INDIA
National Catholic Reporter
March 20, 2020
By Astrid Lobo Gajiwala
Cardinal Oswald Gracias’ recent NCR interview has not gone down well with Indian Catholic women.
While it is refreshing to hear the archbishop of Bombay, and president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, or CBCI, admit, without evasion, that there has been a bias against giving women more leadership roles in the church, and that it is time the male hierarchy “shed this prejudice,” it is also disconcerting to learn that he is a recent convert to the cause of women.
For Indian women who have been advocating for women’s rights in the church since the 1980s, the cardinal’s comment seems like a denial of all their efforts, and raises serious doubts about their credibility.
How is it possible for someone who is a member of a bishops’ conference that instituted a women’s commission in 1992, and is the only conference in the universal church to issue a gender policy, way back in 2010, to claim to become convinced only in 2019, about the need for women’s leadership?
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