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A Position Paper prepared by a group of American Dominican theologians and presented by fr. Alberto Rodriguez, O.P. to the Bologna Chapter in July of 1998. The Paper had been previously endorsed by the North American Provincials, CIDAL and CODAL.

On the Relation of the Friars of the Order to Women.

1. We urge the General Chapter of 1998 in Bologna to address the issue of the relation of the friars to women in the Order, in the church, and in society. The teaching of Gaudium et Spes : "...any kind of social and cultural discrimination in basic personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language or religion, must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God's design" (' 29) has become more urgent in the years following the Council. The Dominican General Chapter provides a privileged occasion to address both problems and possibilities within the context of the shared charism and mutuality of perspective of male and female members of the Order. As men we are called to listen to and learn from women, both our sisters in the Order and the other women with whom we are associated in life and ministry.

The Order is a rich totality whose health and vigor depend on the solidarity of all the participating parts. We are challenged to appropriate the charism of Dominic in the light of a new age and new pastoral needs so as to express the Order's works of evangelization, theological ministry, pastoral service, contemplative tradition, and spirituality in the contemporary world. We must examine issues related to the changing realities of women and propose actions that respond to the needs and possibilities we see.

2. From the beginning, the Dominican Order has included women and men in the "the holy preaching," which comprised both its mission and its life. The preaching of Jesus was a sacramental synthesis of his word, his deeds, and his person. For Dominic, the idea of the "vita apostolica" was a similar synthesis. For all Dominicans, therefore, this comprehensive sense of witness is essential to our understanding of our ministry. We remember that Dominic first established the monastery of nuns in Prouille and then gathered the friars of the Order in Toulouse. The combination of the apostolic ministry of the preaching friars and the cloistered contemplative life of the nuns was the Order's first valiant mission in response to the Albigensian heresy.

In the development of the living tradition of the Order, active congregations of Dominican women and other baptized lay persons who share the Order's charism expressed the mission of the Order in new apostolic forms. Together these diverse branches of the Order now form the one Dominican family (a term now identical with the Order) bonded together by a shared charism and the mission to preach the Gospel.

In recent years the Order has recognized that the preaching of the Gospel includes action on behalf of justice, peace, and the integrity of creation as a constitutive element of its integrity. The church cannot proclaim to others a justice it does not strive to embody.

For all these reasons, the mission to preach the Gospel in our day impels us to address in word and deed any form of injustice that compromises the Gospel we proclaim, whether that injustice exists within the world, the church, or the Order.

3. As we approach a General Chapter of the Order we acknowledge the global dimensions of Dominican ministry. From all parts of the world we bring with us culturally conditioned experiences that in many respects are widely diverse. Yet there are certain similarities that thread through our varying experiences as we consider the situation of women in our world.

Our perspective is and must be a global one in which we see issues related to women evident in a variety of cultural settings throughout the world. In various cultures of the places where we minister we have witnessed women's work de-valued and under-compensated; their contribution to economic well-being in struggling societies exploited; their children undernourished and physically impaired; their worth as persons denied through selective abortion; their personhood violated in tourist oriented prostitution industries, their fundamental human dignity denied through unexamined biases, archaic cultural practices, and overt domestic and societal violence. There are, however, differing degrees of awareness and concern among diverse cultures and socioeconomic milieux.

The critical issues that face women globally call for awareness and response from an Order that claims Truth as its motto and whose charism of preaching the Gospel demands that we address these pervasive ills honestly and courageously. Each of us can speak to the ways in which we see offenses to the human dignity of women, their subservience in systems of dominance, the impoverishment and economic exploitation of women (along with their children), as counter to the preaching of the Gospel that we claim as our prophetic role as an Order of Preachers.

4. Throughout the world there are initiatives and projects which witness to a new moment in the Order. In the Ukraine, in English-speaking Canada and in North and Latin America, men and women Dominicans are establishing or re-establishing the Order together. Itinerant preaching teams of women and men give missions and retreats. Dominican women collaborate in the intellectual life of the Order as faculty members at the Angelicum and Aquinas Institute as well as in many other theological faculties. In many countries there are days of study and reflection for the whole Dominican family. Some of the nuns in Spain have petitioned to participate in the election of the Master. Women serve on regional committees of Promoters of justice and Peace.

The charism of the Order flourishes in traditional and new forms of life. There are new organizations such as the Dominican Sisters International and Young Dominicans International. Dominican associates are connected with Congregations of Sisters. There are "familiars" of Dominican monasteries as well as lay collaborators in Dominican ministries. Dominican Laity chapters flourish internationally and groups of Dominicans organized by professions, in the tradition of guilds, also manifest the charism of the Order. In some projects, friars respond to the initiatives of their sisters, while in other cases the reverse is true. Often there are joint projects.

While Dominic's charisms bear fruit in an amazing diversity of cultures, ministries and ways of life, the power of a unified witness to the radical equality and solidarity of all believers may be diminished or dissipated by several factors. Clericalism, sexism and elitism can stifle the holy preaching. Some Dominicans still retain the use of the term "Order" exclusively for the friars. The structures of the Order and the relationships between and among the various entities are not clear. At times, there is mistrust, misunderstanding or miscommunication. The educational opportunities and life options available to women, even Dominican women, vary significantly among cultures. What is the call today for our own conversion and prophetic preaching?

5. In the light of these reflections, we propose actions that would assist the Order to respond to the challenges posed above, both to acknowledge a new moment of grace and to take advantage of new possibilities for evangelization and Gospel service. These are some areas in which such action seems called for:

a) The General Chapter should re-examine the Fundamental Constitutions of the Order of Preachers to assure that they include all members of the Dominican Family in all the diversity of the Order's various parts in relation to "the holy preaching."

b) The Chapter should examine whether the terminology of the Fundamental Constitutions assures appropriate inclusion of congregations of active women religious, associate members of Dominican congregations, lay affiliates of various provinces and congregations, collaborators in Dominican ministries, familiars of Dominican convents and monasteries, along with Dominican Laity who are under the direction of the Provinces in membership in the Order.

c) The Chapter should initiate a consultative process with representatives of the above-named entities to propose appropriate changes in the constitutional structure of the Order of Preachers to the General Chapter of 2002. These changes would acknowledge the myriad ways in which the Dominican charism finds expression.

The General Chapter of the Order of 1998 is an opportune moment to promote dialogue with the women of the Order of Preachers for the sake of witnessing to the reality of our shared charism. Only in working together can we address how the Order might witness more fully to the reign of God that we preach. One step in this direction might be for the General Chapter to express its repentance for the Order's past failures to acknowledge the dignity of women and the fruitfulness of women's apostolic labors in the church and world, and to con-unit itself to work against sexism and clericalism in the in the Order, in the church, and in the world. The last General Chapter of the second millennium is an opportune and favorable moment to celebrate the diversity and integrity of an Order whose members include both men and women of all the states of the Christian life.