Holy Orders Issues - Research Paper Example

? Holy Orders Joseph DeCarlo Dr. M. Taylor-Ulizio Introduction The holy order is the term used in many of the Christian churches to refer to those individuals who are ordained for a special role in the ministry. In the Catholic churches, the holy orders comprises of three orders which are the bishop, priest and deacon or the sacrament under which those individuals are ordained to those orders. Historically, the name order was known to be the establishment of a corporation with a hierarchy. And the word holy referred to church. Thus, the word holy order was set in context to refer to the ministry of the church. The positions of pope, cardinal, patriarch etc are offices or titles, not sacrament orders. According to the Catholic Church, Christ instituted some of the Seven Sacraments during his ministry. The evidence of these seven sacraments is written and oral both in the tradition, to which the Catholics refer to as the deposits of faith. In addition, the use and presence of all the seven sacraments in the early years of the church are both, documented and present in writings of the Church fathers and as well as the Christian historians. Christ believed that these sacraments were instituted so that the human beings could see a sign of the spiritual effect that they often wish to receive. It was Christ’s way of showing that the spiritual reality is transpired1. Episcopates or bishops are those individuals that are chosen in the Catholic Churches from among the priests. As in the Eastern Catholic Churches married priests are permitted, bishops should be the ones who are widowers, unmarried or those who agree to have no sexual contact with their wives. At times a common misconception is seen in all the bishops that they come from the religious orders. This cannot be taken as the absolute reality while it is partially true. The bishops in the Catholic churches should usually be the leaders of the territorial units that are called dioceses. The bishops alone hold the validity to administer the Sacrament of Holy Orders in the churches. Moreover, only bishops are lawfully allowed to administer the sacrament of confirmation in the Catholic churches. In case an ordinary priest administers the sacrament illegally, it is considered to be valid in the condition so that the person who is confirmed may not be confirmed again either by a bishop or by any other. Special permission can be given to the Latin rite priests who have special permission to lawfully administer confirmation. In fact every Catholic priest must administer confirmation with or without confirmation to the children who are in danger of death. In the Eastern Catholic Churches, the confirmation is administered by priests who have the rite and this is usually administered to both babies and adults immediately after their baptism2. The ordained priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church and the common priesthood are different and operate in different functions and essence. The Catholic priesthood is the ministerial priesthood of the Catholic priests and bishops. This ministerial priesthood is however, servicing at the priesthood of all believers. This involves the direct consecration of a man towards Christ with the sacrament of orders. This is so that the person can act as the person of Christ to be for the sake of the Christian faithful in being able to dispense the sacraments. In the long history, it was understood that this begun at the Last Supper when Jesus Christ was seen instituting the Eucharist in the mighty presence of all the Twelve Apostles. Christ had commanded them to do it in his memory. However, the Catholic priesthood is considered to be a share of the priesthood of Christ and it traces its origins seen in the history to the historic appointment of the Twelve Apostles by Jesus Christ. What makes someone a priest is that he should already be a deacon and a minister of the Holy Orders being an ordained bishop? This is the Rite of Ordination. The duties of the Catholic priests would be divided into three main parts; these include the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, hearing confessions and counseling. Women are, however, not allowed to be ordained as priests. Traditionally the word diaconate is used for the deacon’s office which is a clerical office and in some cases for laity. The deacons in the ministry of the Christian church are generally associated with some kind of service which varies due to the factors related to theological and denominational traditions. The diaconate is known as one of the most important and major orders in the Roman Catholic Church. Diaconate was maintained as a permanent order from the earliest to the present time catholic churches, while it was not in the Western churches. Deacons are also alleged to work under the priests and assist them in the administrative duties, but can also often report directly to the bishop3. Deacons have a distinctive role in the liturgy; however they have certain main tasks. These tasks are proclaiming the Gospel, preaching and teaching, assisting in the administration of the Eucharist, and serving the poor. Before the Second Vatican Council was formed, the deacons who were ordained were only men who were the seminarians and completing the last year of the graduate theological training. These men usually received the orders several months before the priestly ordination. In the Roman Catholic Church, the ministry of the deacons is described as one service in three areas, the Word, Liturgy and Charity. Just like the priests and bishops, deacons are also ordinary ministers who can serve as witnesses of the church at the sacrament of the Holy Matrimony. The deacons can preside over many services and give certain blessings. Holy Orders are the sacrament that is received by a person and thus he is made a bishop, priest or a deacon and then he is subjected to dedicate his life to be an image of Christ. The bishop is the minister of these sacraments. Ordination as a bishop makes him the member of the body of successors of the Apostles. The bishop is then given the mission to teach, sanctify and govern with the care of all the Churches. The ordination of the priest configures him the Head of the Church and the High Priest is configured as the power and the bishop’s assistant. The deacon’s ordination configures him as the Servant of All and places him at the service of the bishop and special preaching is given to exercise the charity towards the poor and the preaching of the word of God4. Holy Orders and Women: The ordination procedure varies by denomination. There are different specifications for different churches as they specify more or less rigorous requirements to enter the office. Because of this, the process for ordination is also given a ceremonial elegance depending upon the group. Some of the Protestants still tend to communicate with authorities and ordain to offices. In the American Methodist approach, an elder is usually ordained to preaching or teaching, sacrament, order and service. Married men may be ordained as the Permanent Deacons to the diaconate but they might not be ordained to priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church. In the Eastern Catholic Church, the married men may be ordained as priests but may not become bishops. This is because the bishops in the Eastern Catholic Churches are always drawn among monks who have taken a vow of an unmarried status. These may be widowers as it is not required for them to never have been married5. At times the widowed deacons who are permanent may be ordained to priesthood. Or in some cases it has been seen that the males previously married and have been ordained as priesthood in an Anglican Church may have been ordained to the Catholic priesthood. However, such an exception may only happen with the permission of the Pope especially granted and with the approval of the priest’s bishop. The ordination of homosexuality clergy has been opposed by the churches and considered to be incompatible with the teachings of the bible and the traditional Christian practice. The Roman Catholic Church has officially declared that it does not ordain women and it does not have any of the authorities to ordain women for any orders or as priests or bishops. It has been suggested that ordaining women has not been considered a possibility as deaconesses in any aspect of sacrament of diaconate. It states that a deaconess holds the position of lay service and is not a female deacon. The women have not received any such sacrament of Holy Orders. When it is about the Protestants, they often ordain women, but they too, in many of the cases seen, ordain them only for the offices of the deacon. Women can simply not become deacons in the Catholic churches because the deacons receive the sacrament of holy orders which is at a lesser degree than those of bishops or priests. And since women cannot receive this sacrament of the holy orders authentically, they cannot become deacons. In the early years of the biblical times, the women who used to assist the spiritual activities in the communities of the church were known as deaconesses, but there is no evidence that they received any sacrament of the holy orders. This has been going on since years of traditional Christ times and the establishment of the churches. However, in some traditions it is seen that the women may be ordained with the same orders as men. But in some traditions, women are seen to be restricted from certain offices. The Church of England is still arguing about the ordination of women as bishops in Old Catholic Churches. According to the understanding of the Roman Catholic Church’s tradition and their theological series of events, officially declares that it has no authority that would allow them to ordain women as priests. And moreover, there is no possibility of women priests in any time of the future6. The reasons stated for the prohibition of women ordination were the church’s promise to remain faithful and constant to its tradition. The church was determined to follow its traditions and be honest towards the early priests and ministries who had prohibited the ordination of women. The second reason to disallow women as deacons was the quality to be faithful towards the Christ’s will. The third reason was the idea of having male representation to the sacramental values and nature of priesthood. According to the biblical perspective, the ministries have concluded some reasons for prohibiting women as deaconesses in churches. They came to the point that masculine character of the hierarchy was structured in the churches since the very beginning. It has been attached to the system in an undeniable way and it is mentioned in the scriptures. It is seen in the history and the events that took place that the first Christian communities were all directed by men who had the apostolic powers. Others have also considered in the light of sacramental economy and the circumstances whether women can be ordained as priests without going against the intentions of Christ. But in recent years there have been many responses made on the question and the church has issued many documents written emphasizing on the fact that ordination for women for priests is impossible. The women deacons of the early church: According to the history and the debate over the women’s ordination there have been many supporters that have bought facts in effect talking about the women ordination as priests and bishops in the ancient times. There is also an official Church declaration on this aspect which states that although a few historic events show that female ordinations took place in the early centuries and there existed an entrusted ministry of priestly women, this was immediately considered and condemned by the Fathers of the Church who declared it as unacceptable in the Church. In response, many of the female supporters took the position for those sects being orthodox rather heretical7. There is also some evidence existent for the fact that women were ordained by some groups at the Christian community. According to the researches, there are about 15 records that are found for the women being ordained in the history by Christians. However, the views on these records of the Vatican are that they were by heretical groups while the Women’s Ordination Conference argues that those were by orthodox Christian groups. Apart from the theological considerations about the women ordination, many advocates have pointed out that the vocations declining in the Europe and North America have initiated the argument that women should be ordained to have enough priests to administer the sacraments of those areas. The organization that calls itself “Roman Catholic” is one of the few organizations that ordain women at the present time8. It is actually called Roman Catholic Women Priests. Joining this organization are the several independent Catholic jurisdictions that ordain women in the US. These organizations are independent and they are not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. There are several other independent organizations that are calling for the Roman Catholic Church to ordain women such as Circles, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Catholic Women’s Ordination and Corpus along with a few others. The title of a ‘woman deaconess’ was served in the early years of the Church especially in the East where it was seen on many of the documents. The duties of these deaconesses were different from those of the male deacons. They used to prepare the adult women for baptism and they also held a general Apostolate for the female Christians. The main purpose of ordaining women was to serve the community at a larger aspect and yet in ended in the Western churches by the 6th century, whereas in the East it is still continued. The liturgies for the ordination of men and women deaconesses are similar to each other. In fact it has been recorded that the ancient rites of ordination have been noted down by groups such as the women priests. In this issue, there are many arguments that can be highlighted over the history. The arguments consist of statements suggesting that those women deacons of the history were not ordained by sacramental orders. At least they were not ‘ordained’ in the sense that is used in the present day Code of Canon Law. Still there are male scholars who further argue that this ordination of women deaconesses must have been as equally sacramental as that of the male deacons. The Roman Catholic Church states that the benefit of holiness does not come from ordination and the ordained ministries of the priesthood would be benefited of the holiness only if they are faithful. The ordination does not ensure the salvation of the ordained minister. There is no such thing as an automatic ordination that comes with the ordination. Ordination does not affect salvation. In simpler words, a priest can easily go to hell just like a lay person. However, sainthood is also equal for both men and women whether lay or ordained9. John Paul II wrote that knowing the fact that Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of God and the mother of the church had not received any proper mission to the Apostles neither had she the ministerial priesthood. This fact clearly shows that the prohibition of women in the ordination does not mean that women are of lesser dignity, and nor does it show the discrimination against them. This is rather seen as a faithful implementation of a plan to be claimed to the wisdom of the Lord. In the Roman Catholic Church, the prayer can not only be necessarily led by a man, in fact it can also be led by a woman. For example, in the absence of a priest or a deacon, the church celebrations, according to the written words, can be led by laypersons which include men and women both. These include the prayers, the ministry of word and the delivering of the Holy Communion. Also during assemblies, there is no discrimination amongst men and women and both are allowed to request for God’s blessings on the congregation. Throughout the history of the church, women were also allowed to live as a nun and head a community of men and women. Today, women have many roles in the church and they are able to participate in many of them unlike the ancient times. They can so spiritual direction, teach theology and much more. Despite all these roles given to the women, many still see the ordination of women as a sign of inequality observed in the Catholic Church whereas the Church particularly rejects this view. Thus, the arguments for the ordination of women include the basic factor of gender inequality. The ordination of women to the deaconess is a controversial matter in the history and in the theological aspect. The issue arising because of the existent of two interrelated questions; whether the women who were ordained in the early years were by sacraments or merely by functional purposes and whether the prohibition of women ordination was a matter related to the unchangeable divine law or the potentially changeable ecclesiastical law. The answers to these questions given by the theologians were that the exclusion of women from deacon ordination was because of having a divine origin remaining absolute. In fact, in the recent decade there have been not any theologians or canonists that have considered the theory that the prohibition of women ordination was because of ecclesiastical, rather than divine law10. Some modern day proposals to ordain female deacons and allow them to perform the functions same as male deacons and have respect like them have been made. However, this is based on the theory and fact from the antiquity which suggests that some women deacons received the sacrament of Holy Orders and the facts state that some writers showed a certain hesitancy regarding the ordination of women appearing from knowledge that there were deaconesses in the past. Some of the women deacons have suffered because the deacons have to be having a governing role which women cannot have. Furthermore, scripture does not permit women to be in a governing position, so most of the times the problem did not occur in the gender difference but in the biblical understanding of the suggested role of deacon. Some consider that the failure of ordaining women deacons is the deprivation of the churches to administer valuable ministries. Conclusion: However, the above information tells us about the female deacons being prohibited from churches since decades due to many reasons. It also tells us about the issues faced by them in the early years and many of the aspects followed in the Catholic churches in relation to women ordinations. The historic events provide evidence for the debates that have been structured throughout the times. Many of the supporters refer to the early years of the churches while many of the others talk about the existence of sacramental orders. Gender inequality is one of the factors strongly considered and questioned regarding the role of women in church ministries yet they are cleared in the light of the biblical scriptures. I would like to see female deacons in the Catholic churches as Christ has presented and continually talked about equality towards men and women in all aspects in churches. There should be women deacons so that the churches stand as a representation of equality in the society and in the religion. Women deacons will also serve as administrators so that there can be enough to administer the areas that need more churches. Thus, there should be women in churches as deacons. References Akin D., Nelson D., Schemm P. A Theology for the Church. London: B&H Publishing Group, 2007. Berry D. 2009. Holy Words and Holy Orders: As Dying, Behold We Live. US: University Press of America, 2009. Collinge W. Historical Dictionary of Catholicism. Canada: Scarecrow Press, 2012. Flinn F. Encyclopaedia of Catholicism. NY: Infobase Publishing, 2007. Macy G., Ditewig W., Zagano P. Women Deacons: Past, Present, Future. Texas: Paulist Press, 2012. Mick L. Understanding the Sacraments: Holy Orders. NY: Liturgical Press, 2012. Sumner S. Men and Women in the Church: Building Consensus on Christian Leadership. London: InterVarsity Press, 2003. Vorgrimler H. Sacramental Theology. NY: Liturgical Press, 1992. Whitham A. Holy Orders. London: Kessinger Publishing, 2003. Wijngaards J. Women deacons in the early church: historical texts and Contemporary Debates. UK: Alban Books Limited, 2006. Read More