SON TAY, Vietnam (UCAN) -- Some Vietnam Church workers say the lack of women representation in Church leadership despite their large numbers in Church apostolates needs attention.

Although Catholic women have greatly contributed to parish development, they have always been given a secondary role in parish leadership, said Pham Van Anh, head of Yen Bai parish of Hung Hoa diocese in northwestern Vietnam.

Catholic women not only teach catechism and play an active role in liturgical celebrations, but they also volunteer to help the poor, and visit the sick and the elderly, the Church worker said.

However, representatives of parish communities tend to elect men to parish councils, and even if a woman is elected, she is always assigned a secondary role, he observed. Therefore, men dominate the whole decision-making process and women's voice is never heard, he added.

The Church should no longer see this situation as normal, because women's status in Vietnamese society has improved in the last decades, Anh observed.

"The Church should not ignore such an evident gap with regard to women's status between the Church community and society," he said.

Vincent Vu Trong Kim of Yen Bai parish told UCA News in March that two-thirds of lay members of the Dominican fraternities in Hung Hoa diocese are women. However, women are underrepresented in key local Church structures such as parish or subparish councils, said Kim, head of a Dominican fraternity.

Lay Dominican fraternities, whose history can be traced back to the early 1960s, now have more than 600 members diocesewide. They care for the elderly and do charitable activities, the Church worker explained.

According to Marie Tran Thi Thuy, women account for 70 percent of catechists serving parishes in the diocese. Thuy is one of the diocese's 22 "senior" catechists who have received advanced training and who are capable of training other catechists at the parish level.

"Generally speaking, women catechists are more effective in catechizing children because they display patience, sacrifice and love, which are typically female characteristics," she explained.

Choirmaster Dominique Nguyen Quoc Phong of Dong Lu parish said many Catholic youths want to join parish choirs, which usually have 30-50 members each. In all parishes, women account for at least 65 percent of the members, he added.

However, a woman who was once a parish councilor holds a different view. "Only men were chosen by Jesus to become his Apostles while pious women just accompanied him as helpers," she noted.

"Such a mentality still prevails among Catholic women in northern dioceses in particular, and they are not yet ready for any leadership role," she added.

END