By Paula Day

Catholic women can be influential for change in society and in the Church in the '90s and into the 21st century, the convention guest speaker for the Atlanta Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women told her audience.

Sister Sharon Euart, RSM, associate general secretary for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, addressed the AACCW members September 29 at the convention's closing banquet. Her speech, "The Role of Women in the Church: Changes and Challenges for the '90s," was delivered to approximately 150 members and guests attending the 34th annual convention banquet at the Atlanta Marriott Northwest.

The women Religious briefly reviewed changes in the role of women in the Church since the Second Vatican Council, changes encouraged by the Council Fathers in a variety of documents that pointed out the potential in ministry for both women and lay men. She noted that while the Council recognized the need to attend to "the signs of the times," its members could not have foreseen the dramatic societal changes during the past 25 years in the United States, and the impact these would have on women's roles in the Church.

Sister Euart targeted three areas for further change: advocacy for the disadvantaged, promoting models for ministry, and participation in those areas of Church life already open to women.

She pointed out that the concerns of women are not confined to the Church, and so the "first and foremost challenge," she believes, is to be advocates for women in the world especially those who are economically disadvantaged.

"We should be concerned about such issues as just wages, equality of women with men in the workplace, equal opportunities for education, and the value of parenting and family life," she said.

The second challenge for fostering change, Sister Euart believes, is encouraging official church leadership in its efforts to promote collaborative models of ministry. In such collaboration, clergy, laity and Religious work together in service of the Church.

"The shortage of ordained priests raises more acutely and urgently questions about the role of women in the ministry in the Church," she pointed out. Yet women report "being discouraged or prevented" at diocesan and parish levels from taking on "ministerial roles officially open to them and for which they are qualified." This second challenge is to promote the inclusion of women in ministerial work and collegial decision-making.

"A wide and more inclusive vision of collaborative ministry," she added, "a vision which does not confine exclusively to those who are ordained, roles and functions which do not require sacred orders -- this I believe, is part of the challenge that faces a local Church and its leadership today."

On the other hand, Sister Euart told her audience, the third challenge is not to "stand by pouting and sulking over what is not open to us."

Where opportunities for service do not exist, she urged her listeners to be advocates for the opening up of legitimate ministries to women.

"Where they do exist," she said, "we should encourage and affirm the participating of women as readers of the Word of God, extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist, members of diocesan and parish councils, team ministry participants, marriage and family life counselors, child and adult catechists, spiritual directors, educators, members of diocesan and parish committees, participants in diocesan synods, collaborators in decision-making and policy setting processes." Each woman should become an active participant in the mission and ministry of the Church, she concluded.

Sister Euart is the daughter of John and Evelyn Euart of Our Lady of Assumption parish. The family moved to Atlanta in 1956 and Sharon Euart attended the seventh and eight grades at OLA and graduated from St. Pius X High School in 1962.

After graduating from Mount Saint Agnes College in Baltimore she entered the Maryland province of the Sisters of Mercy.

Sister Euart earned a Master of Arts and a Master of Science in administration from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in canon law from Catholic University.

After experiences as a teacher and administrator in a Baltimore high school, she became director of research and planning for the archdiocese of Baltimore. While pursuing full-time studies in canon law at a Catholic University she was hired as secretary of planning for the NCCB, a post she held for a year and a half before being appointed associate general secretary, the first woman to hold that post.

Earlier in the day Bishop James P. Lyke, OFM, greeted AACCW members during a prayer service. He enumerated familiar concerns still confronting society: strengthening the family, concern for the imprisoned, care of the mentally disturbed, availability of health care for all in need, the place of children in society, the rule of justice in the marketplace and the rule of peace in the world.

He asked the women, in their roles as mothers and women leaders in the church, to be messengers of healing in the archdiocese in light of recent scandals.

As part of the prayer service, Dolores Reinhard presented a dramatic adaptation of the account in Luke's Gospel of Jesus healing on the Sabbath the woman who had suffered from a crippling infirmity for 18 years. Marian Willingham offered prayer petitions recalling women of the past who have been leaders in the spiritual journey.

At a Saturday morning business meeting AACCW members adopted a resolution to support and assist efforts to promote social reforms that respond to the needs of women, especially those proposed in the U.S. bishops' planned pastoral on women.

The day's workshops included an afternoon session on child abuse presented by Leslie King, a clinical social worker at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Mrs. King discussed the 1981 Georgia law mandating the reporting of child abuse and neglect by specified professionals. She pointed out that those who file reports of abuse or neglect do not have to prove the allegation and are immune from liability. A statistical chart reviewing Grady's child protective services since 1979 showed an escalation of abuse and neglect which correlates with the entrance of crack cocaine onto the drug scene. A slide presentation gave visual examples of what to look for in physical abuse.

Other workshops during the day focused on banking in the 1990s, the role of women in influencing politics and the responsibility of sharing one's talents with others. Nineteen board members and 82 delegates registered for the convention.

Jacqueline Maddox, general manager of Clark/Atlanta University's television unit and 15-year veteran of commercial broadcasting in Atlanta, addressed the Sunday morning brunch. Following the convention's theme, "The '90s: Challenge and Hope" she spoke of possible opportunities for women opening up in society and the church in the last decade of the 20th century. Approximately 170 attended the brunch.