We need to hear the gospel according to women.

BARBARA, A 19-YEAR-OLD STRUGGLING through her first year of college, knocked on my office door last week and got right to the point: "Why doesn't the church allow women priests?" She spoke gently but directly. I just looked at her. What do you say to a young woman of faith whose tone of voice and hurting eyes imply injustice?

"Do you want to be a priest, Barbara?" I murmured.

"I don't know," she said hesitatingly, "but I want the church to stand up for me if God calls."

Barbara's question was occasioned by the May 1995 publication of John Paul II's encyclical Ordinatio sacerdotalis and the subsequent response of the Congregation for Divine Faith (CDF), which suggested that the pope's teaching was infallible. These documents, written with the hope of silencing dissent about women's ordination, not only did not end the discussion, they left many people apprehensive. Author and theologian Lisa Sowle Cahill wrote in the Jan. 26, 1996 issue of Commonweal: "My fear is that as these young people mature, they will not even bother to be angry with or work to change a church which is so blatantly irrelevant to their personal and social aspirations." I have the same fear.

For more than 20 years I helped form seminarians and lay ministers as a teacher, spiritual director, and mentor. During those years, I regularly pointed out that while the church, like most large institutions, changed slowly, it was changing. I also always tried to hold up the church's consistent record of care and concern for the poor and encouraged my students to study the encyclicals. Now, as a chaplain at a predominately women's college, I am not sure young people care that the church changes slowly or that they will even bother to read the social teaching of the church unless we come to terms with their perception that women are treated unjustly in the church. Clearly new models of empowering women in our churches must evolve quickly if people like me hope to convince young women like Barbara that the church is serious when it says that women are equal to men in all ways.

One way of doing this is finding a way for women to preach at our eucharistic celebrations. When the Second Vatican Council called us to emphasize the Liturgy of the Word, preaching became a central focus of our faith gatherings and worship. What a powerful statement we could make about women's equality in the church if we found a way to give a voice to their insights and reflections when we gather for Eucharist.

Most Catholics already seem to appreciate the distinctive voices of women at those rare times when women speak to the gathered assembly. At Holy Name of Mary Parish, where I often preside on Sundays, women have spoken about their experience of parish retreats, invited parishioners to join different committees, welcomed families coming to baptize their children, offered major reflections during parish missions, challenged RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) candidates with words of compassion and love, and offered moving words of hope and challenge at the close of funerals. Rarely, if ever, have I heard opposition to these reflections and ministries.

The church, furthermore, while not explicitly speaking of women preachers, has encouraged measures that advance the cause of women. Pope John Paul II went out of his way to list numerous places where women could and should exercise authority in the church, including teaching theology, participating in pastoral and administrative councils, and acting as pastors when no priest was available. Why not find ways for women to "teach" and "pastor" from the pulpit?

IN ORDER TO MAKE THIS SUGGESTION PRACTICALLY possible, we need to address the ticklish question of the relationship between holy orders and jurisdiction for preaching. Since most people assume that preaching is the exclusive ministry of the ordained, we need to find a ground for separating the ministry of orders from the ministry of preaching. The Roman instruction on celebrating Masses with children offers us a possibility. This document clearly directs that when a priest has little training or experience with children, someone else (even a laywoman) may speak after the gospel (Masses With Children, no. 24, Oct. 22, 1973). Since this exception is rooted in the preacher's lack of experience, why not search for ways to apply this exemption and ministry to other circumstances?

For example, most priests I know realize that our experience of family, married love, and parenting is very limited. Wouldn't it be good, logical, and helpful to ask women and married couples to speak about their family and home life? And who better than a mother can understand Mary's role in the life of Jesus? Would anyone really reject the voices of women on those days when we celebrate Mary's place in salvation history, such as the Visitation, the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, Mary's birth, and Christmas?

I imagine the mention of Christmas frightens some. But my experience tells me that many priests, if they think about this matter logically, would welcome women preaching on Christmas. The story, after all, is about Mary's courage and faith in saying yes to God despite the fact that she understood little of what was happening to her. Not only was she willing to bear a child without benefit of marriage, she was forced to leave home and family during the last days of her first pregnancy. What an example she is for us during those times when we struggle to give birth to the Christ in our everyday lives. More important, women preaching on Christmas would be a very powerful sign that the church is serious about ritually recognizing the equality of women and men.

SINCE I AM WRITING MERELY AS A PRIEST anxious and hopeful about women preaching in the church, I do not want to get too far ahead of myself. It is very important that we ask women interested in preaching to gather in small groups to discuss how best to foster ideas that will empower women. It would be pretentious for me or men alone to decide this question. At the same time, there are several practical issues that need attention.

We need tools to assure us of good preaching. Surveys already abound about the effects of poor preaching. Other studies remind us that public speaking is one of the most feared experiences people can face. At all costs, we need to avoid poor preaching in an area as vulnerable as women preaching.

To avoid this difficulty, it might be better to invite women already skilled as public speakers to preach. These women abound in most every parish. We only have to search for them. I have worked with a woman for 15 years in religious education, and she is one of the most accomplished speakers I know. No doubt there are many more women like her in our pews every Sunday.

To get this experiment moving without unduly upsetting ecclesiastical authorities, it is probably better to encourage women to preach with a priest or deacon. The priest or deacon can read the gospel, offer a few words of explanation and interpretation, and then invite his female partner to respond as a woman from a faith perspective. No doubt this is far from the ideal in many women's minds, but I honestly believe it is a good and healthy way to begin.

Several years ago I was preaching to a parish with a woman collaborator. One evening an older gentleman approached me and asked for a minute of my time. After thanking me for the mission, he said something that I have remembered to this day. "Father," he said, "when you and Mrs. C. got up on Sunday morning, I said to myself, 'Why this new charge?' tonight, as I listened to her moving story about her relationship with her dad, I said: 'Why not?"' That conversation has been rattling around in my memory for years, and in many ways occasioned this article.

There should be no doubt that we need to hear the distinctive voices of women in our churches. For the time being, ordination seems out of the question. Nevertheless, the issue of women's power remains: If women are equal to men in all things in the eyes of God, then how can we afford not to hear their uniquely womanly interpretation of scripture?

In recent years, the current pope has traveled all over the world praising the diversity of Catholic belief that emerges from the different cultures and countries he visits. While calling--as he ought--for unity in diversity, his travels have introduced us to the wonderful music, dance, and ritual that mark the liturgical practices of local churches all over the world. And that experience has changed us all. Surely, in a similar way, we need to hear women and listen to the distinctively unique way they experience God. I have no doubt all of us will be changed for the better. And more personal, the next time Barbara asks a tough question, I will be able to assure her that the church really is making an effort to demonstrate its conviction that women are equal to men in every way.

By Father Jack Rathschmidt, O.F.M., Cap., provincial of the Capuchins from 1987 to 1993 and professor of pastoral theology at Maryknoll School of Theology for 12 years, who is currently the chaplain at the College of New Rochelle in New York and director of Aftercare for the Capuchin Franciscan Friars of New York and New England.