by Marie-Eloise Rosenblatt, R.S.M.
from Where can we find her?
searching for women’s identity in the new church
edited by Marie-Eloise Rosenblatt 1991, pp. 155-163.
published on our website with the necessary permissions
This final chapter is proposed as a discussion guide for small groups and their leaders. The previous ten essays can be read and used in a variety of ways by women’s groups or study groups of men and women. The essays can provide the outline for a ten-week series of meetings, with each meeting devoted to the questions which are raised by a particular essay. Or a five-week series on alternative weeks can be devoted to a selection of the five essays which seem best to fit the interests of the group. As an alternative structure, the essays in the first section (Scripture), second (Society) or third (Church) might be offered as the content base for an evening or Saturday workshop or day of theological reflection.
Leadership for the presentation and discussion can be coordinated in a variety of ways. A single leader can take responsibility for facilitating the entire series or reflection day. More a model of collaborative ministry, individual persons can assume leadership for a single topic, and lead the discussion on that particular essay, allowing other leaders a choice of another essay. Discussion sessions can be jointly led, with one person making a summary of five or six significant points in the essay, and the team-member facilitating the discussion.
The three questions proposed for each chapter are merely suggestive. The discussion leader can choose additional or different quotations from the essay and target the questions to the specific interests of the group. In this way discussion will elicit a variety of perspectives rooted in the individual experiences and insights of particular men and women, a desirable outcome for the nurturing of a community of faith. The goal is not to arrive at solutions, but to go on creating a climate in which the right questions remain on the ecclesial agenda, and the voices of many believers reexamine the church’s tradition and constitute its future. The relation of real-life women and men will continue to be the vitalizing force in the churches, more than any ecclesial document or theological essay.
Formats for each discussion can be variously arranged. For example, a morning or evening devoted to one essay might fit a ninety-minute block of time if discussants arrive having previously read the essay. After a greeting or prayer, an orientation to the subject can be given as an informal summary, with reference to the Preface, or a more prepared ten-minute reflection on the essay given by one person. To expand the possibilities of the discussion, members of the group can begin by individually noting which single point was especially significant for them. If the discussion questions in this chapter are supplemented or revised, they can be distributed to each member of the group either before the meeting or at the meeting itself. A leader can facilitate; more experienced groups may not require such guidance to keep the conversation on track. Discussion sessions can include short periods of reflective silence between questions. Various types of closure can be brought: turning to a business agenda, a closing prayer, refreshments, or orientation to the next discussion session.
Suggestions for Discussion
Part 1 Searching for Womens Identity in Scripture
“Partners in the Mystery of Creation” by Dianne Bergant, C.S.A.
1. “The myth of the helpless woman, i.e. the ‘weaker sex’ in need of protection and direction, and a distorted theology of self-denial have kept many women in a kind of subordinate state and, what is perhaps even more tragic, have made them satisfied to be so.”
-What do you understand by a “distorted theology of self-denial”? (p, 12)
2. “To insist that women and men have both feminine and masculine characteristics still constitutes subscribing to the stereotyping of human traits according to gender . . . .” (p. 12)
-Which qualities do you expect women to have, and which are men “supposed” to have?
3. “Clearly, male and female has some kind of correspondence with image of God.” (p. 14)
-What is the “image of God” mirrored by men and women separately and together?
“ ‘She Spent All She Had . . . But Only Grew Worse’: Paying the Price of Paternalism” by Karen A. Barta
1. Virginia Woolf described the angel of the house as her false self, but one expressing many feminine virtues, such as sympathy, sacrifice and purity. “It is far harder to kill a phantom than reality.” (pp, 24-25)
-What is the real self of a woman, the opposite of the false self?
2. Barta cites Russell’s partnership model for church ministers that employs four principles: Begin from the underside, Follow the questions, Act together, and Demystify the structures.(p. 29)
-Practically speaking, how would the implementation of these principles change the way women and men minister in the church?
3. “What can this woman teach us? What can she teach the bishops?” (p. 31)
-“What is the teaching embodied by the woman healed of her hemorrhage? (Mk 5:24-34).
“Agent or Icon: Scriptural Images and the Anthropology of Women” by Marie-Eloise Rosenblatt, R.S.M.
1. “Is it an accurate reclaiming of the gospel message that women’s identity as spouse and changeless role as mother be the lens through which to reread the scriptures and reclaim her dignity as person and disciple of Jesus?” (p. 38)
-In the gospels, do women approach Jesus because of needs related to their roles as spouses or mothers, or from some other motivation?
2. “Particularly in relation to Mary, the construction of a convincing and liberating portrait is needed, one which will resonate with the real-life issues of women . . . .” (p. 40)
-What would be the features of Mary’s life that would contribute to “a convincing and liberating portrait”?
3. “. . . there seems no guaranteed mandate in the first century Pauline theology of baptism for questioning women’s inferior social status in the church just because she is baptized in the same way men are.” (p. 43)
-Does your present understanding of baptism require or not require a change in women’s social status in the church?
Part ll Searching for Women’s Identity in Society
“Let the Women Speak” by Barbara Moran, R.S.M.
1. “If the bishops express both appreciation and regret, as well as call for a change of heart, whose change this might be has not yet been made clear. A call for change has not been specific enough to change the status quo of women in the church.” (p. 60)
-Whose change of heart will be specific enough to change the status of women in the church?
2. “Women’s images of God, prayer experiences, and bonded-ness with other women might provide additional data for a broader based report on women’s spirituality.” (p. 60)
-What are some features of women’s spirituality when their images of God, prayer and relationships with women are taken into account?
3. “… they group women’s perspectives of knowing into categories of silence, received knowledge, subjective knowledge, procedural knowledge, and constructed knowledge.” (p. 62)
-As Moran describes in her essay these categories from Women’s Ways of Knowing (which can also apply to men’s development), where and on what basis would you place yourself and the women in your worship, work or social circle?
“Voices Speak out of Fertile Silence” by Elizabeth McMillan, R.S.M.
1. “. . . [women] are inclined to give less weight to the validity of a moral norm than to such factors as motivations, limitations and possibilities at work in the lives of the people who are struggling to solve the problem.” (p. 71)
-In the moral dilemmas you have faced in your family or work life, or that of your friends, do you rely for your response on moral norms or “motivations, limitations and possibilities”?
2. “Mothers have had to carry on a relentless struggle to achieve a ‘sturdy peace … that depends upon continuing relationships that include anger, disappointment, difference, conflict and non-violent battle.’ ” (p. 73)
-What set of convictions, attitudes and skills enable you to carry on the relentless struggle for a sturdy peace within family and social relationships?
3. “While ‘our Catholic heritage’ will retain a certain normative status, its texts and practices have to be subjected as well to moral critique.” (p. 76)
-What do you consider the necessary, changeless elements of “our Catholic heritage” and what texts and practices do you think need a moral critique?
“Patriarchy: A Global Reality” by Dolores L. Greeley, R.S.M.
1. “The women’s movement is itself not isolated but is the result in part of new developments in thinking that might be stated as the birth of the person in the world and in the churches.” (p. 81)
-What is your understanding of where the women’s movement “came from”? What are evidences of its presence in the definition of legal issues, in political campaigns, employment practices in business, educational policies, and the media?
2. “The type of problem differs, but fundamental problems of discrimination against women are common in all nations.” (p.86)
-How does geographic location or ethnic identity give a specific shape to the discrimination women suffer?
3. “Education is a crucial means of giving women the skills and abilities to stand up for their rights and participate on all levels of society on an equal basis with men.” (p. 89)
-Is the education women need the same as that needed by men? In what ways must it be the same, and in what ways different?
“The Receptive Partner” by Marilyn 1. Gustin
1. “. . . the capacity to receive the most profound life of all, that which is eternal and ultimately wise, is a feminine capacity. It is symbolized by the cup.” (p. 95)
-What does the cup express about the capacity of receptivity that is not expressed by the symbol of the heart?
2. Gustin summarizes the universal story of two pilgrims on their way to the holy city, one blind and the other crippled, who must depend on each other in order to reach their common goal. (p. 97)
-How does this parable speak to your understanding of the relation between wisdom and method, between masculine and feminine, or between church and world?
3. “When the church denies to women the opportunity to express their received wisdom in every role and form, it deforms them and damages its own receptive identity before God. Insofar as the church denies men . . . the approval of their leisure to receive wisdom, to cultivate their receptive heart, it deforms them and damages its identity before God.” (p. 99)
-What beneficial effects is the women’s movement in the church bringing to men?
Part lll: Searching for Women’s Identity in the Chruch
“How Shall Our Church Teach?” by Maryanne Stevens, R.S.M.
1. “While banking education resists dialogue, problem-posing education regards dialogue as indispensable. Banking education domesticates students; problem-posing education allows them to be critical thinkers. In banking education, questioning the teacher is eschewed, whereas in problem-posing education, neither teachers nor students need apologize for uncertainty.” (p. 107)
-What pastoral goals in church structures and leadership would make dialogue, critical thinking, and uncertainty acceptable and aspects of the climate of faith?
2. “Midwife teachers assist others in giving birth to their own ideas . . . do not administer anesthesia . . . preserve the other’s fragile newborn thoughts . . . see that they are born with their truth intact . . . .” (p. 108)
-Quoting these passages from Women’s Ways of Knowing, Stevens links them with the character of the teaching church. How does this apply to catechists, religious educators of both children and adults, pastors and parents?
3. “Further consideration must be given to how church leaders understand themselves as teachers and perhaps, even more importantly, how church membership understands church leaders as teachers.” (p. 112)
-What will generate this changed perception, expectation and understanding of church membership in relation to its leaders?
“Recovering a History of Partnership: American Sisters in the Nineteenth Century” by Janet Ruffing, R.S.M.
1. “The metaphor of partnership has not figured prominently in male views of relationship with women since it supports neither a hierarchical view of authority nor a patriarchal view of family or other structures which view women as subordinate to, dependent on, or even derived from males.” (p. 117)
-What are the adequacies and inadequacies of the word “partnership” to describe the ideal relationship between men and women, and the relation of persons to organizational structures in the church?
2. “. . . it is precisely because sisters were engaged with the people in education, nursing, or social work rather than in sacramental ministry that they were so influential and successful.” (p. 119)
-What are the standards of ministerial influence and success that should be applied to the exercise of sacramental, educational, health and social work in today’s church? Are these different standards than those operative in the fledgling American Catholic Church of the last century?
3. “Secular feminism has unmasked ‘sexism’ as a pervasive and limiting social evil which negatively affects women. As a result, a profound shift in the understanding of female personhood and of women’s role in church and society is underway.” (p. 126)
-What is your description of “secular feminism” and do you see its effect being advantageous or disadvantageous to women and men of faith?
“Women Deaconesses: Historical and Contemporary Explorations” by Ann Marie Carom R.S.M.
1. “The distribution of charisms follows the will of the Spirit ever present and active in the church (1 Cor 12:11). And the ministries which constitute the expression of these gifts are services to be exercised in response to specific needs of each particular church, in order to foster its growth as the body of the Lord (Eph 4:12).” (p. 135)
-What are the ministerial needs of your particular church or diocese that distinguish it from another parish or geographic area? Are the natural gifts and talents needed for responding to these particular needs gender-related or not related to the minister being either a woman or man?
2. “It seems that, because of the need, and in spite of the patriarchal philosophy of the time [fourth century], some women are called to this ministry of deaconess by appointment and ordination.” (p. 13’7)
-What do you imagine could be the special ministerial needs in your parish or diocese that a deaconess could meet? Would she need to be appointed or ordained, or would these formalities be irrelevant to her service?
3. “Several concerns need to be addressed. They include (1) the availability of male deacons for the ministry (only three percent are fulltime in parish ministry; (2) the role of deacons as it is presently exercised, i.e. in terms of status and liturgical functions primarily, rather than ministry and tasks; (3) the concern that the clerical tradition be deemphasized.” (p. 142)
-What is your assessment of the availability, role and clericalization of male deacons in your diocese? Would deaconesses represent a ministerial solution to these problems or their replication?
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