|
1. Jesus called all human beings to follow him and to draw others to
him. He especially called women to be among his followers. For many
centuries the culture has delegated women to subservient roles in
church leadership and decision-making. Now is the time for the many
gifts of women to be fully exercised in the service of the Church, by
resolving to encourage inquiry and support for women's many, diverse
and untried abilities in the name of gospel justice.
2. VOTF's mission statement to seek participation in the governance
and guidance of our Church, and its third goal to shape structural
change, underpin such a resolution. In the earliest days of VOTF, the
absence of educated, lay women leaders in governing positions within
the Church was identified as a significant factor in the incidence and
the subsequent cover up of clergy sexual abuse of children. A
discussion of women's roles in the Church can lead further
participation in shaping structural change.
3. Today women are not welcomed members in policy-making councils on
the diocesan or universal Church levels, nor in many parishes.
Justice demands that the voice of over half of the Church's population
needs to be more fully recognized as called and gifted to lead, be
heard and be read within the universal Church.
4. This resolution is a call for the whole church to reexamine the
evolved history of church discipline that limits the role of women in
the Roman Catholic Church, and cannot be summarized as a call for
women's ordination.
5. This resolution is also in keeping with the second Vatican
Council's call for a greater role for women in the church: "Since in
our times women have an ever more active share in the whole life of
society, it is very important that they participate more widely also
in the various fields of the church's apostolate"
(Decree on theApostolate of the Laity, Paragraph 9).
|
