Impossible, twenty years ago:

...others are not angry but are impatient at the rate of change-but they are all committed...

...They vary in their points of view and their feelings-some are angry with the church...

...And I saw that they were really listening to the women there and making enormous efforts to be open to the various women's groups...

...A letter from a priest to the Catholic newspaper in the diocese from which I write is full of warning...

...The drafting committee will have its work cut out for it at the general meeting of the NCCB this month, when it presents its work for discussion and approval...

...It depends on how the bishops reach their own consensus and how they use their teaching office after that...

...Any minimalization of the diaconate as outside holy orders to protect a male priesthood or to placate women would rightly infuriate permanent deacons, patronize feminists, and be at variance with certain church teachings,'' he wrote...

...The very suggestion that the diaconate might be open to women is viewed by some clergy and laity as getting the camel's nose under the tent...

...We can be sure that many such letters arguing that what applies to the priesthood applies to the diaconate as well are being written and called to the attention of the bishops...

...The bishops' committee held consultations involving over 75,000 women...

...Sometimes we need to look back and take stock...

...The report of the papal commission on religious life, issued last year, noted that there is a spreading concern over the limited possibility of women having any part in the policy and decision making that affects their lives in the church-and that, consequently, many find paths of service other than the religious life...

...The reaction to this draft so far has been quite predictable...

...some see it as the source of comfort and security and want no change...

...It is possible that the final version may be uniting, specific in pastoral solutions of women's concerns, and shot through with a vision of woman in her uniqueness...

...During the intervening years-perhaps because of the outrage expressed by women's groups that an all-male body should, in the quite literal sense, plan to pontificate on the life of women-the letter became a response to the concerns of women in church and society...

...IMPOSSIBLE, TWENTY YEARS AGO 'PARTNERS IN THE MYSTERY OF REDEMPTION' What interests me about the draft letter on women's concerns is, first of all, the learning process it reflects and, secondly, whether the effect of this learning process can be extended to the body of bishops as a whole-and then to American Catholics in general...

...This energy and commitment are a potential gift to the church which all the bishops may come to see and acknowledge...

...Because the draft calls sexism a sin against human dignity and states that it "depersonalizes" women, the ever coolly intemperate Phyllis Schlafly, head of the Eagle Forum, accuses the bishops of "trying to create a new sin, hitherto unknown to the Ten Commandments, the laws of the church, the seven capital sins, and the sacrament of confession...

...Mary Knutson Brabeck, professor of educational psychology at Boston College, who was one of the seven women assisting the committee, describes the thousands of women who took part in the learning process in a way that gives one hope: "It was exciting for me to see so many committed and intelligent Catholic women and the extraordinary energy they are bringing into the church...

...Feminist Sister Mavi Coakley, assistant director of the Center for Educational Design and Communication in Washington, D.C., where the bishops' committee often met, was at first opposed to the group's meeting there at all...

...The pastoral on the economy took note of the injustices to women in the marketplace and confirmed that the poorest of the poor were women...

...That in itself is evidence of goodwill and openness to learning on the part of the drafting committee...

...Ruth Fitzpatrick, coordinator of the Women's Ordination Conference, in a strong statement faulting the bishops for calling for compassion rather than justice, concedes that from her point of view they were "boxed in from the beginning" by official church teaching...

...the draft proposes restudy of the question and urges that a full study of ordaining women as deacons "be undertaken and brought to completion soon...

...There are undoubtedly a number of bishops who feel the same way...

...Will the draft create further division and disunity within the church as some of the conservative women warn...

...Women for Faith and Family called the draft flawed in its methodology and said that it "ignores the real dangers of feminist excesses and the link between feminism and abortion...

...The draft, however, acknowledges that for some women the whole issue of women's rights in the church revolves around ordination...

...Yet can we imagine any bishops giving voice to them even twenty years ago...

...The draft will be rewritten after further discussion and consultation...

...To those in the forefront of the drive for justice and equality, these perceptions may seem long overdue and far from what they hope for...

...There is evidence, too, that a growing consciousness of the concerns and problems of women is more widespread among the bishops than one might think...

...Feminists and a substantial number of press commentators have rejected it out of hand because it repeats the official church teaching on the ordination of women...

...I was against their writing the letter in the first place and I haven't really changed my mind," she said, "but, watching them at work, seeing the problems they had with their fellow bishops, I realized what a struggle they faced...

...The draft, almost six years in the writing, was begun after a letter on women was proposed to the bishops' meeting by Bishop Michael McAuliffe in November, 1982...

...Spokeswomen for the conservative women's groups, judging by their statements so far, are unwilling to give the bishops even that much understanding...