The big news out of the Vatican last weekend was the release of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's long-awaited document on feminism, titled "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World."
My story appeared on the NCR Web site (NCRonline.org) July 31: Vatican document rejects combative feminism, seeks 'active collaboration' for men and women
For readers seeking to grapple with the deeper issues raised by the document, I commend two essays posted to the NCR web site. One, by Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister, is nuanced but critical (Since when did women become the problem?); the other, by Pia de Solenni, a moral theologian who works as the Director of Life and Women's Issues at the Family Research Council, is more positive (Now the conversation can begin).
I did a bit of broadcast on this story, and here's what general-interest observers seemed to want to know.
o Why now?
As I said on National Public Radio, any other organization on earth would be embarrassed to issue a response to a cultural phenomenon (in this case, "radical feminism") that by now is more than 40 years old. Yet this is the Vatican, where one thinks in centuries. The conviction, for better or worse, is that ideas have a long shelf life, and perhaps bad ideas most of all. The CDF and its theological advisors believe that the toxins let loose by feminism are still at work in the culture, such as growing acceptance of homosexuality. Hence it is a mistake to look for any recent event as a trigger for the document, such as the Massachusetts gay marriage law. It really is what it purports to be, i.e., a meditation on feminism that has been a long time in the works.
o What do they mean by "radical feminism?"
The drafters of the document see feminism in its most radical form, usually associated with North America, as Marxism under another guise. In other words, its aim, as Vatican critics see it, is to promote class struggle between men and women, on the assumption that the emancipation of women necessarily must be achieved at the expense of men. Further, this Marxist-feminism posits that in order for women to gain equality they must deny their differences from men, which leads to suppression of "the feminine genius" and confusion about gender. Whether this understanding corresponds to any actual version of feminism is a matter of debate.
o Were any women involved in drafting the document?
Yes. There is one woman who works full-time in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Belgian theologian Marie Hendrickx, who presented the pope's apostolic exhortation "On the Dignity of Women" to the press in 1988. Hendrickx gained a fleeting fame in January 2001 when she published an article in L'Osservatore Romano criticizing cruelty to animals, citing the modern food industry and bullfighting. Beyond Hendrickx, I'm told by Vatican officials that a number of female Catholic theologians and philosophers were consulted over the course of the roughly seven years of work on the text. Obviously, the choice of which women to consult reflected a sense of the desired conclusion.
o Does this mean Ratzinger is running the church?
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the German theologian who since 1981 has been the pope's doctrinal czar, was already the man many people regard as the Svengali behind the aging John Paul II, and the new document has fueled such speculation. Alas, reality is more prosaic. First, there has been no "coup," and in the big picture sense, John Paul II is still setting the tone. Second, as the pope ages, more and more of his capacity to make decisions at the level of detail is indeed slipping away, but it is not transferred to any single eminence grise. Instead it gets fractured across a number of senior aides, mostly in their areas of competence. Hence Ratzinger is more autonomous to make doctrinal decisions, but so is Cardinal Walter Kasper to make decisions on ecuminism, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo on foreign policy, and Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald on interreligious dialogue. We're in a moment in which Vatican offices are operating relatively independently, both of one another and of direct papal supervision. Thus Ratzinger is running the CDF, but the Vatican, to say nothing of the Catholic church, is another matter.
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Speaking of Ratzinger, the Los Angeles Times asked me to write an op/ed piece on his impact, using the feminism document as a point of departure. The piece is in the Aug. 6 print issue and available here: The Blunt Hard-Liner at Pope John Paul's Side (You have to register to access the site, but registration is free).
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