From the Publisher

By Elizabeth P. Valk

Sometimes an issue that has been simmering for years comes into sharp focus. This autumn the role that women play in the church is causing turmoil in two large, parallel denominations, the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church. Last week Anglicans voted to ordain women as priests, and this week American Catholic bishops meet in Washington to discuss a pastoral letter on women's participation in the faith.

John Moody, our Rome bureau chief, covered the Vatican for this week's story and found it a complicated test of wills. "Approaching the Vatican is in itself an exercise in diplomacy. The Pope's urbane and practiced spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, initially considered our questions. After that came various monsignors who act as buffers for the Cardinals." Moody came to realize that the Vatican does not act quickly, when it comes to either social change or the needs of weekly journalism. He notes, "They have been at it for 2,000 years and know the art of prevailing through patience." Moody found the Vatican an austere world, but, he adds, "every so often I was struck by the odd 17th century original oil in a hallway."

For Los Angeles bureau chief Jordan Bonfante, the story had a nostalgic resonance. Bonfante was assigned to Rome in 1978 when, he remembers, "I covered three Popes in a single year: Paul VI, who died in August; John Paul I, who lived only 34 days; and John Paul II, the current Pontiff. I came to regard the Vatican as a second country we had to cover on a daily basis." For this story, he talked to leaders of the public debate. He then went to local churches and found the discussion in the pews just as intense.

Senior editor Nancy Gibbs, who supervised the project, knows the debate firsthand. She is an elder of her Presbyterian church -- the congregation where her mother is the first-ever female clerk. Says Gibbs: "People feel that you can go to church and know something familiar will be there. Women are seeking access to institutions -- corporations, the military, the Senate -- that have been led by men, but none has such an old tradition." Subtleties of human emotion are an important factor in this conflict. Associate editor Richard N. Ostling, who wrote the article, notes that "many people view the present conflict as an aspect of women's issues generally. But in moral confusion, anxiety is heightened. A sacred trust is at stake." To catch the clash of ideas and beliefs at such a moment is a journalistic challenge we take seriously.