The Roman Catholic Church has named the first female theologians as Vatican consultants and denied the appointments had anything to do with their gender.
Pope John Paul, whose defenc of the male-only clergy has rankled some liberal Catholic women, named the two theologians at the weekend to the International Theological Commission, an influential advisory board for the Vatican.
The Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romanopublished without comment yesterday the list of new members including Sister Sara Butler of Chicago's University of Saint Mary of the Lake and Barbara Hallensleben of Fribourg University in Switzerland.
"They were not chosen because they're women. They were chosen for their competence," Cardinal Georges Cottier, Papal Household theologian and former head of the commission, said today.
"It's very positive and I'm very happy. . . . Women can bring their own sensitivity to certain problems where men might have a different point of view," he said.
A senior Vatican source remarked that "a barrier has fallen" but said the timing had no link to International Women's Day today since gender was not an issue. That also explained the lack of publicity, he added.