Introduction
In February 2006, the Women's Justice Coalition,i a group of Catholic reform organizations with a stake in moving the cause of equality for women forward within the institutional church, agreed to conduct the first-ever study of the status of women in Catholic education, liturgy, diocesan councils and employment settings.
It was in December 1965 that the Second Vatican Council declared: "with respect to the fundamental rights of the person, every type of discrimination, whether social or cultural, whether based on sex, race, color, social condition, language, or religion, is to be overcome and eradicated as contrary to God's intent." (Pastoral Constitution on The Church in the Modern World: 29: Dec. 1965)
To assess the U.S. church's progress in gender relations since the historic Vatican II Council, coalition members developed a set of 14 concrete measures. We tried to learn whether Catholic education for church members and seminarians provides information about the scriptural and theological foundations underpinning the fundamental equality of women, the roles women played in the early church, and the U.S. Catholic Church's development.
We asked whether bishops are setting a good example by opening liturgical roles to women and girls, assuring women are represented on lay advisory bodies and providing for just hiring and employee practices at diocesan levels.ii
Our 14 criteria are based upon a series of "benchmarks" put forward in 1995 when the Leadership Conference of Women Religious challenged the U.S. bishops to open up leadership roles to women to the extent allowed under current church law.iii To these courageous nuns, we owe a great debt for inspiring our efforts to continue the struggle they began.
i Seventeen organizations belong to the Women's Justice Coalition. A full listing can be found at http://womensjusticecoalition.org.
The worksheets used to collect the information are available at http://womensjusticecoalition.org/sites/default/files/RPC_Worksheet.pdf
iii "Recommendations from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious About Church Leadership Roles for Women," brochure reprinted with permission by Call to Action USA and FutureChurch. http://womensjusticecoalition.org/sites/default/files/LCWR_brochure.pdf