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Pope John Paul II addressed the subject with his 1988 letter On the Dignity of Women, which is quite progressive by Vatican standards. Examining Genesis, the Pope blames Adam and Eve equally for original sin, and says the famous curse "your husband . . . shall rule over you" is not God's will but evidence of humanity's fall into the sinful state. The Pope also declares that in marriage, husbands and wives must be in equal submission to each other.
Conservatives still dislike this week's fourth draft because they oppose calls for inclusive language and local women's commissions, which they see as permanent nests for feminist activism. Liberals are far more infuriated, because the bishops' writing panel backed off on allowing female deacons, much less priests; dropped the assertion that inability to relate well to women should bar a man from the priesthood; and even shelved the declaration that sexism is "sin."
The prevailing view among middle-of-the-road Catholics appears to be that no letter at all would have been better than the tepid lip service embodied in the fourth draft. "It has been revised and qualified into insignificance," says theologian Rausch with a shrug. On the left, Ruth Fitzpatrick, leader of Women's Ordination Conference, finds it "pitiful that after nine years of work, this shoddy piece of paper is the best they can come up with." Feminist Schneiders argues that "you cannot say, 'Sexism is a sin except when we practice it.' Sexual apartheid is not acceptable, and it's not going to get acceptable by explaining it or claiming that it was God's idea."
The Vatican is officially silent on the latest disputes, which it considers a peculiarly Western phenomenon. But a prelate explains that Rome does not want to "blanket everything in the course of everyday life with the charge of sexism." As another Vatican official sees it, sin is concrete, premeditated action, not an ideology: "Americans, under the influence of the feminist community, wanted a broader definition, that merely thinking of women as different from men is sinful." Catholicism, the prelate maintains, "is defining and protecting the value of the feminine -- not the feminist -- in an age when it is under assault." The Vatican feels it has stretched as far as possible to accommodate women.
From the lofty vantage of the Holy See, perhaps, feminism is a faddish outside force that will dwindle one day. But in the U.S., and to a lesser extent in Western Europe, it is an entrenched force in secular society and, increasingly, in Catholic agencies, campuses and parishes. In some liberal Protestant churches, the women's movement is on its way to becoming the single most important influence over how members worship and what they believe.
Given the human-rights preachments that all churches deliver, a good case can be made that accommodation of women's demands is not only just but also essential for the church's well-being. Last week Anglicanism's world leader made just that argument. "We are in danger of not being heard," declared Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, "if women are exercising leadership in every area of our society's life save the ordained priesthood."