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Toward a dialogical church: Asian bishops and Asian Catholic women

This article focuses on an emerging ecclesiology in the Roman Catholic Church in Asia, as presented by its Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference (FABC). The central theological reflection of the FABC with regard to women’s status during the last several decades offers a new way of being church in which women are able to participate in leadership roles. The article also discusses the Asian bishops’ recognition of women’s exclusion as a crisis in church structure. This recognition was located in a struggle for new transformation in the church with a hope that the church will become the witness to the good news in which women’s dignity and roles deserve to be recognized and promoted. Significantly, ecumenism among Asian women has motivated Catholic women to engage in ecclesial and theological reflections from Asian women’s perspectives. Ecumenical activities have also helped Catholic women raise their stronger voices within the male-dominated structure of the Roman Catholic Church. Parallel to the bishops’ efforts, therefore, women’s rising voices awakened the Asian bishops’ awareness of women’s potential, viewing the inclusion of women in the church’s structure as an imperative.