Underground Movement : Some Catholic Women Celebrate Feminism

Ten women gathered on a Sunday morning in an apartment in Los Angeles’ Los Feliz neighborhood to pray. They sat around the living room and took turns reading passages from the Bible and feminist literature. Two women blessed white wine and French rolls. They shared the meal, prayed in silence, hugged each other and broke for coffee.

For these Catholic women, the ceremony replaced the Mass. They are part of an underground movement generally known as Women-Church, a name coined in 1983 by feminist Catholics. They are women disaffected by the maleness of the church who gather for services that resemble the Mass in format only. Most of the readings, music and prayers are written by women about women.

“I have always felt alienated by the strong masculine messages in the ritual in the Catholic Church--altar boys, men as celebrants and then the references to fathers, brothers and sons,” said Eileen O’Brien Merchant, 53, a South Laguna mother of five who began substituting feminist liturgies for Mass in 1979.

Merchant, who is working toward a master’s degree in feminist spirituality at Immaculate Heart College Center in Los Angeles, said she initially felt guilty about attending liturgies instead of Mass. “I had to think about it a lot,” she said. “But it really surprised me--the joy associated with a liturgy that takes women seriously.”

Movement Still Small

There are no reliable figures on the number of women who worship in such ways, but it is still a small movement. In Los Angeles County, for example, two groups that meet regularly have a total of about 40 participants. Another group of about 15 women meets weekly in Orange County. A national Women-Church conference to be held in Cincinnati in October expects to attract 2,500 women.

Many participants are secretive because the groups include nuns and other church employees who fear that their jobs could be jeopardized by publicity. The Orange County group, for instance, refused to permit a reporter to attend weekly liturgies. Members of the Los Angeles group also expressed reservations.

“It’s not really safe in this diocese,” said Pat Reif, who heads the feminist spirituality studies program at the non-denominational Immaculate Heart College Center. “If the women are involved in any kind of church work, it could be curtains for them.”

A spokesman for the Los Angeles archdiocese said the church has no problem with women gathering to pray and partake of bread and wine in Christ’s memory, but “it cannot be a substitute for actual sacrament.”

Some feminist liturgies welcome men; others exclude them. The movement has attracted mothers of gay children uncomfortable with church teaching that homosexual behavior is “intrinsically evil” and women opposed to the church’s stance against abortion, women’s ordination and artificial birth control. Many of the participants also belong to national groups that lobby the church for liberal change.

Some Are Lesbians

In Los Angeles County, about a third of the women in the movement are lesbians. A recent liturgy in Los Angeles included a housewife, schoolteachers, a college professor, two nuns, a travel agent and a community activist.

Like many movements, Women-Church has its own parlance. Members talk about “dialoguing” with others; a coalition of feminist Catholic groups requested that the Pope set aside “some quality time” to meet with them. (The pontiff declined.) “Patriarchy” is regularly denounced. For some members, putting women in leadership positions in the church would not be enough. They want to abolish the “hierarchical structure” of the church.

The women plan to picket the Pope during his September visit. In Los Angeles, women will white out their faces like mimes and wear white. Some will also wear gags.

“The voiceless, faceless members of the church are women,” said Margaret Arnold, 31, one of the organizers.