A Pastoral Letter issued jointly by Bishop Raymond A. Lucker, Bishop of New Ulm and Bishop Victor H. Balke, Bishop of Crookston - October 24, 1981

I. Introduction

Pope Paul VI on the status of women

On April 18, 1975, Pope Paul VI addressed the Committee for the international Women's Year proclaimed by the United Nations for 1975. After noting that he had already pointed out "how very much in agreement the Church was with the purposes of the international Woman's Year," he noted that one of the aims of the Year, though not the only one, was "winning equal rights for women." And in remarking on how much needs to be done to promote the rights of women, he said, "Need We say that there are still millions of women who do not enjoy basic rights or receive elementary consideration?"

The task of the Church

Moreover, he stated that "the most pressing need at the moment... is the immense task of awakening women and advancing their cause at the grass-roots level, both in civil society and in the Church." And he added:

He noted, too, that "the whole Church (not just the Holy See) is also involved in this task, for it is at the level of the local communities that there must be an examination of conscience."

All this, of course, reflects what was solemnly stated by the II Vatican Council in its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World in 1965.

Purpose of this pastoral

In view of the special problems relating to the status of women in our day, this pastoral is written to the women and men of the local Churches of Crookston and New Ulm in the hope that it will raise to a new level of awareness the issue of Christian feminism and the sin of sexism. It is written also in the hope that it will lead to a greater and fully just participation on the part of women in the life of the Church.³

II. Feminism and Sexism

Christian humanism

The II Vatican Council spoke of "the birth of a new humanism."

Christian humanism may be described, therefore, as a commitment in the light of the Gospel to the full humanity of all persons and to their consequent dignity and equality as persons, so that changes in structures, customs, institutions and relationships will occur for the good of all.

Christian feminism

When, in the application of this description, our primary emphasis is on women, as in this pastoral, then we are speaking more specifically of Christian feminism. But it must be remembered that one's dignity and basic equality with others comes not from one's feminity or masculinity, but from one's humanity. For it is our common, shared humanity which is ultimately the foundation for the dignity and equality of us all as persons and which is at the very heart of the new humanism spoken by the II Vatican Council.

Sin of sexism

Sexism, directly opposed to Christian humanism and feminism, is the erroneous belief or conviction or attitude that one sex, female or male, is superior to the other in the very order of creation or by the very nature of things. When anyone believes that men are inherently superior to women or that women are inherently superior to men, then he or she is guilty of sexism. Sexism is a moral and social evil. It is not the truth of the biological, sociological or psychological sciences, nor is it the truth of the Gospel. Sexism is a lie. It is a grevious sin, diminished in its gravity only by indeliberate ignorance or by pathological fear.

Sexism in marriage

Though there are many contexts in which sexism is an unfortunate reality, one context that deserves special mention is marriage. How contrary this is to the Christian understanding of marriage! For the married state, wherein a man and a woman "are no longer two, but one flesh,"⁵ is an "intimate partnership of life" characterized by a love that "leads the partners to a free and mutual giving of self, experienced in tenderness and action, and permeates their whole lives."⁶ It is easy to see then, that sexism in marriage is directly opposed to the very meaning of married life, and any expression of headship in marriage must take this into account.

Results of sexism

The kind of sexism that denigrates women, our main concern here, results in a non-rational stereotyping of both women and men, and it is therefore harmful to both. "If women are thought inferior, passive, nonintelligent by a society, men are conditioned to feel superior, aggressive and intelligent. By polarizing the sexes, each is limited to a 'proper' sphere."⁷ For women, the psychological costs of sexism are indeed extremely high. There is, first of all, the tendency toward psychological paralysis, disabling them from asserting their self-worth. There is also the phenomenon of "feminine antifeminism" by which some women view as threats those others who wish to enter fields generally occupied by men. In addition, emotional dependency and false humility are often the prices of sexism for women.

For men, the costs of sexism are also high. They are victimized by hyper-rationalism, by an underdeveloped affective life, by the need to dominate and control. This means they value talking over listening, competition and conflict over measured growth, pride over humility, decisiveness over thoughtfulness, and an aggressive approach over a persuasive one. And from what has just been said, the tendency towards male violence, both physical and psychological, is evident.⁸

III. Christ's Relationships with Women

Response to sexism

It is clear therefore that sexism, like every other serious moral evil, has its negative effects both on individual persons and on society. The only adequate response to this evil is Christian feminism, described earlier not as a movement but as an attitude of mind and heart. And just as in all things else in Christian life and faith our model is Jesus Christ, so also here, in the matter of Christian feminism, he is our model.

Status of women in the time of Christ

Before examining Christ's attitudes towards women, however, we ought to say something of the status of women in Palestine at the time of Christ. We need not describe their situation in great detail, though that would indeed emphasize how counter Jesus went to the culture of his time. Suffice it here to say that they had a very inferior status - a status based on the assumption that they were inferior as persons. "Praised be God that he has not created me a woman"⁹ was part of the daily prayer of male Jews.

Women were therefore seriously restricted in public life and prayer. They were limited to one outer part of the temple, and they were not permitted to read publicly or to assume any leading role in the Jewish liturgy. Women were ordinarily not to be spoken to in public, nor could they testify in a court of law. They could be easily divorced, but they were not allowed to divorce their husbands. Some Jewish leaders believed that women should not leave their homes except to go to the synagogue or the temple. In fact, for the most part their role was to bear and rear children.

From birth on, a female person had to live with attitudes that surely indicated she was considered as inherently inferior. For, according to a Rabbinic saying, "At the birth of a boy all are joyful, but at the birth of a girl all are sad.... When a boy comes into the world, peace comes into the world; when a girl comes, nothing comes.¹⁰

Jesus: a contrast

Much more could be said about the negative understanding and the low status of women in Palestine at the time of Christ, but the little said here indicates how bleak their situation was. Jesus' own relationships with women provide a striking contrast to this dark picture.

To begin with, when Jesus addressed the question of divorce, he referred to the passage of Genesis where it is stated: "God created man in his own image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them."¹¹

Woman: in the divine image

The word "man" is clearly generic here. It means "woman" as well as man, and the meaning is that God created human beings, both female and male, in his image, the divine image. Only in this understanding does the word "them" of "male and female he created them" make sense. Moreover, it is clear that the creation-story makes no distinction between women and men as persons because it immediately continues by saying: "God blessed them (both male and female), saying: 'Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and all the living things that move on the earth."' Dominion belongs to women and men alike and equally.¹²

Jesus' relationships with women indicate that he embraced this notion that women are full human persons created in the image of God, equal with men and having no less dignity than men. Indeed, his relationships with women, meaningful in themselves for them and for him, may be characterized as prophetic, i.e., as having a teaching value for his contemporaries and for us.

Jesus: accompanied and assisted by women

St. Luke gives this summary of Jesus in ministry, and we cannot fail to note his association with women:

In view of the expected public relationships between women and men in the Palestine of Jesus, this is a remarkable passage. Not only do women accompany him as followers, but many of them support his ministry out of their own means. This represents an entirely new understanding of the role of women. And even as it affirms them as human persons, it shows how authentically free Jesus was in his association with them.

Martha and Mary

Another remarkable passage, also in Luke, describes how Jesus, a guest in the home of Martha, took the time to teach her sister Mary. "She had a sister named Mary, who seated herself at the Lord's feet and listened to his words.''¹⁴ When Martha complained to Jesus about Mary doing nothing, Jesus said, "Mary has chosen the better portion, and she shall not be deprived of it."¹⁵

This may seem to be of little significance, but Eliezer, a first century rabbi had taught: "Rather should the words of the Torah be burned than entrusted to a woman.''¹⁶ Jesus' teaching of Mary was a radical departure from accepted practices towards women; he is inviting her and all women in the fullness of their personhood to share in the mysteries and in the knowledge of the Reign of God.

The Samaritan woman

Still more striking in St. John's Gospel is the description of the meeting and the dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob. Not only does he speak with her, thus breaking one of the "rules" denigrating women (much to the surprise of the disciples), but he reveals himself to her as the Messiah:

"I who speak to you am he."¹⁷ Jesus goes far beyond entrusting the words of the Torah to her; he entrusts himself to her as the expected Anointed One of God. In Jesus' eyes, women too are worthy to be called to the truth by which they will be saved.

Many others

Women were also the loved recipients of many of Jesus' mercies and miracles. Without even being asked for a favor by the widow of Naim, whose only son had died, Jesus "was moved with pity upon seeing her and said to her, 'Do not cry,"' and then he raised the boy to life.¹⁸ He raised the daughter of Jairus to life,¹⁹ and Lazarus was resurrected in response to the grief of Mary and Martha.²⁰ He permitted a woman, known to be a sinner, to perfume his feet with oil after she had wept over them and dried them with her hair; then he proclaimed her sins forgiven because of her great love.²¹ He healed a woman "with a hemorrhage of twelve years duration," rejecting the blood taboo that made anything or anyone she touched unclean,²² and he freed another of her infirmity of eighteen years, violating - at least in the eyes of some - the sacredness of the Sabbath.²³

The adulteress

And in one of the most touching scenes in the Gospels,²⁴ Jesus saves the life of the woman taken in adultery. Those who brought her to Jesus treated her as a mere object for their own selfish purposes; they wanted to use her to make it appear that Jesus was either opposing the Mosaic law or was not the man of mercy he appeared to be. But Jesus outwitted them. Reminding them of their own sinfulness, he shamed them into dropping their stones, for he saw standing before him not so much a sinner, but a human person, an image of God deserving compassion, both human and divine.

Women and the Risen Lord

But there is still more. In the Gospel of Luke, the Resurrection is announced first to women. And from what the angel told the women, we know that Jesus had shared with them his most intimate teachings: "Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee - that the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again."²⁵ "With this reminder," we read, "his word came back to them."²⁶

In St. John's Gospel, the first person to encounter the Risen Lord directly is Mary Magdalene, and she is the first to be sent as a witness to the Resurrection: "Go to my brothers," Jesus said, "and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and to your Father, to my God and your God."'²⁷ In Matthew and Mark as well, the first revelation of the Resurrection is made to women.

Revealing first to them, and not to men, that he had truly risen, and asking them who could not be legal witnesses to give witness to his Resurrection, the central truth of our faith - what greater way for Christ to assert the full humanness and dignity of women and their equality with men, not only as persons but as witnesses.

Courage of Jesus

In all these instances, both before and after the Resurrection, Jesus related to women as full human persons. Notwithstanding the negative, contemporary attitudes toward women - attitudes that Jesus dared not to share, dared even to contradict - and notwithstanding the law of Moses as interpreted in his time, Jesus acknowledged the dignity of women and their equality with men in the sight of God in whose image he knew they were created. In a very powerful and prophetic way, Jesus was urging changes in the customs and structures of his time and in the norms governing relationships with women - changes that would benefit not women only, but men as well.

Freedom of Jesus

We note, too, as we contemplate the ministry of Jesus, that he related to women with a marvelous inner freedom. Not only did he, the Lord of the Sabbath and the Lord of the Law, act with freedom in the context of both the Sabbath and the Law, but he was free of all inner fears that might have prevented him from recognizing the full humanity and personhood of women. He therefore neither demeaned them nor divinized them - two extreme and inhuman ways of relating to women (ways women have historically experienced), and consequently two ways of preventing them from being full participants, equal with men in the human enterprise.

IV. Need for Christ's Sensitivity

Again and again the Gospel portrays Jesus as a person of deep and intense prayer, and frequently he prayed to God as "Abba," i.e., as Father.²⁸ With Jesus as our model, we as Church and as the Body of Christ have also consistently prayed to God as Father.

No male or female in God

It must be noted, however, that there is no male or female in God, for our God transcends all such distinctions. The word "Father" by which we, in imitation of Jesus, pray to God is a metaphorical term, and in terms of metaphor God both mothers us and fathers us.²⁹ Indeed, the scripture uses images of mother-love as well as father-love in describing God's compassionate and tender care for us. For example, God said to his people through Isaiah: "As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you."³⁰ To ignore this metaphorical use of words, therefore, in a way that leads to an understanding of God as male and/or to an understanding of the male as superior to the female is as wrong as it is insensitive.

Woman and man: one in Christ

Moreover, to imply that the male is superior to the female because the historical Christ was male is also both insensitive and wrong, for through baptism we are all one in the Risen Christ. St. Paul wrote to the Galatians: "There does not exist among you Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus."³¹ Paul may well have been "a man not entirely free from a rabbinic view of the place of women,"³² but he surely reflects here the teachings of Jesus in regard to the equal humanity and equal dignity among women and men as redeemed persons.

Inclusive language

Because all are one in Christ, and because through Christ all are God's daughters and sons enjoying basic equality as persons, we ought to use "inclusive and unitive" language whenever it is feasible to do so in a communal setting, i.e. language that includes both women and men and emphasizes the unity of us all in Christ. For example, instead of praying: "O God, look with favor upon man whom you have redeemed," we ought to pray: "O God, look with favor upon us whom you have redeemed." Such inclusive and unitive language, whether or not in the context of prayer, reflects the sensitivity of Christ towards women and it fulfills the right expectations not only of women but of many men as well. Hence, we must hope that inclusive language, always acceptable - even preferable - outside the liturgy, will soon be approved for all liturgical settings as well.³³

V. An Examination of Conscience

Decline of Christian feminism

"The tradition suggests that women were major participants in the life of the primitive community," but "by the time the Gospels were finally written down, much of the early community's liberalism regarding women had already eroded."³⁴ We do not intend in this pastoral to outline the history of the erosion over the course of time, though that would be a profitable and enlightening study, explaining the hurt and anger of many women today. Our primary interest at this point is not to deplore the past, but to exhort and encourage our local Churches and their parishes to reflect today and tomorrow the attitudes of Jesus, our supreme model, in their relationships with women in the Church.

Since Pope Paul VI said in regard to this entire matter, as already noted, that "it is at the level of the local communities that there must be an examination of conscience,"³⁵ we have chosen to provide such an examination. The first questions below have to do with our attitudes towards women, and the implication behind the questions on pastoral practices is that women have a baptismal right in justice to involvement, equal with that of men, in the positions and offices mentioned. All these questions, of course, are intended both for men and for women.

Attitudes

In regard to my attitudes towards women:

1. Do I ever make disparaging remarks about women or react approvingly when such remarks are made?

2. Do I stereotype women in any way or approve - even by silence - of statements that do stereotype them?

3. Do I pray to God or speak of God as maternal as well as paternal, or does it bother me when others do so in non-liturgical prayer? (Cf. note 29.)

4. Do I openly affirm and even defend, when appropriate, the full humanness of women, their dignity, and their equality as persons with men?

5. Am I committed to changes in structures and relationships that will "bring about the discovery of, respect for, and protection of the rights and prerogatives of every woman, single or married, in education, in the professions, and in civil, social and religious life?"³⁶

6. Do I ever read the Gospels intent on finding Jesus' attitude towards women, and do I proclaim and live what I find?

7. Am I satisfied or pleased with the present status of women in the Church and in society?

8. Do I agree that sexism is a social and moral evil and that objectively it is a grave sin?

9. Do I believe that women are created in the divine image and have equal dominion with men over God's creation?

10. Do I believe that Jesus' attitudes and relationships with women were not only meaningful in themselves, but are normative and prophetic for us today?

11. Do I willingly listen to women when they speak about their status in the Church and in society?

12. Do I think this pastoral was necessary or beneficial for our time and place?

Pastoral practices

In regard to pastoral practices relative to women:

1. Does my parish have more than a token number of women on the parish council and its various committees?

2. Does my parish have more than a token number of women on the school board and/or on the board of religious education?

3. Does my parish have more than a token number of women involved in the liturgical ministries (readers, singers and musicians, distributors of Holy Communion, leaders of song, ushers, parish visitators)?

4. Does my parish have women as trustees?

5. Does my diocese/parish and school pay a just salary to its full-time or part-time female employees, a salary equal to that of male employees in similar positions?

6. Does my parish and school include instruction on Christian feminism or on sexism in its religious education and formation programs on all levels?

7. Does my diocese have more than a token number of women on the Diocesan Pastoral Council and on the various diocesan boards and committees?

8. Does my diocese/parish have more than a token number of women in leadership positions, e.g., as heads of diocesan/parish offices?

9. Does my diocese/parish recognize in concrete ways the contributions made by women to the life and faith of the diocese/parish?

10. Does my diocese/parish concretely affirm, encourage, and even assist the involvement of women "in the life of society, on the one hand, and in the life and mission of the Church, on the other"?³⁷

11. Does my diocese/parish provide a known and approachable forum for women to speak on issues especially relevant to them?

12. Does my diocese/parish attempt to use inclusive language in its publications and communications, and in the liturgy where possible?

Purpose of this examination

The purpose of this examination of conscience is to raise our consciousness on issues related to Christian feminism, not to create guilt feelings. We offer it as an aid to determine our attitudes and practices in the Church toward women, and as a checklist for moving towards a more thorough acceptance of women into the life of the local Church both on the diocesan and the parish levels.

VI. Conclusion

Current feelings of women

Whether or not we realize it, many women and men in the Church are disappointed, frustrated, and even angered by the hesitancy or the refusal of some leaders within the Church to acknowledge the just and rightful place of women in the life and mission of the Church. This reaction - prescinding from the statement of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, approved by Pope Paul VI, declaring why the Church "does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination"³⁸ - results sometimes in women and men withdrawing from ministry in the Church and even, though more rarely, in total alienation from the Church.

Change for justice' sake

In the name of Christ, then, and for the sake of women in the Church, as well as for the sake of the Church itself, we beg that an examination - and, if needed a correction - of our attitudes and practices regarding women be given high priority in our hearts and lives. This may not always be an easy task, but it is a necessary one if we want to act not only in obedience to the prophetic example of Christ but also in justice to women.

And this is truly a matter of justice to women, for "through Baptism and Confirmation all (women as well as men) are appointed... by the Lord himself"³⁹ in the saving mission of the Church. Flowing from this divine appointment, which we dare not undo, are rights and duties for women in the Church which we may not deny to them - any more than to men - without violating the will of Christ and doing serious injury to women and to the whole Church and its mission. That indeed would be a serious burden on our individual consciences and on the consciences of our diocesan and parish communities of faith.

Let us therefore proceed, without delay, with this work of justice on behalf of women in the Church. With faith and hope in Christ, through whom "the whole body grows and - with the proper functioning of the members joined firmly together by each supporting ligament - builds itself up in love,"⁴⁰ let us all commit ourselves to those changes in ourselves, in our structures and relationships, which will be for the good of all and for the good of the Church. In that way we, as Church, will be a more perfect sign of Christ and a more faithful servant of the Reign of God, a Reign of justice, love and peace.

Footnotes

1. "Address of Pope Paul VI to the Committee for the International Women's Year," April 18, 1975.

2. II Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, par. 60.

*"The word 'culture' in the general sense refers to all those things which go to the refining and developing of man's diverse mental and physical endowments. He strives to subdue the earth by his knowledge and his labor; he humanizes social life both in the family and in the whole civic community through the improvement of customs and institutions; he expresses through his works the great spiritual experiences and aspirations of men throughout the ages; he communicates and preserves them to be an inspiration for the progress of many, even of all mankind." (Par. 53)

3. The reader is referred to "Women: Pastoral Reflections," published by the Roman Catholic Bishops of Minnesota (March 21, 1979).

4. II Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution..., par.55.

5. Matthew 19, 6.

6. II Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution..., pars, 48 and 49.

7. Jesus and the Freed Woman, Rachel Conrad Wahlberg, (Paulist Press, 1978), pgs.1-2.

8. Embodiment: An Approach to Sexuality and Christian Theology, James B. Nelson, pgs. 65-66. This is the source for most of the information in this and the previous paragraph.

9. "Jesus Was a Feminist," Leonard Swidler, Catholic World (January, 1971), pg.178.

10. "Jesus Was a Feminist," pg. 178.

11. Genesis 1, 27.

12. It should be noted that there is a second creation account in Genesis 2. "While the two creation accounts of Genesis differ markedly in language, style, date and traditions employed, their basic statements about woman are essentially the same: woman is, along with man, the direct and intentional creation of God and the crown of his creation. Man and woman were made for each other. Together they constitute humankind, which is in its full and essential nature bisexual." This second account represents the woman as "derived but not inferior. The fact that she is formed directly from the man is meant to emphasize the essential identity of man and woman." Religion and Sexism, ed. by Rosemary Radford Reuther; "Images of Women in the Old Testament," Phyllis Bird, (Simon and Schuster: New York), pgs. 72-73.

13. Luke 8, 1-3.

14. Luke l0, 39.

15. Luke 10, 42.

16. "Jesus Was a Feminist," Pg.178.

17. John 4, 26.

18. Luke 7, 13.

19. Mark 5, 21f.

20. John 11.

21. Luke 7, 36-50.

22. Luke 8, 43-48.

23. Luke 13, 1-17.

24. John 8, 1-11.

25. Luke 24, 6-7.

26. Luke 24, 8.

27. John 20, 17.

28. Jesus: A Gospel Portrait, Donald Senior, C.P. (Pflaum Publishing Co., 1975), pgs. 94-95.

"The use of 'Abba' could have entered the Gospel tradition only because Jesus used it. The ordinary word for 'father' in Aramaic and Hebrew is 'ab.' 'Abba' is an intimate diminutive, almost like 'Dad' or 'Daddy' in English.... Texts have been found where adults use the term 'abba' as an expression of intimacy and affection for their father. But there is no parallel in Judaism for its use as an address in prayer to God."

29. Since the term "father," when used in reference to God, is metaphorical, and since its purpose is to express intimacy with God rather than to imply sexuality in God, it is all right in non-liturgical prayer to pray to God as Mother as well as Father. For various reasons, some persons may well experience a deeper and more intimate spiritual relationship with God, who is love, when they pray to God as Mother rather than as Father.

30. Isaiah 66, 13. There are other examples too: Hosea 11, 3-4; Isaiah 46, 3-4; 49, 14-15. Jesus, too, referred to himself in female images: Luke l3, 34; 15, 8-10.

31. Galatians 3, 28.

32. Jesus: A Gospel Portrait, pgs. 80-81.

33. In November, 1980, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops acted to ask the Holy See for permission to use inclusive language in the liturgy.

34. Jesus: A Gospel Portrait, pg. 79.

35. "Address of Pope Paul VI..."; cf. note 1 above.

36. "Address of Pope Paul VI..."; cf. note 1 above.

37. "Address of Pope Paul VI..."; cf. note 1 above.

38. "Declaration on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood," October 15, 1976.

39. II Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, par. 33.

40. Ephesians 4, 16.

October 24, 1981