The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Church to focus on women’s empowerment

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Tuesday, Feb 26, 2008
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Church to focus on women’s empowerment

Staff Reporter

CBCI issues directive for women’s representation in Church bodies.

KOCHI: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) has issued a directive to Church functionaries to take practical steps to empower women and give them sufficient representation in bodies such as advisory and financial committees of the Church.

Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, newly elected president of the CBCI, told presspersons here on Monday that women continued to be suppressed and persecuted in a male dominated society.

Dowry deaths, female foeticides, domestic violence and sexual discrimination have to end and practical steps are needed to raise women to their rightful place in society, the Cardinal said.

He said the spirit of the Bible is equality between men and women and that the Church had tried to carry out its mission in this spirit. It is in this context that the recent CBCI conclave in Jamshedpur discussed the issue of women empowerment.

The discussions were taken up as the Church celebrated the 20th anniversary of ‘Dignity of Women’ (Mulieris Dignitatem), an Apostolic letter from Pope John Paul II.

A statement from the CBCI on the issues at stake said, “It is necessary to mobilise our collective efforts towards elimination of the root causes of discrimination against women.

“Accordingly, we commit ourselves as a body to evolve, within a period of one year from now, a gender policy developed by each regional Bishops’ conference with time-bound action plans for their region with monitoring mechanisms.”

Cardinal Vithayathil said the Jamshedpur meet discussed the alleged violence against Christians in Orissa during Christmas and the controversies surrounding Kerala government’s education policy.

Ready for talks

The Cardinal said the CBCI took note of the violation of fundamental rights involved in the new education legislation brought about in Kerala. He said the Catholic Church had an open mind and that if issues were discussed in an open and free manner these could be resolved.

Reservation issue

The bishops noted that reservation for Scheduled Caste Christians was an issue neglected by all political parties. There were 12 million Dalit Christians in the country and as long as they did not enjoy the benefits of reservation, the country could not boast itself as a country of religious freedom, the Cardinal said .

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