Women declare their role is vital to the Church

U.S. speaker says the fairer sex must counteract misplaced perceptions

Tom McCarthy Jr. / CNS.

Here's an article from Catholic News Service about the importance of women in the universal Church:

To counteract the widespread perception that women don't have a vital role in the Church, Catholics need to learn more about the historical importance of women in ministry and retell those stories to younger generations, said a prominent U.S. Catholic speaker.

Catholics need "to take these young people, sometimes adults, under our wing and talk about these things and share our own life story of ministry," said Vicki Thorn.

Thorn, who is the founder of Project Rachel -- a Catholic post-abortion healing ministry -- and executive director of the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation and Healing in Milwaukee, was attending a Dec. 9-12 international congress at the Vatican.

The congress marked the 15th anniversary of the Synod of Bishops for America, and Thorn addressed one of the assembly's working groups in a talk about the Church's vision of the dignity of women.

She told Catholic News Service Dec. 10 that the Church needs to shine the spotlight back on the significant role women have played in the life of the Church.

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