February 29, 2008

Indian Catholics set quotas to empower women

The national assembly of India's Roman Catholic bishops has announced steps to empower women in the church and in society, a move welcomed by a nun who plays a key role in the Indian church.

The February 13-20 assembly of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India resolved to reserve a minimum of 35 per cent of seats in diocesan and parish councils for women. The bishops also approved the appointment of women as professors and spiritual counsellors in theological colleges, which are dominated by priests, who have to be males in the Catholic Church.

The steps were recommended at the twice-yearly assembly of Indian bishops at Jamshedpur in eastern Jharkhand state, where authorisation was also given "to mobilise our collective efforts towards the elimination of the root causes of discrimination against women".

"This is a great step forward and a victory for the women," Sister Lilly Francis Poovelil, executive secretary of the CBCI women's commission, told Ecumenical News International on February 26.

The new steps "would help pave the way for greater recognition of women in the church", noted Poovelil, who belongs to the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate congregation. The nun has been coordinating the work of the CBCI women's commission for three years.

The declaration from the bishops' assembly also noted that the church should "strengthen institutional mechanisms, such as the commission for women, with adequate personnel and finances at all levels of the church, to inspire, motivate, coordinate and monitor" the empowerment of women.

Women still face heavy discrimination in Indian society, which has a deep-rooted gender bias as reflected in the fact that in the country there are 930 women for every 1000 men, and by what is believed to be widespread female feticide. The government has acknowledged that female feticide explains what has been called the "10 million missing girls" during the last 20 years, and that thousands of women have been murdered for failing to meet the dowry demands of their in-laws.

Pooveli said that with the Catholic bishops' assembly also mandating the 12 regional bishops' councils to frame guidelines for the empowerment of females locally, women in India could look forward to a greater role in the Indian church.

A survey conducted among Catholic women in India, including nuns, ahead of the bishops' assembly found that of the 871 respondents, only 21 per cent believed that the church was contributing "to a great extent" to the empowerment of women. While 41 per cent of the respondents described the church as making a contribution "to some extent", another 20 per cent said the church had done "very little" for the empowerment of women.