We want our Church back . . .
Perhaps you never entered it fully, with heart, mind, and soul.
I have no problem with the Church ordaining only men. It was not my decision, nor was I kept from some vote as to how things are. It was the decision of Jesus when He established the priesthood at the Last Supper. Without a woman - even His mother, the Blessed Virgin - there.
Oh, but He only did that to make the new faith more palatable to society at the time that was a patriarchal structure . . .
Really? The last thing that anyone could accuse the Lord of doing was marketing to the masses. In fact, as I recall, His revolutionary teachings, His willingness to sit down with tax collectors and prostitutes, and His unwavering adherence to His Father's will is what got Him crucified.
Christ was not excluding women. He was establishing a role and responsibility for men and, even then, only certain men. Can any Catholic male become a priest? No. It's not a right, it is a privilege. In fact, greater harm, as we have seen with the scandals within the Church, occurs when mistakes during formation are made.
Does that mean that women have no role in the Church? Hardly. Look at the Doctors of the Church, look at the saints, look at the faithful laity who serve whether as a simple volunteer in a parish or a missionary in Angola. Look at the reverence given to Mary. I do not feel slighted being a Catholic woman.
But it's unfair . . . !!!
How? And no, I am not saying it is fair. Because the notion of fairness does not enter the picture. It just is. It is a male priesthood. If you believe that the Catholic Church is an infallible institution created by Jesus Christ, then you cannot say it is fallible if only they would ordain women. Nor is it infallible if you think it belongs to you - you belong to it as a baptized catholic and even then, that's no guarantee that you will enter His Kingdom, is it?
Frankly, from what I see from this video, some disgruntled Catholic - maybe, since I note the credits thank an Episcopal parish - got together a group of girls in school uniforms and dress-up fake chasubles to bop around to a silly pop song while mocking the Church. That is not who I want as a spiritual leader. If these women think "cute" sells their mission, then it is not anything to be taken seriously.
What a sec . . . say, it was an Episcopal church used in this video, wasn't it? Huh, maybe this is actually their attempt to stem the flow of Episcopalians and Anglicans who, discouraged by the moral relativism of their church, continue to "swim the Tiber" and join the Catholic Church in growing numbers. They'll go for the women who feel disenfranchsied, yeah, that's it!
Good. They can have them.
For an even better take on this, read the Bad Catholic.
Updated: And for those who say male priesthood is a tradition that can be changed:
"Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.
Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."
- Bl. Pope John Paul II (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis)
I have no problem with the Church ordaining only men. It was not my decision, nor was I kept from some vote as to how things are. It was the decision of Jesus when He established the priesthood at the Last Supper. Without a woman - even His mother, the Blessed Virgin - there.
Oh, but He only did that to make the new faith more palatable to society at the time that was a patriarchal structure . . .
Really? The last thing that anyone could accuse the Lord of doing was marketing to the masses. In fact, as I recall, His revolutionary teachings, His willingness to sit down with tax collectors and prostitutes, and His unwavering adherence to His Father's will is what got Him crucified.
Christ was not excluding women. He was establishing a role and responsibility for men and, even then, only certain men. Can any Catholic male become a priest? No. It's not a right, it is a privilege. In fact, greater harm, as we have seen with the scandals within the Church, occurs when mistakes during formation are made.
Does that mean that women have no role in the Church? Hardly. Look at the Doctors of the Church, look at the saints, look at the faithful laity who serve whether as a simple volunteer in a parish or a missionary in Angola. Look at the reverence given to Mary. I do not feel slighted being a Catholic woman.
But it's unfair . . . !!!
How? And no, I am not saying it is fair. Because the notion of fairness does not enter the picture. It just is. It is a male priesthood. If you believe that the Catholic Church is an infallible institution created by Jesus Christ, then you cannot say it is fallible if only they would ordain women. Nor is it infallible if you think it belongs to you - you belong to it as a baptized catholic and even then, that's no guarantee that you will enter His Kingdom, is it?
Frankly, from what I see from this video, some disgruntled Catholic - maybe, since I note the credits thank an Episcopal parish - got together a group of girls in school uniforms and dress-up fake chasubles to bop around to a silly pop song while mocking the Church. That is not who I want as a spiritual leader. If these women think "cute" sells their mission, then it is not anything to be taken seriously.
What a sec . . . say, it was an Episcopal church used in this video, wasn't it? Huh, maybe this is actually their attempt to stem the flow of Episcopalians and Anglicans who, discouraged by the moral relativism of their church, continue to "swim the Tiber" and join the Catholic Church in growing numbers. They'll go for the women who feel disenfranchsied, yeah, that's it!
Good. They can have them.
For an even better take on this, read the Bad Catholic.
Updated: And for those who say male priesthood is a tradition that can be changed:
"Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.
Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."
- Bl. Pope John Paul II (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis)
3 comments:
My family is Orthodox Christian (well, my husband, children and I are), and though the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox split ages ago, we also do not have women ordained to the priesthood. In fact, we do not have women priests, deacons, or usually altar servers, though in theory they *could* be altar servers since it's not against cannons. In most Orthodox churches women cannot even be up on the dias for the altar (though that is also not against cannons **as long as they have a valid reason for being there.**) Just wanted to throw out there that the Catholic church is not alone in rejecting women as priests :)
Our church differs from the Catholic teachings in a few notable ways, but I really admire a) your humor and b) the way you stand up for your faith, regardless of the opinions of general population. Thanks for an inspiring read!
interesting blog. It would be great if you can provide more details about it. Thanks you.
<a href="http://footoomaster.com/tag/digital-graffiti-uk/>Digital Graffiti UK</a>
Tillie, thanks for the compliment! It is harder these days for orthodox Christians like us to stand up for the Truth, unpopular as it is in the secular world, but it has to be done.
If I may say one thing, our churches have not "rejected" women as priests. Rather, Christ Jesus has chosen men for His priesthood. People somehow think these churches are democracies and tenets of faith must be placed in a committee, discussed and debated, and then voted upon. Sorry, that is something for the more "reformed" of Christian churches, eh?
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