VATICAN CITY – Pope John Paul II on Tuesday named Mary Ann Glendon, 65, a law professor at Harvard University and a bioethics expert, to head the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. She assumes the highest Vatican advisory post held by a woman.
The appointment of Glendon, who belongs to the U.S. Presidential Council on Bioethics, apparently fulfills a drive by the pontiff to raise the profile of women in church affairs. On March 4, the Vatican issued a statement at the United Nations asserting that women were “especially gifted” in rising above self-interest.
“Through feminine insight, women enrich the world’s understanding and help make human relations between and amongst people more honest and authentic,” the statement said.
The appointment comes days after the Vatican named two women to its International Theological Commission, an influential advisory board. The appointees, an American sister, Sara Butler, and a German sister, Barbara Hallenstein, are activists in promoting relations among different Christian religions – Butler with Anglicans and Hallenstein with the Orthodox.
The Vatican opposes ordination of women on theological grounds as well as tradition.
In 1995, Glendon headed the Vatican delegation to a U.N. women’s conference in Beijing. She is the author of books on human rights and politics and has criticized liberal lay Catholic groups for striving to gain a role in Catholic Church governance.
She is also a staunch promoter of the Vatican’s anti-abortion teachings. In praising Glendon’s role as a member of President Bush’s bioethics council, a Vatican news release described her as having denounced “the evils of abortion and divorce.”
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