The Ordination of Roman Catholic Women:
Belgium

by Odette d’Ursel

New Woman, New Church, New Priestly Ministry

Proceedings of the Second Conference on the Ordination of Roman Catholic Women
November 1978, Baltimore, U.S.A. pp 76 -82.
Published on our website with permission of the Women's Ordination Conference

Odette D’Ursel, currently completing a Ph.D. in theology at the University of Louvain, has been a leader in the women’s ordination movement in Western Europe and was among the first people to publish a dissertation on the topic. She is associated with Pro Munda Vita and Femmes et Hommes dans L’Elise.

Dear Friends,

I am delighted to be among you, though I must admit to being somewhat taken aback at the numbers present.

I was asked to take the place of my Dutch friend. Tine Halkes, who suffered an accident. I am glad to say she is now on her way to recovery. She asked me to give the whole conference her warm and cordial greetings. What I offer you are the facts I have collected on non-ordained ministries exercised by Catholic women in France, the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as the opinions I have been able to gather about their wish for priestly ordination.

Let me emphasize about ordination of women, that most committed Catholic women in these three countries seem presently more concerned with obtaining more important pastoral functions than with a fight for ordination itself. However respectable may be the call to the ordained ministry felt by certain women who have no connection with a definite community, I have taken into account only the opinions of women who are personally active in some ecclesial ministry.

I begin our survey with France; and must point out the difficulty encountered in getting information from official authorities regarding the responsibilities exercised by women in that country. First, public official recognition as duly instituted ministers has been granted to two women: one a lay women of Paris (in 1974) who shared parish pastoral tasks with a team of priests; and the other (in 1977), a religious whose ministry is “to welcome people and to proclaim the Word of God.” Because of the danger that a new form of hierarchy might arise from such ceremonies (with imposition of hands by the bishop), people now speak more simply of mandates given for particular tasks.

Regarding catechesis, in some places women take on 90 percent of the responsibility. There has been a rapid increase in the number of non-confessional educational establishments (lycees) where the spiritual care of pupils (“the chaplaincy”), formerly a priestly task, is now entrusted to women. In ten dioceses — three of them in the Paris region — general responsibility for catechesis was, in 1977, shouldered by women. Along the same lines, near Paris, a woman religious has taken on the responsibility for the training of adults and the “recyclage” of priests. On the parish level, since 1973, a number of women religious have been exercising the ministry of assistant pastor, but that is exceptional. It generally amounts to taking joint charge of sectors that lack priests, just as non-eucharistic Sunday celebrations with distribution of communion are undertaken by mixed teams of laity. In one diocese near Lyon, and another in Normandy, the organization of the Christian community has been entirely entrusted to parishioners who have no resident priest: they have Mass once a month and on the other Sundays women and men in turn lead the community in prayer, comment on Holy Scripture and distribute communion.

Two other typical examples: one Parisian parish has been officially entrusted to a team of five priests, seven laypersons (- married men and women -) and one woman religious. A married woman welcomes the couples engaged to be married. In Normandy for the past three years, another team (two priests, two young girls and one woman religious) is responsible for the spiritual life of a wide rural sector with 7,500 inhabitants. A very special ministry has been given to a woman religious in a village in the French Alps, where there is no resident priest: her job is to “ensure the Church’s presence” — she welcomes in the course of a year some 5,000 visitors to the 12th-century abbey that was reopened thanks to her efforts. This affords her the opportunity of a many-sided “diaconia” that is on the way to being recognized: different kinds of celebrations, preparing people for the sacraments, giving retreats, and so forth. At the level of families, three couples have been mandated “to the spiritual service of the Church of Jesus Christ among the gypsies and the travelling people,” while many other couples are in charge of preparing people for marriage in their respective dioceses. Some women are members of the episcopal council in two dioceses of the Paris district, and probably in others too, though I have no certain details.

Finally, I would like to mention the national congress of the 50,000-strong, “Action Catholique Generale Feminine” (ACGF) being held this month in Paris. It is probably going to have much to say about serious commitment at the level of concrete ministries.

I turn now to the Netherlands, the country most in the forefront where women are concerned. It should be remembered that Catholics are less numerous there than Protestants. They number 40.1% of the total population.

In June 1973, the Dutch episcopal assembly asked a commission to report on “the place of women in pastoral service.” From this came the decision to create the position of “women pastoral workers.” These “pastoraal werksters” would be duly trained with a view to working in a team alongside priests in the service of parishes. In the Netherlands, at present, there are 20 active women pastoral workers, eight of whom have Master’s degrees in theology. Another twenty-two, while still in training, are already working half-time in parishes. Three of them are laypersons. On the liturgical front, they see to the celebration of Sunday Mass, do the reading, give the sermon, and distribute communion. When there is no priest available, they organize and lead the whole Sunday service, except for the prayer of consecration. In central Holland, a mandate has been given to a woman to serve three parishes that have no priest. These “pastoraal werksters” have many other pastoral tasks, including home visits to the sick.

As part of her work as a pastoral worker, a nun preaches retreats. In one of the seven Dutch dioceses, a woman pastoral worker is in charge of the Centre that looks after parishes and the formation of cadres. Four others have taken on responsibility for district catechesis and a fifth is being trained to this end. In the Netherlands, the whole of catechesis is ensured by women. This training of the young is all the more important, since there is hardly any confessional youth movement, apart from Pax Christi and scouting groups.

There is one striking example of pastoral worker commitment; a young woman and her husband who are responsible for Catholic religious broadcasts on a Dutch TV and radio station. In that country, where TV and radio are private organizations, the Churches get an amount of broadcasting time that corresponds to the amount of the voluntary contributions of their followers: in 1978, Catholics thus have a right to 54 hours of TV broadcasting and two hundred hours on the radio. It is from the parish where this woman and two priests are in charge that Mass is televised two Sundays out of three. One woman who is the mother of four grown children shares with male professors the pastoral supervision of students in the Faculty of Theology at one of the universities. Besides that, she teaches on “Feminism and Christianity.” I should mention that in one Dutch diocese at least, all the parish councils have 50 per cent women members.

One last note: I would point out as typical the variety of opinions about women being ordained among fourteen women pastoral workers, who attended a meeting; four would like to be ordained priests, three wanted to remain laypersons, and seven were indifferent about the option.

In the Flemish-speaking dioceses of Belgium, on the level of official appointments, the position of women is advanced. In 1971, two years before the Roman Commission on the same subject, a research group was asked by the Flemish interdiocesan pastoral centre to study cooperation between women and men in Church and Society. Thus, it published a remarkable report on the topic; whereas ecclesial practice ought to be a dynamic example for society, lack of progress was reported. Realistically, it noted also the need for a change of mentality in Christian communities regarding women’s capacities.

Since then, many pastoral workers have been trained and given mandates for varied tasks carried out in teams. Almost 79 per cent of these are women. In one of the five Flemish dioceses, where training takes 500 hours over a four-year period, twenty-five women (including eighteen women religious) have been officially assigned to the parish to care for the sick, teach, or work among the youth.

One of the Flemish-speaking episcopal councils has two women on it. In a very big Flemish town, a lay psycho-sociologist president of the pastoral council runs the meetings of vicars-general and meetings of priests and laity. In most Flemish-speaking dioceses, the church leaders are clearly anxious to entrust more and more important ministerial tasks to women. One of them told me he thought it was the best way to prepare women for the possibility of ordained ministry, but that he thought it pointless to insist overmuch at this moment. This opinion seems to be shared by most Flemish women pastoral workers.

In dealing with the French-speaking vicariat of Brussels, I shall simply mention points that are different.

General responsibility for school and parish catechesis is entrusted to a sister, pastoral home-care of the sick to another, and the pastoral care of youth to a young laywoman.

Five pastoral teams, 50 percent of the members being women, have been given joint care of parishes, and ten others are on the way to similar recognition. Care of couples and families belongs to one particular couple and a laywoman is officially mandated to run a reception centre for people who want to solve their problems. A woman and priest are jointly in charge of the adult catechumenate and a team of parents has been appointed to see to the spiritual care of non-confessional teaching establishment (since 1965).

The important appointment of two women to another pastoral sector is about to be made: that of canonical visits to women’s convents. Also, three women are entitled to speak and vote on the French-speaking council of the vicariate of Brussels.

In the French-speaking dioceses outside Brussels, some parishes without a priest are being run by groups of religious or lay persons. The “chaplaincy” of the Catholic girl guides is to be entrusted to a woman in two different dioceses.

The stress seems to be above all on the training of people to lead communities. An experiment underway since 1976 has as its purpose the deepening of adult faith among those who are already committed within the parish framework or else some socio-cultural, socio-political or socio-professional activity. As part of each team working together over a period of three years, there are two animators, a man and a woman, one more concerned with relations and the other with the expression of faith in the group. A second experiment aims at developing a Christian outlook on life among people 18 to 25, who meet in mixed groups, with a similar pattern.

The year 1967 saw the start, in French-speaking Belgium, of a project that is undoubtedly unique, the Cardinal Cardyn seminary. Behind this undertaking was the wish not to cut off blue-collar working men who wanted to be priests from their own particular milieu. At first, the training took place in an enclosed set-up, but circumstances led those in charge to allow candidates to train and work at the same time. Circumstances also led them to associate with this training such men and women as wanted to take on responsibility for keeping the faith alive in the French-speaking Belgium of tomorrow. They continue to work full-time, but they have a whole day’s meeting once a month, which is prepared for by personal work and by regional sub-groups, all taking care to start from problems of real life. Every year, they have Bible weekends. At present, there are twenty groups scattered throughout French-speaking Belgium, totalling 300 people, half of whom are women. They prepare themselves to be in some way or another leaders of Christian communities of the future. Some of these women would like to be ordained. By now, about thirty men have become priests out of this unique seminary.

The foregoing facts show that some Catholic women are beginning to take on important ecclesial responsibilities in France, the Netherlands and Belgium. Some have theological training equal or superior to that required for the ordination of priests. Their number is increasing. For instance:

-at the Institut Catholique in Paris, there were 212 laypersons on the roll for a degree in 1976; about two-thirds were women

-at the Catholic University of Louvain, in the Flemish section, there were 88 women students registered for the religious or theological sciences in 1974. Last year, they numbered 198. In the French-speaking section, 26 women students registered for religious or theological science in 1977.

-In the Netherlands, an important score of women have degrees in theology; some forty or so are working for that degree and many others have a training in religious science.

It is important to mention as well the basic training acquired by many European women, in the three countries studied, via Catholic Action movements or courses and conferences. The JOC (young Catholic workers movement) founded by the future Cardinal Cardyn, played a remarkable role in Belgium in “awakening” Catholic working women “to the word.” The theological qualifications of more and more women could play a role in the question of access to ordained ministry, as was the case in the Protestant Churches of Switzerland in 1919.

Nevertheless, Europe is very much influenced by the past. That is why many Europeans think it will be some time before Catholic women will achieve ordination. But, to reach that stage, let me end this talk in pointing out three fields for action:

1) On the intellectual level, there is the theological and pastoral formation of Catholic women and their contribution to theological and exegetical research.

2} The second field is at the level of real life, and involves, on one hand, emphasizing the concrete abilities of women in various ministries and, on the other hand, joint reflection by both sexes at all levels on pastoral praxis and the decisions to be made at the level of structures. The Church of tomorrow is in slow process of being born. It is important that women take part with men in nurturing this growth.

3} The third field would seem to be the most important, namely, that of the acceptance of women in priestly ministry by the People of God. Such acceptance must be obtained from the authorities and also from the grass roots.

At the level of structures, women’s competence to embark upon pastoral care or research is perhaps what can best prepare the ground.

At the level of the laity, this reception is doubtless even more necessary. The example of Lutheran Sweden shows it. Let us remember that in 1958, after years of beating about the bush, the decision to ordain women was accepted all of a sudden by the hierarchy, before the Lutheran community was ready to accept that decision. Hence, sad and regrettable reactions, even in the long term.

It seems to me fundamental to gradually make the Catholic world alive to the question. The impact of the different ministries already assumed by women can also have a great influence on their acceptance in the Church of tomorrow: the wish to see women ordained must become manifest in the communities themselves. The mass media can greatly contribute to the preparation of public opinion. Along this line, the Baltimore Conference is of importance. Some of the women committed in ministry are finding that their inability to celebrate eucharistically the life of their group, or sacramentally reconcile people with God is a serious limitation to their pastoral work. This leads directly to an increasing wish for presbyteral ordination.

Let me end by mentioning the reflection of a very committed woman: “In my opinion, it will be at least six years before the ordination of women becomes a reality; but that does not prevent me from going from time to time to knock at the door of my bishop to ask for that ordination.”

May the Lord hear her soon. That is what we want, isn’t it?

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