Women Can Secure a Voice in Church Policy

by Letters Editor · May 14, 2015

From Father Bonaventure Hinwood OFM, Pretoria

Colleen Constable in her thought-provoking article �How women can solve the Church�s ministry crisis� (April 15), with which I substantially agree, makes two points which I would like to take further.

The SACBC on their Ad Limina visit to Rome. (Photo: www.SACBC.org.za)

She wrote: �There is overwhelming evidence that including women in key roles of leadership contributes to organisational effectiveness and good decision-making.�� She also mentions a need for two commissions to investigate various aspect of possible women�s involvement in ministry.

In neither case, however, does she say by whom and how they could be brought into existence.

If we take these two issues together, the only competent body for making the necessary policy formulations is the Southern African Catholic Bishops� Conference (SACBC) in plenary session. I say designedly �policy formulations� and not �decisions�, because each bishop is the decision-maker for his own diocese, and cannot be overruled by the plenary session.

The SACBC�s statutes, by-laws and standing orders (2005), which are in line with a decree of the Pontifical Commission for the Interpretation of the Decrees of Vatican II, state in number 5.6: �It shall be in order for the Conference, through its administrative board, to invite non-members to attend meetings of the plenary session�. The ordinary members, with voting rights, are the bishops.

In terms of this provision, women have been invited in the past to attend plenary session meetings as a one-off when particular issues were under discussion.

There is, however, nothing in the provision quoted above which imposes this restriction. As I read it, there is nothing to prevent the bishops deciding to invite a certain number of women to attend plenary session meetings on a permanent basis, with the right to take part fully in all discussions, but without voting rights, which are restricted to the bishops.

This would meet Ms Constable�s concern about women having a voice in the leadership of the Church in South Africa. It would also mean that women would be able to have a say in any commissions of enquiry which may be considered useful by the plenary session, and how they are to be made up.

Naturally this does not prevent women being involved in decision-making bodies in the diocese and parish, as is already happening in some places, but it does secure for women a voice in formulating policy for the whole country.