Abstract

On 30 May 1994 Pope John Paul II declared that the discussion on ordaining women was ''definitively'' closed. Women could not become priests, the Vatican repeated for the ''very last'' time. This event stimulated an unprecedented commotion in the Flemish (Belgian) Catholic community. The laity voluntarily working in the Church even threatened to strike. The debate on feminism and human rights within the Roman Catholic Church erupted more fiercely than ever before. The laity's reaction was astonishingly radical and the bishops tried to hold a position in between the displeased Catholics and the Vatican. An analysis of the debates held on these issues in the Flemish newspapers shows that the human rights discourse and the Vatican doctrine are worlds apart. Nevertheless, progressive Catholics are trying to create a new discourse that is able to combine both perspectives. In the article the interrelations between the several discourses are discussed, using the ''commonwealth model'' of Boltanski and Thevenot. It is argued that their model is useful, but inadequate, because of the lack of attention to power and its ahistoricism.