Letters

Nothing to do? (letter)

Frank Mobbs

Contents - May 2000 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference - Michael Gilchrist Australian Catholic University student survey - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World How do we know whether a sacrament is valid or not? - Fr Peter Joseph The priesthood: John Paul II's Holy Thursday Letter sets guidelines - Pope John Paul II What are the foundations of a good Catholic education? - Dr. John J. Haldane Understanding the Incarnation - Msgr Peter J. Elliott Books: Francis Thompson: author of 'The Hound of Heaven' - Michael Daniel How the future John Paul II saved a Jewish girl's life - Zenit News Service Letters: Women's report: a reply (letter) - Dr Marie McDonald Letters: Nothing to do? (letter) - Frank Mobbs Letters: More on Adelaide (letter) - Margret E. Mills Letters: Women in the Church (letter) - Marie Kennedy Letters: 'Day of Pardon' (letter) - Paul MacLeod Letters: Reply to Fr Frank Brennan (letter) - Richard Egan Letters: God's love (letter) - Justin Ford Letters: EWTN visit (letter) - Mike Keating Letters: Mixed marriages (letter) - John Schmidt Letters: Archbishop Pell defended (letter) - Fr Kevin Ryan Letters: Year of the Lord (letter) - Fr Chrysostom Alexander Books: 'Three Inns of Everlasting Happiness' by Fr Fabian Duggan - Catherine Sheehan (reviewer) Books: 'The Wisdom of Adrian Fortescue' ed. Michael Davies - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: 'The Legacy of Pope John Paul II' ed. Geoffrey Gneuhs - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: 'The Ever-Illuminating Wisdom of St Thomas Aquinas' by Peter Kreeft et al - Tracey Rowland (reviewer) Reflection: Mary's divine motherhood: central to God's plan of salvation - Sr Mary Augustine Lane OP

I must say I am envious. An Implementation Committee has been appointed by the Australian Bishops' Conference to consider measures for implementing recommendations contained in Woman and Man, the report on women's roles in the Church. The Committee consists of six bishops and five women consultors.

I am envious because I have not been appointed as a consultor to any committee which has nothing to do.

What on earth will it do? The commonest demand of the women who were experiencing "pain and grief" was for power (although delicately expressed as as a demand to be involved in decision-making).

Seeing that the bishops run the Church, and seeing that women's chances of becoming bishops are somewhat remote, one wonders what other positions with some power are available to women.

Plenty. And already women have these positions. They are superiors of religious orders, chief administrators of Catholic hospitals, directors of Catholic Education Offices, professors of theology in Catholic universities and seminaries, canon lawyers, chancellors of dioceses, principals of some of the largest schools in the nation. In the liturgy they have the same roles as lay males.

There is nothing better than being on a committee which has nothing to do. No wonder I resent being overlooked.

FRANK MOBBS
Gosford, NSW

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 13 No 4 (May 2000), p. 14