgdon, an American, said she has learned that the ways of the Church took time. Female superior generals were not likely to get the right to vote in this synod, she conceded. \u201cBut do I believe it will happen for the next one? Yes, I really do believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next synod is scheduled<\/a> for October 2019, and will focus on issues related to the Amazon region.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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By Elisabetta Povoledo, Oct.26, 2018 VATICAN CITY \u2014 Two modern-day American suffragists had a plan. During this month\u2019s Synod of Bishops, an international gathering at the Vatican, Deborah Rose-Milavec and Kate McElwee, who lead groups dedicated to advancing women in leadership roles in the Roman Catholic Church, made sure that Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, the synod\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5107"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5107"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5121,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5107\/revisions\/5121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}