'Claiming our power'

...Perhaps...

...Several women began with the statement, "I am confused on this subject...

...That is what Women-Church Convergence has been about since its inception in 1983...

...That "worship service" had begun with the chanting of the words "I am holy...

...We are "co-responsible with men for the direction of the twenty-first century, just twelve short years away," she said with appropriate urgency...

...The Convergence is a coalition of twenty-five feminist organizations — including the Women's Ordination Conference, Quixote Center Convergence Taskforce, the Grail, Catholics for a Free Choice and a few other organizations housed in the same building in Chicago, plus several organizations of women religious — rooted in the Catholic tradition...

...While new rituals can certainly be invented, as Steinem proposed, the misuse of symbols should not be continued...

...KAREN SUE SMITH Karen Sue Smith is an associate editor of Commonweal...

...the presenters were pro-choice...

...How is it that among those who justly demand recognition of women's moral agency and who cogently assert the immorality of patriarchal systems and institutions, there is such reticence to judge morality in the case of abortion...

...She proclaimed that ours is an inner, God-given authority...

...That rage can be selfdestructive...

...We won't walk them to the abortion clinic though," she said...

...She provided what had been missing in the Saturday evening liturgy, the only liturgy I was able to attend...

...It was a tense moment...

...Doesn't the discipleship of equals require that we be following someONE...

...This Campaign, she said, would add to the exploitation of women...

...I am not speaking about casting a first stone, or about legal recourse, only about the distinctions and criteria that will sooner or later have to be articulated, and should be worked out by Christian feminists, for society's sake...

...This identity of Women-Church as Kane described it will, I hope, hold up under the questions posed afterward by Gloria Steinem, who hinted without elaboration that the word "church" in Women-Church might make some women feel excluded...

...WOMEN-CHURCH 'CLAIMING OUR POWER' DIALOGUE, WORSHIP, & DEVELOPMENT At the same time the world's Catholic bishops gathered in Rome for this year's synod on the laity — where bishops from different lands and cultures have brought up the issue of women in the church's life — more than 2,500 women gathered in Cincinnati, October 9-11, for the annual Women-Church conference...

...One woman who appeared to be in her twenties asked if there weren't some way to prevent abortion, especially since so many abortions are "repeats," a second, third, even a fourth abortion for the same woman...

...I found myself wondering whether such a dialogue could have happened if there had been a significant number of men present, or at a pro-life meeting were pro-choice women to voice their views publicly...

...For each of us I pray for a passionate holy rage...

...Not God, mind you, but "I," not even "we...

...For me, Sister Theresa Kane's closing address on Sunday was a high point...

...No one has power over us except the one we call holy, the divine," she said, uninhibited to name the source of all power and holiness...

...Steinem hoped that the rituals and liturgies expressed here, and new rituals yet to be devised, might be included at every women's meeting to help the "spiritually impaired...

...I saw no one in the room roll her eyes, snicker, become visibly angry, or huff with exasperation...

...ButI wouldn't ever want tojudge any woman . .." Hussey said...

...This question came up during a session called "Faithful Dissent: Life After the New York Times Ad...

...that our vision is the sacramental equality within human relationships...

...It scarcely moved much beyond such sentiments...

...To the New York Times ad signers who may be forced from their vowed communities...

...A friend later stated succinctly what was awry with the entire service: "It seemed to stress the immanent at the expense of the incarnate and transcendent...

...I doubt anyone's opinion was changed one way or another, but the level and openness of discourse was remarkable, worthy of celebration...

...What startled and pleased me was how much respect, honesty, and real listening was going on in that room...

...and the subject is a complex and debatable one...

...a just anger in the face of injustice, not confused with hatred and hostility...

...But what exactly does that mean...

...Of course, women are already representing themselves as church quite apart from the hierarchy, across racial and denominational lines...

...Because I was a college student in the late sixties/early seventies — saw Earth Day come and go, the war protests, a decade of civil rights marches — I am both wary of and attracted to a movement like Women-Church...

...and counseling women after they've had an abortion...

...She had to repeat herself since half the roomful of women could not hear her, and in a louder voice than before, she restated her position...

...In my view, to withdraw from the two-fold project that is Women-Church risks not only changing our identity, but leveling the distinct contributions we are making to the rest of the women's movement...

...It was led by four women religious who signed the 1984 ad calling for dialogue among Catholics on abortion, whose cases are still unsettled with the Vatican...

...It is solely because so many women have persisted in their public call for equality in the church over the last few years that bishops are now espousing the case for equality in Rome...

...Unfortunately, Sister Patricia Hussey responded with an attitude disturbingly close to moral relativism — the kind of sentiment often expressed as "what's right for me," or "what's right for her," implying that any standard is impossible to frame...

...Women-Church cannot afford to avoid developing moral distinctions nor to lose its identity as church...

...I regret I could not have participated in all of the liturgies in order to search the answer to this question more fully through worship...

...Or to those women who remain in the church with the hope of effecting growth toward full equality...

...It was Kane who said,' 'The core of courage is rage...

...Being among thousands of people assembled to hash out complicated problems incessantly for two or three days has never been an enjoyable experience for me But in my ears ring the words of funding for low-income women who have become pregnant through sexual assaults and who choose abortion...

...and that courage and peace must and do inspirit our vision...

...A middle-aged woman told the story of harassment she had witnessed of women trying to enter an abortion clinic...

...Which was followed by the testimony of another woman, identifying herself as pro-life, who described the kind of counseling she is involved in: giving information about alternatives to abortion — never using the word "murder" or pictures of aborted fetuses, etc...

...Finally, Steinem cautioned against martyrdom: "not to murder the God in us...

...There were some irresponsible abortions, Hussey admitted...

...Many of the women were pro-choice...

...But Kane's address set some of my worries in context...

...The two events were not planned to coincide on theme, but one connection is obvious: Catholic women need the bishops to speak on their behalf only because women are not allowed to represent themselves...

...it can murder the God within us, or at least weaken our responsiveness to those people who may not agree with us or who put obstacles in the way of goals we truly believe are right and holy...

...What never was addressed adequately, in my view, and what the women's movement particularly needs to address is how to determine when abortion is moral or immoral once one grants that abortion may not always be evil...

...Upon hearing this, a woman stood up and in a soft voice said she was a mother of five, pro-life, has herself lived in poverty, but "would die before I would kill one of my own...

...The discipleship of equals is what is at stake...

...What did we mean by Women-Church after all...

...And to use bread and wine without any reference to Jesus the Christ, or at least to the Exodus and Passover, caused me confusion about what it was that we were doing...

...To whom was it directed...

...Isn't this the under-belly of Kane's "rage" within courage...

...Every member of the panel responded briefly, taking this woman's views very seriously...

...This incident set a certain tone which, I believe, enabled other women candidly to express their own views, hesitations, or to ask their questions publicly...

...Kane's was not a soft talk, acceptable to me because of her own personal humility or gentleness, though this was palpable and exemplary...