Women Religious in India have slammed a recent Vatican document equating women’s ordination with sexual abuse of children, calling it “derogatory” and “shocking.”

“I am shocked at this statement. It is painful, absurd and a violation of the dignity of women,” said Sister Mary Scaria of Delhi archdiocese’s commission for justice and peace.

The Vatican on July 15 issued new rules to deal with abusive priests. It said priests who molest the mentally ill or use child pornography are in the same category as pedophile priests.

The new rules codify canonical procedures to deal with the issue, lengthening the “statute of limitations” for charges to be brought against transgressors.

The document however categorized women’s ordination among the “most serious crimes,” along with pedophilia. It set out the same procedures to investigate and deal with women’s ordination.

It’s “nothing but an expression of male chauvinism” in the Church, Sister Scaria said.

“If God created men and women in his own image, then who are we to discriminate on the role in which to serve Him?”

It’s “shocking” to call a woman’s right to serve and lead in worship “a grave sin” equaling it to child pornography, she said.

Nazareth Sister Shalini D’Souza said the Vatican document is “derogatory.”

“I would like to see women ordained,” she said

The role of women in the Church is very limited. It should “include women in more significant roles” and allow them “to lead the liturgy,” she said.

If women were ordained, Sister Scaria said, incidents of child abuse in the Church will decline.

Gender restrictions help “cover up exploitation of children and women by priests,” she added.

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