Page 8, 26th September 1975

26th September 1975

Page 8

Page 8, 26th September 1975 — Little change in Church attitude to women
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People: Daniel Berrigan
Locations: Detroit

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Little change in Church attitude to women

IN THE ninth month of International Women's Year, the Church in Ireland decided to acknowledge the existence of Women's Year by sermons in its churches.
The result was extremely interesting. Ireland being very much a male-oriented society, it wasn't surprising that those clergy who gave the sermons, vividly illustrated by their words and attitudes, the lowly place that most women inhabit in a man's mind.
Young "with it" priests were, for the most part, the ones entrusted with the directive. It became clear. as notes were swapped by women in different parishes, that if these were the hest and most recent reactions to the female of the species, then those hoping for a changed attitude U) the Church might just as well forget it. The message loud and clear was the same as it has been over the years--"women's place ... etc, etc," plus a lot of scorn and contempt poured on the Women's Liberation Movement. By their reference. it would seem. that not one of those priests had taken the trouble to in quire about its aims, its activities, even its membership which is very small. One wondered at whom the sermons were aimed. They seemed to be completely off the mark if woinen themselves were the people the priests had in mind as their audiences. Those of the group who listened either became very angry, or just switched off. The clergy are doing their best ;End to their mind, no doubt, are beng honest. But women's organisations over the past two or three years have pointed out in newspapers, magatines, on television and radio, the cruelty, distress and abuse that so many of their number hare daily to contend with. The nearest that the clergy got to this was a reference to the fact that men who spend evenings in the pub or days on the golf course were not treating their women as they should, Some women saw encouragement in that at least some of the priests called for men to treat their womenfolk "with respect and honour."
Each and every sermon that was heard and reported back included, usually towards the end, a reminder to women of their duties and obligations. Some "progressive" priests did point out to their congregations that "in the sight of God'we are all equal." A young woman listening to that sermon said she almost danced in the aisle to hear that said from a pulpit. But she was quickly sobered when she was reminded yet again of her "obligations" and her "womanly" qualities that "provide security and loving support for the members of her family."
The fact that a few sermons acknowledged that some women "needed to seek their fulfilment outside the home" was judged to be a small step forward. But the main consensus of opinion from evidence collected was that the only way that the Church (in Ireland at least) could help women at this time was to keep its mouth shut on the subject of women and concentrate its "advice" on getting its menfolk back on the road to giving to women the same concern, good manners and amiability usually reserved in the main for their men friends.
However, the picture here in Ireland is not one of unrelieved gloom. Spending last week in the Gleneree Centre for Reconciliation in County Wicklow, where he was leading a retreat, Fr Daniel Berrigan, the anti-war Jesuit, who was a fugitive from the FBI and served an 18-month prison sentence, took time out from his retreat and his continuing search for deep and basic Christian identity to talk about and ruminate upon wornee's position in the Church today.
He observed there was "oppression in the Church particularly towards women" hut he felt that it would be better for women rather than himself to answer these questions. He thought it would be like asking a white liberal ill the black/white struggle how the black people were faring. It would be better to ask the blacks, But he said what he sensed when he spent a week, before coming to Ireland, with a group of seminarians Catholic, Protestant, black and
white "was a common hunger. They were not getting what they needed from the seminary. It was pushing them into becoming experts in Christianity. But the world wasn't looking for that. There arc enough expert Christians already. The seminaries are cheating them."
Ile is following closely the case of the Episcopalians in America. There, a number of women have already been ordained as priests, and it has caused uproar among Episcopal bishops who strenuously objected. Indeed an Episcopalian minister has already been the subject of a Church trial for aiding and abetting the women. Fr Berrigan sees this as being the "most dramatic" development. "Women have stepped out and said 'I'm going to he a priest.' But the real question the Episcopalian Church is facing and it's an equivalent structure to our own the real question isn't even the priesthood. "It's that these women are going to he bishops, and that's when the
quaking starts. Thais the shadow the hierarchy sees over them, that they will have to move over and not merely make room in the lower echelons where the women would stay.
There are two or three nuns in Ireland whose work is well known and appreciated. But it would be fair to say that the convent population on the whole is given short shrift by many .of the clergy.
So It is ret reining to hear "a priest, albeit an American (Fr Berrigan) saying: "The nuns have been tremendous. They have been at the forefront in the liberation of everybody, far ahead of the priest, and that seems to be a pattern I've noticed in several countries.
"1 had word recently from the Philippines that the Catholic nuns who have been jailed there and are withstanding all this tyranny, are giving an example to everyone, including the priests. And so it goes.
"There is i group of nuns studying quietly in a seminary around Detroit. I was there last term and met them, and they are going through the theological studies. and then they are going to start raising hell about ordination. So this thing is very close to us, also, and thank God it is. Nothing is going to happen except the women bring it about.
"These guys don't yield that kind of power easily, and beyond all that nonsense about tradition and The First Twelve and all the rest of it, what's functioning is fairly simple it's sexism, They don't want women in these positions in the Church."
To most people, Fr Berrigan is a rare phenomenon., certainly he is and has been a controversial figure. But no one can doubt his deep honesty and sincerity, and he brought with him to that already peaceful place in Glencree a sense of hope, of joy, and of going forward.




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