Cut From The Wrong Cloth

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IT TOOK AMERICA'S ROMAN CATHOLIC bishops three years to develop a scheme for ending the nuclear arms race. They needed six years to produce a master plan for reforming capitalism. But it has become an unending struggle for the men of the hierarchy to come up with a coherent policy on women to guide their flock of 58 million. The bishops are already into their ninth year of trying to agree on a pastoral letter, and the longer it takes, the more rancorous the debates become. Feminist lobbyists, antifeminist lobbyists, even a few bishops, proclaim the project a disaster and say no letter should be produced.

The latest episode unfolds this week when the U.S. hierarchy meets at the University of Notre Dame. The bishops have set aside a full afternoon to air their views on an 81-page third draft of the proposed letter. As the bishops deliberate, the campus will provide space for a simultaneous gathering of liberal caucuses that are dissatisfied with the church, its all-male priesthood and its reigning Pontiff, John Paul II. The counterconference will feature an ersatz Mass, celebrated by women.

American Catholicism's ongoing struggle between the sexes is complex and contradictory. Consider:

-- Despite all the angry rhetoric from the left and right, a TIME poll of U.S. Catholics by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman shows that women parishioners are remarkably content with their lot. In fact, the women are happier than the men.

-- Nonetheless, the poll also shows continuing and widespread lay dissent on the hot-button issues that affect women, including birth control, divorce, female priests and, to some extent, abortion. Although women favor allowing married priests, they are divided over whether this change would make male clergy more understanding toward women's concerns.

-- While Catholic tradition says females cannot be priests, congregations could not operate without women, who do everything from catechism teaching to worship planning to pastoral counseling. Half of U.S. parishes hire salaried laity or members of religious orders to fill ministerial roles, and fully 85% of them (an estimated 17,000) are women. That does not even count women's continuing dominance in parochial schools.

-- These new roles for women are in accord with church law. But conservatives claim that the "feminization" of the church may be causing the slump in men entering the priesthood. TIME's poll also shows a gender gap in Mass attendance, with women outnumbering men.

-- Religious orders, women's centuries-old power bastion, are gradually disintegrating. The number of U.S. sisters, which reached a high of 180,015 in 1964, dropped to 99,337 this year, the lowest point since at least the 1940s. To survive, orders are seeking part-time women volunteers and considering offering the option of sisters' either taking short-term vows or joining for life.

-- Increasingly, Catholic caucuses pressing for women priests and feminism are allying with those that advocate abortion choice and homosexual liberation. In the long run, this could isolate the women's rights crusade from the Catholic mainstream.