COMMENTS

Wordpress (3)
  • Mary Besemeres 4 years

    Too little, too late. The statement that the Church has “no authority” to “confer ordination on women” is unconvincing and weaselly. How did it come by the authority to institute priestly celibacy? Simon Peter had a wife so clearly the Church departed from the Gospel tradition there. There are no compelling theological grounds for refusing women ordination, it’s purely social conservatism of the kind that prejudiced people against women doctors. Yet Jesus himself was strikingly countercultural in his openness to women, even foreigners and sexually promiscuous women. If Mary Magdalene was an “Apostle to the Apostles” as Thomas Aquinas put it, why could Catholic women not act as parish priests? Jesus urged his disciples to serve one another instead of wanting to lord it over each other. The hierarchical, patriarchal structure of the Church mirrors that of feudal mediaeval Europe rather than reflecting the groundbreaking communitarian spirit of early Christianity. How sad that even decent churchmen like John Paul II and Francis fail to recognize this.

  • Mary Gregg 4 years

    I agree with Mary Besemeres  about the churches stand on women entering the priesthood. She  put in words my opinion and thoughts better than  I could.

  • Jim Kim 4 years

    To confuse a discipline and practice such as celibacy with the tradition of maintaining a gendered focus on “persona Christi” does not help to address the deeper issue of clericalism.

    A focus on presbyterial headship and expanding it to women does not reduce the emphasis on the clerical state over the real missionary needs of the flock that is lost and dispersed.

    The “administration” of the sacramental Grace of Jesus seems to be dwelt upon more than the fact that many people never have access to the gift that the Church is suppose to be.

    Ordained women is the wrong solution to the real problem.