Shed Prejudice Women’s Leadership
Title: Cardinal Gracias: Church must ‘shed prejudice’ against women’s leadership
Author: Joshua J. McElwee
Publisher: National Catholic Reporter
Date: 24FEB2020
VATICAN CITY — One of the six members of Pope Francis’ advisory Council of Cardinals has acknowledged a bias among the members of the Catholic Church’s all-male hierarchy against giving women more leadership roles, saying he and his peers must “shed this prejudice.”
In an NCR interview, Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias called himself a “convert” to the cause of women seeking more opportunities for responsibility in the global institution.
Mentioning women throughout the world “who are doing so much” for the church, the cardinal said women “want an apostolate, want to work for evangelization, want to give leadership in the church parish community.”
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“We have not applied our mind to it,” said Gracias, adding: “I admit there’s been a prejudice against giving them greater responsibility, and we must shed this prejudice.”
“I hope we are able to examine carefully, discuss carefully how they can have greater responsibility,” the cardinal continued, before quickly correcting his choice of words.
“Responsibility, they have,” he said. “But there’s no recognition for the responsibility they have. They are really doing so much. But I think there should be recognition, which is their right.”
Gracias, the archbishop of Mumbai, was speaking in a half-hour interview Feb. 21 at the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta. It followed the Feb. 17-19 meeting of the Council of Cardinals, which is primarily helping Francis reorganize the Vatican’s sprawling bureaucracy.
For more information visit: https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/cardinal-gracias-church-must-shed-prejudice-against-womens-leadership