A Catholic womens reform organization has surveyed 23 of the nations 146 Roman Catholic dioceses and found that while women may be getting upfront, or public, roles, when you look behind the scenes, women are meeting barriers.It is behind closed doors where women face the most daunting barriers in Catholic education, on diocesan advisory boards and in diocesan employment settings, the report said. (womensjusticecoalition.org). In The Report Card Project, an annual undertaking, the coalition issued grades from A to F in various areas, based on what they found out in the 23 dioceses chosen and responding. Dioceses were not identified.Pope Benedict XVI has said that it is theologically and anthropologically important for women to be at the center of Christianity, but our study shows that women are relegated to the margins when it comes to positions of influence within the Catholic Church, said Professor Susan Farrell, a lead analyst of the report. Weve issued an F to the dioceses when it comes to representation of women in religious education and a D in hiring women for top jobs. Farrell is associate professor of sociology and coordinator of the sociology area in the Behavioral Sciences and Human Services Department at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York.The study found that while women are the majority in the pews, relatively few hold seats on diocesan councils, in seminary faculty chairmanships or in decision-making offices. With the release of this report, were working so that Catholic women have a seat at the table, not just in the pews, said Rea Howarth, coordinator or the coalition. She calls on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to address the inequalities.There were As for bright spots: 1) providing tuition assistance and scholarships for both men and women preparing for lay ministry; 2) including both genders in the Mass as Eucharistic ministers and lectors at cathedral liturgies. And some B grades: 1) girls participation as altar services at cathedrals; 2) including women in the ritual foot-washing ceremony of Holy Thursday; 3) women serving on diocesan pastoral councils (42 percent); and 4) dioceses having grievance procedures for employees.The failing grade was given for: 1) woefully offering seminary education about the scriptural and theological foundations for the equality of women and roles of women in the church; 2) the number of women teaching in seminaries (29 percent of faculties); 3) paucity of female faculty teaching the most important seminary courses; 4) the lack of teaching on the history of women in the church at the middle school and high school levels; 5) how women are selected for the diocesan pastoral council; 6) how women are selected for the Catholic Charities boards; 7) how women are selected for the diocesan finance councils; whether dioceses have offices on womens concerns; 9) having offices for a range of minority groups; and 10) having a grievance procedure for employees. The coalition wraps it up with some pointed comments. Here are a few:n When the institutions training future priests fail to expose them to competent women in positions of authority and as colleagues, it is not only unjust, but it sends a message about the competence of womenn Too many Catholics still believe that the church is incapable of change. Roman Catholicism is not fundamentalist or we would still be arguing that the earth is the center of the universe and that Jews were responsible for Jesus crucifixion. The failure to adequately educate Catholics about the history of women in the early and medieval church denies Catholics a more mature understanding of Catholicism.n Regarding womens participating in roles in the Mass, the bishops have gotten the message, having made enormous progress in terms of incorporating women in their liturgical celebrations.n There remains an old boys club environment on finance councils. If bishops limit their appointments to successful men form the business world, they will merely reinforce the discrimination that continues to occur in the private business sector.n The surveys tell us the bishops are promoting women to upper management, just not in numbers equal to men in these offices.

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