Vatican hits sour note with women, but progress may come

VATICAN CITY -- A new Vatican outreach initiative to listen to women hit a sour note before it got off the ground: The sexy blonde on its Internet promo video came under such ridicule, it was quickly taken down.

But the program is going ahead, and an inaugural meeting this week will study women's issues in ways that are new for the Holy See.

No, there is no talk of ordaining women priests.

But the working paper for the Pontifical Council of Culture's plenary assembly on "Women's Cultures: Equality and Difference" speaks about opening the church's doors to women so they can offer their skills "in full collaboration and integration" with men.

It denounces plastic surgery as a form of "aggression" against the female body "like a burqa made of flesh." And it acknowledges the church has for centuries offered women "ideological and ancestral leftovers."

This is dangerous territory for the all-male Catholic Church hierarchy, as even Pope Francis has faced criticism for being a bit tone deaf as far as women are concerned.

The pontiff has praised the "feminine genius." But he also has elicited cringes, such as when he welcomed female members of the church's most prestigious theological commission as "strawberries on the cake." And when asked whether a woman might someday lead a Vatican office, he joked: "Pastors often wind up under the authority of their housekeeper!"

The latest initiative comes courtesy of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, whose first foray into women's issues was a flop -- at least in the English-speaking world.

Just before Christmas, his office launched the #lifeofwomen crowdsourcing initiative to promote the Feb. 4 to 7 plenary meeting and invite women around the globe to send in a 60-second video of their lives for possible inclusion in a montage to be screened at the "big meeting of cardinals and bishops."

In the video, Italian actress Nancy Brilli -- buxom, albeit in a modest blue top -- asked her viewers how often they ask themselves, "Who are you? What do you do? What do you think about yourself as a woman?"

The criticism was swift and harsh. "What were they thinking at the Vatican?" wrote Phyllis Zagano of Hofstra University in the liberal National Catholic Reporter.

The English version of Brilli's promo was yanked, though the Italian remains on the ministry's website at tinyurl.com/qf98z73.

In the end, about 250 videos were sent in. A good number came from activists advocating for women's ordination.

Consuela Corradi, a sociologist at Rome's Catholic Lumsa university, was one of 15 women who advised Ravasi on the initiative. She complained that criticism of the video was unfair.

"If we had chosen an ugly woman, would that have changed the message? I don't think so," she said. She said the women consultants were entirely responsible for penning the working document, with no interference from the ministry, though she said their document was trimmed for length.

It remains unclear, however, what will come of it. Often such working drafts become the basis for a final document that is adopted by the full membership of a Vatican office at the end of a plenary meeting. Ravasi, though, hasn't said what he'll do with it.

Helen Alvare, a law professor at George Mason University and a consultant at the Vatican's laity office, said the language in the draft paper was remarkable given that it calls for "collaboration and integration" with men within the church. She said that mirrors findings from leading business consultancies that companies do better when men and women collaborate at every level.

"That statement is the strongest endorsement I have seen in a church document for what we sometimes call complementarity within the church," she said.