Case #7: The Ministries of Women in the Church
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Descriptive Dimension
Taking Lisa Cahill and the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) as representative of the two main approaches to the issue, how does each describe the problem? Does the CDF judge there to be a problem when it comes to the role of women in the Church?Normative Dimension
What role does the experience of women play in defining what counts as an authentic good for women? How do Cahill and the CDF differ on this? What principles guide each author's interpretation of the authentic good for women? How does Pope John Paul II interpret the good for women?
Practical Dimension
Is there any way to measure what Cahill (citing Rosemary Reuther) calls "the promotion of the full harmony of women"? Recall Ruether saying that "whatever denies, diminishes, or distorts the full humanity of women is, therefore appraised as not redemptive" (214). Who is the arbiter of success in promoting a person's full humanity?
Fundamental Dimension
Is it necessary for one to be able to occupy any of the possible social and leadership roles in a religious community if one is to have true freedom? How does compliance with the judgments of church authority or disagreement with certain of its authoritative judgments contribute to the formation of character?
Sources for Discernment
Focusing on experience as a source for moral knowledge, do you agree with Cahill that the experience of individual women and the social experience of women ought to serve as sources for moral decision making in the church? Would you rank experience as equal to, less important than, or more important than the other sources of moral knowledge we have discussed?
