from Woman and Man: One in Christ Jesus
Report on the Participation of Women
in the Catholic Church in Australia.
Published by Harper Collins Relgious, 1999, pp. 392.
Those who show satisfaction with the current role of women in the church | Those who seek to expand the current role of women in the church. |
Seek maintenance of the status quo or a return to traditional teachings, piety and values | Call for renewal based on the vision of Jesus and the Gospels |
Stress obedience to the Pope and the hierarchical Church | Desire to see the spirit and vision of the Second Vatican Council implemented with emphasis on the Church as the People of God |
Refer to Church documents, especially the Catechism of the Catholic Church | Refer to Scripture and the early Church |
Emphasise authority and doctrine | Stress the need to consider contemporary biblical and theological scholarship |
Are concerned that tolerance undermines truth | Value diversity in unity and the breakdown of discrimination |
Highlight the traditional role of women as wives and mothers, and in consecrated life | Highlight the increasingly varied contribution of women to society and to the Church |
Are concerned that men and boys are not sufficiently present and active in the Church | Display feelings of pain and alienation concerning the limitations on the role of women in the Church |
Emphasise concerns about worldly influences, involving secular pressures, consumerism and the secular culture | Experience as a scandal that the wider society is leading the way concerning the equality of women |
See the Church as being in conflict with a hostile world | Lament the failure of the institutional Church to read the "signs of the times" concerning the equality of women |
Express concerns regarding the lack of Catholic ethos and sound teaching in Catholic education | Identify the value of the large group of theologically educated women in Australia |
Perceive that women seeking ordination seek power and status | Perceive that women seeking ordination wish to be of service to the Church |
Believe that feminism is incompatible with Church teaching | Value moderate feminism |
Are comfortable with exclusive social language and religious | Call for the use of inclusive religious language and imagery and inclusive social language |
For other findings see:
- Selected Excerpts
- Patriarchal and Hierarchical Nature of the Church Seen as the Fundamental Barrier to Women's Participation
- Dominant Common Characteristics of Perceptions Concerning the Participation of Women in the Church
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