Women Need Not Submit to Abuse, Bishops Declare : Marriage: Priests are told to be ready with a ‘safe place’ for battered wives seeking help. It is the U.S. Catholic church’s first official statement on the subject.

The Bible does not tell women to submit to abusive husbands, Roman Catholic bishops say in the U.S. church’s first official statement on spouse abuse.

In a statement that condemns sexism, the bishops declare that women should not consider themselves religiously bound to remain in abusive relationships. The bishops encourage parish priests to be ready with “a safe place” for abused women seeking help.

“Violence in any form--physical, sexual, psychological or verbal--is sinful,” the bishops say in “When I Call for Help: A Pastoral Response to Domestic Violence Against Women.”

The joint statement on spouse abuse by the bishops’ Marriage and Family Committee and Women in Society and in the Church Committee was proposed in March and approved last month by the Administrative Committee of the U.S. Catholic Conference.

It emerged relatively quickly and quietly, in contrast to a controversial pastoral letter on women that the bishops have worked on for nine years and which may be headed for defeat this fall.

It was never discussed in an open meeting of the full complement of bishops, unlike the unapproved letter, which backs sexual equality but stops short of calling for women priests.

“We wanted to get something out quickly,” said Sheila Garcia of the Secretariat for Family, Laity, Women and Youth. “It’s been a hidden problem for a long time.”

Abuse is a topic no one likes to think about, the bishops said. They presented the statement “as an initial step in what we hope will become a continuing effort in the church in the United States to combat domestic violence against women.”

As church leaders, the bishops said, an area that particularly concerns them is the way biblical passages encouraging wives to be submissive to their husbands have been taken out of context to justify spouse abuse.

“Abused women say, ‘I can’t leave this relationship. The Bible says it would be wrong.’ Abusive men say, ‘The Bible says my wife should be submissive to me.’ They take the biblical text and distort it to support their right to batter,” the bishops said.

The bishops said they wanted to make clear that violence against women is never justified, and that the parish must be a place where both abused women and men who batter can go for help.

It encourages parishes to dedicate a weekend to educate parishioners about domestic violence, and to build relationships with police and domestic violence agencies to help abused women seeking assistance.

To further reduce domestic violence, the bishops encourage parishes to work to see that women are well-represented in parish leadership positions and to insist that religious education is free of sexual stereotyping.

“Battering thrives on sexism,” the statement said.

The statement did not address circumstances when abuse might be grounds for divorce.

Garcia said the statement that abuse is never justified is “tremendously significant” to Catholic women.

“It tells them that they do not have to take this. This (abuse) is not right,” she said Thursday.

Lori Beaman-Hall, a researcher studying religion and wife abuse, said the bishops’ statement is “a good starting point” to challenge old attitudes that the Bible sanctions abuse or that clergy have a responsibility to encourage abused spouses to return home.

“It’s a concern to people who work with abused women,” said Beaman-Hall, of the University of New Brunswick in Canada. “Churches to some extent are very materially supportive, but when it comes to actually sending people to transition houses, they are still not very supportive.”