Word: sexism
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...American Catholic bishops gathering in Washington. For nine years they have tried to produce a coherent document on women to straddle the demands of conservatives in Rome and of feminists in the U.S. At issue is everything from whether women can serve as priests or deacons to whether sexism is "sin." Among the characterizations of the bishops' efforts: "almost laughable" (from the angry left), "an embarrassment" (from the angry right). The document has been diluted so thoroughly that reformers hope that the hierarchy will throw it out and start all over again...
...permanent nests for feminist activism. Liberals are far more infuriated, because the bishops' writing panel backed off on allowing female deacons, much less priests; dropped the assertion that inability to relate well to women should bar a man from the priesthood; and even shelved the declaration that sexism...
...qualified into insignificance," says theologian Rausch with a shrug. On the left, Ruth Fitzpatrick, leader of Women's Ordination Conference, finds it "pitiful that after nine years of work, this shoddy piece of paper is the best they can come up with." Feminist Schneiders argues that "you cannot say, 'Sexism is a sin except when we practice it.' Sexual apartheid is not acceptable, and it's not going to get acceptable by explaining it or claiming that it was God's idea...
...Vatican is officially silent on the latest disputes, which it considers a peculiarly Western phenomenon. But a prelate explains that Rome does not want to "blanket everything in the course of everyday life with the charge of sexism." As another Vatican official sees it, sin is concrete, premeditated action, not an ideology: "Americans, under the influence of the feminist community, wanted a broader definition, that merely thinking of women as different from men is sinful." Catholicism, the prelate maintains, "is defining and protecting the value of the feminine -- not the feminist -- in an age when it is under assault...
...Organize or join a group of men to work against sexism and violence...