Austrian bishops’ conference urged to appoint lay general secretary
Austrian Catholic Women’s Movement urged the bishops’ conference to amend statutes so the general secretary can be a layperson, including women. The request follows Fr. Peter Schipka’s announcement that he will step down in November to become a professor of education. Canon law does not require the office to be held by a priest, but the role has traditionally been filled by clergy, especially in the United States. The movement cites examples of lay and female general secretaries in other national conferences, such as the Nordic, Southern African, and German conferences.
1 month ago
Austria’s largest Catholic women’s organization is urging the bishops’ conference to change its rules so a layperson—woman or man—can serve as general secretary. The appeal comes as the current secretary, Father Peter Schipka, prepares to leave the post in November. 1
The Austrian Catholic Women’s Movement says canon law does not require a bishops’ conference general secretary to be a priest. Its chairwoman, Angelika Ritter-Grepl, called on the bishops to amend their statutes and argued that opening the office would demonstrate a commitment to synodality by translating it into institutional structures. 1
Under the current Austrian statutes, the secretary need not be a bishop but must be a priest. The general secretary is elected by the bishops’ plenary assembly for a six-year term, and changing the statutes requires the Holy See’s approval. 1
Schipka has held the position since 2011 and was reelected in 2016 and 2022. He plans to step down two years before his current term ends to take up a professorship in education; he is due to attend the bishops’ November plenary meeting in Salzburg, where his successor will be discussed. 1
The article describes lay leadership in the role as increasingly established in some places but still uncommon across much of Europe. Examples include the Nordic bishops’ conference, where Sister Anna Mirijam Kaschner has served since 2009; Germany, where theologian Beate Gilles took office in 2021; and Belgium, Scotland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Sister Hermenegild Makoro served as secretary of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference from 2012 to 2020. 1
The article also recounts a 2000 case in the United States: the bishops’ conference asked the Congregation for Bishops whether a woman religious and canon lawyer, Sister Sharon Euart, could be appointed secretary. The congregation said the office had to be held by a cleric; the article says it is unclear when that position changed, noting that a woman religious had taken the Nordic post by 2009. 1
Lay participation and gender equality in Catholic Church governance
Lay participation and gender equality in Catholic governance belong together, but neither means that every member holds the same office or exercises authority in the same way. Catholic teaching affirms equal dignity and a shared responsibility for the Church’s mission; canon law also provides specific ways laypeople can take part in governance, while distinguishing their cooperation from the role of sacred ministers. For women, the Church’s teaching calls for participation without discrimination in consultation and decision-making, and recent synodal guidance urges broader access to responsibility and discernment.
The starting point is not a model in which clergy act and laypeople merely assist. Lumen gentium teaches that the faithful share a common dignity and vocation, while also recognizing a diversity of ministries and functions. The distinction between sacred ministers and the rest of the faithful, it says, entails mutual need and service—not unequal worth.
There is, therefore, in Christ and in the Church no inequality on the basis of race or nationality, social condition or sex.
That equality is not a claim that every role is interchangeable. The same teaching describes different paths and responsibilities within one Church. In governance, the relevant question is therefore not whether everyone has identical authority, but whether the Church recognizes the equal dignity, gifts, and responsibility of its members and gives them appropriate opportunities to contribute.
This distinction matters particularly when discussing women. Christifideles laici calls for women to participate more widely in the Church’s apostolate and says that they should be included in consultation and “the process of coming to decisions.” It also identifies women’s contributions to transmitting the faith, preparing pastoral and missionary documents, and theological study and teaching. These are presented as contributions to the Church’s mission, not as marginal or merely supportive work.
The 1983 Code of Canon Law states that those who have received sacred orders are qualified for the Church’s power of governance, while lay members “can cooperate in the exercise of this same power according to the norm of law.” The Catechism explains that this cooperation can take place through particular councils, diocesan synods, pastoral and finance councils, parish pastoral care exercised in common, and ecclesiastical tribunals.
“Cooperation” is important here: it recognizes real lay involvement while acknowledging that Catholic governance has a particular relationship to sacred ministry and is exercised according to law. It should not be confused either with a claim that laypeople have no place in governance or with a claim that all Church decisions must be made by a vote in which every participant has identical authority. The sources affirm participation, but do not say that every advisory body has the power to make binding decisions.
Participation can take several forms. Laypeople may offer expertise and counsel in pastoral or finance councils, take part in synods, and serve in ecclesiastical tribunals. A scholarly discussion of canon law also identifies administrative and judicial offices as possible settings for lay service, including tribunal roles such as judge, auditor, and defender of the bond. The precise qualifications and authority of each office depend on the applicable law; the examples should not be taken to mean that every office is open to every person on identical terms.
Consultation is meaningful participation, but it is not automatically the same as final decision-making authority. A consultative body contributes judgment, experience, and advice; its members’ voices can shape deliberation even where the final decision belongs to a competent church authority. Conversely, the fact that a body is consultative should not be used to make participation merely ceremonial. The Church’s teaching calls for lay advice to be heard and for lay responsibility to be taken seriously.
The 2024 Synod’s final document presses this point further. It calls for greater participation by laywomen and laymen in discernment and in all phases of decision-making—“drafting, making and confirming decisions”—as well as broader access to positions of responsibility in dioceses and church institutions. It also calls for more qualified laypeople to serve as judges in canonical processes. This is a call to develop participation and apply existing provisions more fully, not a declaration that every decision-making structure should have identical powers or composition.
The Church’s teaching supports women’s participation not only in ministries and pastoral work but also in consultation and institutional responsibility. John Paul II urged that women’s participation on diocesan and parish pastoral councils, diocesan synods, and particular councils be more widely realized. He also said the Church must stand firmly against discrimination and abuse of women.
The Synod’s final document applies this principle to governance by specifying greater participation for both women and men in discernment, decision-making, and positions of responsibility. It also recognizes the service and charisms of consecrated women and men. The text presents expanded participation as a response to pastoral needs and a matter of differentiated co-responsibility: members share responsibility for the Church’s mission, while their roles and forms of service can differ.
This also means that “gender equality” in Catholic governance should not be reduced to counting positions alone. Representation matters, but the cited teachings also concern whether women’s competence and counsel are included in deliberation, whether they can serve in appropriate positions of responsibility, and whether their contributions to the Church’s mission are recognized. The available sources establish those principles, but they do not provide statistics about women’s current representation or a comprehensive inventory of which offices are open to whom under current law.
The principal tension is between two truths that Catholic teaching holds together: governance is not detached from the Church’s sacramental and pastoral structure, and the baptized faithful—including women—have a genuine role in the Church’s life and mission. Canon law names lay cooperation rather than presenting governance as simply interchangeable across all states of life; Vatican II and later teaching reject treating that distinction as a reason to deny the faithful’s equal dignity or to disregard their contribution.
A sound practical standard, therefore, is to ask whether lay participation is real, informed, and proportionate to the responsibility involved; whether women’s voices are included in consultation and decision-making; and whether the Church’s legal distinctions are applied without turning them into a general exclusion from leadership or counsel. The Church’s own recent synodal guidance urges greater participation in discernment, decision-making, and positions of responsibility, while retaining the principle that forms of participation operate according to the law and the distinct responsibilities within the Church.