Introduction
For some forty years now the balance of power at work in the construction and reproduction of differentiation between male and female roles has come under the scrutiny of humanities departments. These phenomena come under the generic term of « gender[1] ». One noted outcome has been the questioning of the biological determination that governs these roles. Some in the Catholic hierarchy are concerned by this trend, which jeopardises, in their view, society's “natural” order. They fear the undermining of the traditional man/woman divide in regard to the family, filiation but also the Church institution since it calls priesthood as an exclusively male preserve into question.
After a swift historical survey of the Catholic Church's official discourse regarding gender relations, we shall examine recent mobilisations around this issue and seek to understand the diverse actors' motivations. We shall close on an outline of the religious, social, political stakes underpinning these positions
