Vatican Document Urges Expansion of Women’s Roles

VATICAN CITY —  After rejecting the possibility of female priests, the Vatican is seeking to expand and reinforce the roles of nuns and female lay workers.

Women’s duties and relations with the church have been sharply debated recently and should be a central theme at a bishops synod in October, according to a draft agenda released Monday.

“Women . . . ought to assume all their responsibilities in society and the church. . . . This is the urgent challenge presented by today’s culture,” said a 127-page outline of topics expected to be discussed by bishops from around the world.

The synod was organized to study the “consecrated life” in the church for both men and women. The subject of nuns and female lay religious workers touches on one of the most sensitive issues for the Vatican.

The church has encouraged greater participation by women, but it steadfastly refuses to allow female priests. Pope John Paul II wrote last month that the church “has no authority” to ordain women.

On other levels, however, women appear to have made some advances.

A meeting of African bishops at the Vatican in April focused heavily on the strong presence of female leaders in their churches, schools and missions. The Vatican also has allowed women to serve Communion and has permitted girls to act as altar servers.

“I see the October synod as an important statement on the innumerable--and growing--roles for lay women in the church,” said Susan Muto, executive director of the Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Epiphany Assn., which examines concerns of women in the Roman Catholic Church.

The draft for the October synod stresses the need to expand women’s duties in the church, but it acknowledges the difficulty in getting “people to make fundamental and lasting commitments.”

It particularly cites the aging and declining ranks of nuns in some Western nations, and it encourages bishops to do more to meet their “spiritual and temporal needs.” It does not, however, give any specific suggestions.

The document also notes a rise in the number of widows willing to take vows of chastity and allegiance to the church. It suggests that the bishops clarify the widows’ religious work as well as their relationships with their children and other family members.