c. 1997 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Roman Catholic bishops from North and South America are wringing their hands over such problems as the impact of non-Catholic faiths on their continents, the role of poor nations’ international debt on their societies and lackluster parish life throughout the hemisphere.

But with only one week remaining in the four-week Synod on America, which will advise Pope John Paul II on the hemispheric issues, one of the most glaring omissions has been women’s aspirations inside the church and in society.

“I’m not sure what I’d attribute the silence to,” said Bishop Gerald Wiesner of Prince George, Canada, in British Columbia. “There are a number of people who have wanted to but haven’t publicly addressed the role of women. They seem reluctant to do so.”

Wiesner was among only a dozen of the more than 200 participants at the meeting to raise his voice about women’s issues in his “intervention,” an 8-minute statement made by bishops and other invited speakers to the synod.

He said he found the absence puzzling, particularly since John Paul encouraged discourse on the topic three years ago at a synod on religious life and in subsequent remarks.

As recently as 1994, John Paul said of the church that “it isâÂ?¦urgently necessary to take certain concrete steps, beginning by providing room for women to participate in different fields and at all levels, including decision making processes, above all in matters which concern women themselves.”

But what John Paul meant _ and how it should be applied _ remains something of a mystery. The 78-year-old pope, for example, has rejected any discussion of women’s ordination.

Likewise, he has not indicated whether the church will permit women to become deacons, or ministers, as they were permitted to do until the sixth century. Many bishops privately favor the readmission of women to the male-only diaconate.

“I don’t want to stand apart and point the finger but I think we continue to take for granted and overlook the role of women,” said Sister Mary Waskowiak, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and one of the few women invited to speak at the synod.

Waskowiak said as much to the pope over dinner in his private apartment with about 10 others attending the conference.

“He asked me what I thought of the synod, and my personal response was I found hope in the fact that bishops and cardinals were talking to one another with the assumption we want greater solidarity,” she said. “However, I expressed concern about missing voices at the synod, those of the poor and women. He nodded when I talked about the poor but didn’t react on the (theme) of women.”

In her synod remarks, Waskowiak proposed greater involvement of women in decision-making processes in the church. And she called for making better use of women “who are skilled at conflict resolution, consensus-building (and) collaborative decision-making in multicultural (and) international arenas.”

Despite the fact that women compose 85 percent of non-ordained ministry and more than half the students in theology programs in the United States, Waskowiak said, “we struggle to have a formal, recognized voice and to make decisions in areas, particularly ecclesial, which concern us.”

Among the U.S. bishops attending the synod, only two have even mentioned the rights of women _ and they did so only in passing.

Cardinal Bernard Law, archbishop of Boston, said the assembly “might underscore” seven issues, one of them “a commitment to follow the Holy Father in championing the role of women in the church and society.”

Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee said the church’s vision should include “the rightful role of women in society and church.” He did not elaborate.

Unlike the U.S. contingent, whose members have spoken on their own behalf, the Canadian and Latin bishops have organized their speeches to reflect the panorama of their countries.

That fact seemed all the more resonant when a Canadian, Bishop Raymond Lahey of Saint Georges, delivered the most direct criticism of the church.

“In the Americas, the church, seen as peripheral to real-life issues, is less rejected than marginalized,” he said. “In turn, the church often attempts to preserve the Gospel rather than communicate it. Many times it simply repeats religious language the culture finds meaningless.”

Lahey said it was time to “dialogue with those estranged” from the church, including “women, on their role in the church and society,” homosexuals, environmentalists who espouse population control and the pro-choice movement. “Dialogue involves risk, and will not be easy. But given the church’s marginalization, there is greater risk in no dialogue.”

Later, in an interview, Lahey said the remarks “address in the most honest way we could the pastoral problems we face as bishops.” He added, “obviously many women do not feel part of the church, and I think there are ways we can and should reach out to women.”

DEA END HEILBRONNER