U.S. Catholic Bishops Will Attack Sex Discrimination

WASHINGTON —  U.S. Catholic bishops will attack sex discrimination in a major statement on women in church and society, but they won’t go so far as supporting ordination of women as priests, the head of the drafting committee says.

The bishops are preparing the letter, in part, in response to growing unrest among those Roman Catholic women who say they resent their lack of involvement in the decision making of the male-dominated church. But Pope John Paul II has decreed that the ordination question is closed.

With that background, Bishop Joseph Imesch, who heads the drafting committee, said this week, “There are certain limitations to people’s expectations that should be realized ahead of time, and I think most people do.”

Imesch commented during a break in two days of hearings that his committee conducted as part of the preparation for the letter, which will not be submitted to the nation’s bishops until November, 1986.

Feelings Running High

The letter, a lengthy formal teaching statement by U.S. Catholic leaders, may receive less public notice than previous letters on nuclear war and the U.S. economy, Imesch said. But he also said that feelings are running high in some circles because “it’s a more emotional issue; it touches more people.”

Emotion was evident in rousing counterhearings that several women’s groups held in a Lutheran church about a mile from the hotel where the bishops’ closed-door hearings were held.

Speakers who accused the church with discrimination were cheered by about 150 supporters at the counterhearing. It had been scheduled at a Roman Catholic church, but was moved after Catholic officials in Washington objected that the sponsors were “pro-choice” on abortion and appeared to be seeking a confrontation with the bishops.

Maureen Reiff, who testified before the bishops on behalf of the National Assembly of Religious Women, told the women’s gathering that the church’s firm opposition to abortion was part of “a power struggle to keep women in submissive roles in church and society.”