c. 1999 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ English-speaking, Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese prelates attending a meeting of European bishops at the Vatican have called on the Roman Catholic hierarchy to give women a more important role in the church.

But, in a series of preliminary reports presented Wednesday (Oct. 13) and issued in summary form Thursday, the bishops stopped well short of any challenge to the strong opposition of Pope John Paul II to the ordination of women.

The status of women in the church was one of the major issues emerging from two weeks of speeches and debate in the Second Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops, called by the pope to draw up a plan of action for the next millennium. The earlier synod in 1991 marked the fall of communism in Europe.

The bishops are now meeting in nine working groups to formulate the”propositions”they will present to the pope before the synod concludes Oct. 23. The preliminary reports by the group covered the second round of discussions.

One of the most telling statements on women came from English-speaking prelates, who later asked a woman press officer to address them informally because none of the handful of women auditors and experts had been assigned to their group.”We reflected on the vital role that women have played in handing on the faith and in fostering vocations. It was a matter of regret to us that we had no woman as part of our group, and we felt that our discussions were thereby impoverished,”Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick, Ireland, wrote for the group.”We hoped that the synod might reflect on how we might counteract the alienation which exists in many women,”Murray said.”We should reflect on how the importance of the role of women might be more visibly expressed in the church in situations where no theological principle prevents it.” Ending Thursday’s discussions early, the group asked Mary Curtin, an Irish radio producer who reports on the synod’s deliberations to English-language journalists, to talk to them about the concerns of Catholic women.

Curtin said she”was cheered”by their invitation to speak. She said she drew on their earlier discussion of Europe’s falling birth rate to tell them that”women are not defined by maternity”alone.

But, speaking as a mother, she warned them the church was”not providing welcoming experiences to young children so it was not any wonder that teen-agers are alienated.””The ordained ministry is not the only role in the church,”an Italian group said. The bishops proposed the church”open many spaces for women, from pastoral participation and responsibility to significant offices in the Vatican Curia.” Like the pope, however, the Italian bishops stressed that women’s role must be kept distinct from men’s and modeled on the life of the Virgin Mary.

The bishops said the church has not recognized sufficiently the contribution of women in providing catechesis, or instruction of catecumens; establishing solidarity within the church and the family; and founding”great movements.” The French bishops warned that men and women were not”interchangeable”but urged the church to take into account the effects of the women’s liberation movement and other social changes that began in the 1960s.”In various ecclesial communities, great steps have been taken to entrust women with new and greater responsibilities,”the French said.”They are being given increasingly important tasks. This effort deserves constant consideration while being careful not to regard men and women as being interchangeable in everything.”Nevertheless,”the French prelates said,”in order to attenuate the misunderstandings or persisting difficulties still affecting the relationship between the church and women, the church should become aware of the rapid social change that girls and women have caused or been subjected to over the past 30 years.” Spanish and Portuguese bishops said a persisting”secular male-dominant attitude”in the church and in society should be criticized.”In society,”the prelates said,”we bishops are called upon to adopt an equally positive attitude toward women and their world, their legitimate rights to employment, their social responsibilities and their effort to gain them.””Our educational task must likewise take care to prevent the complementarity of the sexes from producing antagonism between them. In order to reach this goal we must criticize on a gospel basis the secular male-dominant attitude still persisting,”they said.

DEA END POLK