International Women's Day

[Kenneth Hyde]

On 17 Mar, 2006, at 9:53 AM, Luis Gutierrez wrote:

> NB: I am a religious person myself (Catholic).  The problem is not  
> religion per se.  The problem is organized religion structured as  
> religious patriarchies.  For example, how many women do we have, in  
> the Roman Catholic Church, in roles of religious authority?  Zero.   
> Why? Because only men can be ordained to the priesthood.

While I'm not going to argue with the basic premise here (I agree  
that there needs to be a larger number of women in positions of  
religious leadership), I would like to point out that there are many  
women who are in positions of leadership and power within the  
Catholic church: the mothers superior of the various convents.   
Historically, some of these women have wielded enough power to affect  
church policy and doctrine.  While the current picture within the  
Catholic Church is fairly bleak, let's not make it worse than it  
already is by ignoring the bright lights that do exist.

Ken