Catholic Church's View on Ladies' Ordination to the Papal Throne - Research Paper Example

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the issue of women ordination has been amongst the most vocal controversies particularly in the Catholic Church. As more Protestant denominations have started women ordination, including the Church of England, the teaching of the Catholic Church on the clergy comprising of all-male has come under attack. Some people make the claim that women’s ordination is purely an issue of justice, and that the absence of such ordination in the Catholic Church is proof that it has no value for women. However, the teaching of the Catholic Church on this issue has not changed whatsoever, which has aggravated it into a major problem in the Catholic Church fraternity. This paper tries to investigate this problem and the issues at stake with it. It looks into the history of the problem, reasons behind women being always deterred from performing important roles in the Catholic Church, in addition to the history of rededications of those women to correct the situation. Further, it analyzes recent arguments by some groups of women to correct the situation in the name of their rights for equality. Introduction For a long time, the Catholic Church has constantly declined the ordination of women, either as Deaconesses or as Priests. There has been a struggle between feminist activists and the Vatican concerning the ordination of women to the priesthood. In the catholic faith, only men can be ordained priests – women have been kept off and according to feminist activists, this apparent inequality culminates into a range of oppressions towards women. These activists, Women’s Ordination Conference being on the front line, have therefore engaged themselves in public actions on diverse levels ranging from demonstrations in support of the ordination of women at cathedrals to feminist theology development. Women’s Ordination Conference has been holding a feminist vision of equality between men and women in the Catholic Church (Lamarre 1). Witham points out that since 1970s, the number of clergy has remained stagnant hovering slightly over one priest per every thousand Americans. Compared to the number of lawyers in the United States (whose number has almost tripled to over three lawyers for every thousand Americans since 1970s) with whom they have shared equal prominence, it is evident that America’s Christian ministry is waning. Further, he asserts that at the beginning of the 21st century, both ministers and clergy watchers have a feeling that in this great vocation, something is tripping in America, a nation one time regarded as having ‘the soul of a church’. Witham further explains that in the modern progressively secular world, the clergy encounters great challenges and that due to a decline in prestige, the brightest and best young Americans eschew the ministry thereby leading to a severe shortage in the Catholic priesthood. In the meantime, since churches still prefer the chief minister to be a man, female clergy’s quest to lead from the pulpit has hit a dead rock (1). The traditional male-dominated priesthood is entrenched in its own mannish ways of behavior, of language and of knowing. With it is a collection of emblematic associations and meanings that affect the manner in which the church view women as well as the perception of women in the church on themselves. Church-women relationship has always been complicated, with the source of the complexities being difference in their sexes (Green 2). Those who oppose the ordination of women base their argument on the understanding of priesthood’s symbolic nature. To begin with, they base their argument on the meaning of the priest being in the person of Christ (in persona Christi). To them, because the incarnation of Christ was a man, it follows that only a man can incarnate Christ for the Church’s priesthood sufficiently. Then again, the biblical argument that they use against the ordination of women as priests hinges on the idea of the headship of Christ over the Church, which traditionally, has been deemed to model a husband-wife relationship, and in a broader sense, men-women relationship. Taken as an all time prescription has been the restrictions that Paul put on women as leaders (Green 6). Carr explains that women could neither publicly prophesy/pray in church according to 1 Cor. 11:1–16, nor could they teach or have authority over a man according to 1 Tim. 2:11–14. These were clergy’s two essential functions. Worse still, as evident in 1 Cor. 14:34–38, women could not question or challenge the clergy teaching in public. This is despite their active role in the Church as quotations from the Church Fathers indicate and in the age of the Fathers, there were orders of deaconesses, widows and virgins, but these women were not ordained. Carr points out that the Fathers rejected the ordination of women owing to the fact that it was incompatible with Christian faith and not because of its incompatibility with Christian culture. Therefore, the Fathers’ teaching on this issue along with biblical declarations formed the Church’s tradition, which taught that priestly ordination was set aside to men. This teaching has not changed all through medieval times plus even up until the present day (4). In the year 1994, Pope John Paul II formally affirmed that the Church is devoid of the power of ordaining women. He stated that although the universal and constant tradition of the Church has preserved the teaching that the ordination of priests is to be reserved to men alone, which the magisterium has firmly taught in its more recent documents; it is presently regarded as still open to debate in some places. In other words, the judgment of the Church that women are not to be ordained is regarded as having a merely disciplinary force. He further made a declaration that the Church has no authority at all of conferring on women priestly ordination, a judgment that he said all the Church’s faithful ought to definitively hold (5). In echoing the words of John Paul II, Bogle puts across the fact that the Pope never said that the church ‘will not’ but that the church ‘cannot’ ordain women, both now, or in future. Bogle further brings out clearly what the Catholic Church’s Catechism sets out; that only a baptized man (male) receives sacred ordination and that the Lord Jesus selected men (male) to form his college of the twelve apostles, who did the same upon their selection of collaborators to come after them in their ministry. The college of bishops, who the priests are united with in the priesthood, constitutes the college of the twelve – an ever-active and ever-present reality until the coming back of Christ. For the reason that the Church recognizes herself as being bound by the choice that the Lord Himself made, it therefore views the ordination of women as impossible, thus staunchly rejecting it (4). Green also points out that to date, church authorities’ perception of women has been based on their sex and they have held the belief that at a church wherein a woman is ministering, men must become unduly cognizant of her sex (6). Green further explains how women have been regarded either as Virgin Mary or temptress/Eve, either as the forgiven whore or as the bride of Christ and how men have philosophically been regarded as representing spirit, rational and logical unlike women who have been perceived as representing body or flesh, irrational and emotional. Their femaleness has been deemed a source of impurity, shame and defilement and hence not fit for priesthood. In his writing on changes that have taken place in worship in Churches with women priests, an orthodox Christian by the name Thomas Hopko connects these with clergy’s changing personal behavior and expectations. He wonders what will become of churches that permit the ordination of women, of people whose spouses are non-members of their churches, those who have been married more than once, the physically challenged, public crimes convicts, the unmarried who are sexually active, among others who would have been traditionally prohibited from pastoral service. Hopko’s alarm is a clear illustration of the great array of further interpretations and meanings the woman priest figure has brought forth (Green 6). Although the Vatican and other opponents of women’s ordination have relentlessly fought against it, some defector-Catholics do just that. Since the year 2002, Women priests in the Roman Catholic Church have been doing this. The Roman Catholic Women Priests movement (RCWP), a scheme within the Roman Catholic Church, started in the year 2002 with the ordination of seven women in Germany on the Danube River. Green points out that these women followed and defended their call to vocation without the presence of a thoroughgoing theology that recognized their distinctiveness as women (1). In the year 2003, two among the seven women including Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger and Gisela Forster were ordained bishops, and Patricia Fresen who currently lives in Germany but from South Africa was as well ordained a bishop in 2005. Later, Ida Reming and Dana Reynolds were ordained bishops in the year 2006 and 2008 respectively. Dana Reynolds, who is from California, became the first Roman Catholic Woman bishop in American. These Women Bishops, ordained in full Apostolic Succession, together with those that they preceded, continue to ordain women in the Catholic Church (Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA, 5). For instance, a Chicago tribune article features a woman by the name Janine Denomme who, Roman Catholic Women Priests, a group of Catholic women, is about to ordain. The mission of this group is spiritually preparing, ordaining, as well as supporting all kinds of Roman Catholic women and men, who have theological qualification, have the commitment to an inclusive Church model, and who their communities together with the Holy Spirit have called to priesthood (Sharper 4). Sharper further explains that since the Roman Catholic Church believes in apostolic succession, these women obtain their ecclesiastical authority directly from the undisrupted chain, which started when Christ ordained Saint Peter. They believe that in matters of morals, faith, in addition to the valid dispensation of sacraments, apostolic succession gives them equivalent priestly authority. This is contrary to the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith of the Vatican. In fact, in the year 2008, they expelled the Women priests and threatened to excommunicate any other women or bishops who would partake in the ordination of women. In rejoinder, the Roman Catholic women priests said that they are loyal church members standing in the prophetic tradition of sacred obedience to the call of the Spirit to bring a transformation to an unjust women-discriminating law. They further affirmed that on the international, national and local levels, their movement was getting fervent responses and that they would incessantly serve their church in a new priestly ministry, wherein all Spirit-empowered, Christ-centered communities anywhere they are called can celebrate the sacraments (Sharper 5). Over the years of the existence of Women’s Ordination Conference, ordinary Catholic laypeople’s ideas have been altered. Statistics indicate that in the year 1974, only twenty-nine percent of Catholics supported the ordination of women. By the year 1985, forty-seven percent of Catholics supported it. In the year 1992 and in subsequent surveys, roughly sixty-seven percent of Catholics supported women’s ordination. In at last one poll of the Catholics under the age of thirty-five, eighty percent were in favor of women’s ordination (Lamarre 2). Although several surveys have revealed a close to consensus both in North America plus much of Europe supportive of ordination of women, this is not evident elsewhere in the entire globe, especially so where the feminist movement has been less influential. The pursuit of women ordination seems to persist in North America especially, where the feminist movement has effectively propped up an end to nearly all gender inequity in government, education, industry and commerce. Adults in North America increasingly perceive discrimination along gender lines as sharing the same category with racial discrimination. They are therefore rejecting it terming it as prejudiced, irrational and profoundly immoral. Moreover, majority criticize the Catholic Church for its rigid stand on exclusively male ordination (Robinson 3). The ordained women priests in the Catholic Church declare that they are no longer seeking permission to priesthood but instead they have taken back their legitimate God-given position ministering to Church faithful as inclusive and welcoming priests. They advertently admit that they have not only challenged the Canon Law 1024 of the Church, but also have broken it maintaining that it is an unjust law, which discriminates against women. They also hold that whatever some male bishops may let the faithful believe notwithstanding, their ordinations are justifiable owing to the fact that they are ordained in the line of uninterrupted apostolic succession in the Roman Catholic Church. They further assert that the Catholic faithful have embraced them as their priests and that they have continually had their support as they grow from the first seven bold women priests ordained in 2002 on the Danube River. They categorically state that they are there to stay and minister as priests – actually, ordained women priests are already ministering in more than twenty-three states across America (Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA, 5). Globally, the RCWP movement has at present attained over a hundred members who are repossessing their primordial spiritual heritage along with remodeling a Church that is more inclusive and Christ-centered for the 21st century. The members of the movement advocate a novel priestly-ministry model united with the people with whom they serve. They claim to be rooted in a response to Jesus Christ who called not only men but also women to be disciples as well as equals living the Gospel (Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA, 5). According to Green who holds a feminist position, the long road towards women’s ordination revealed the significance of sexuality and gender in priesthood interpretation. He argues that people have imagined God as a romanticized projection of male identity and women have been left deprived of a divine horizon and consequently of a sense of self. He asserts that the fact that women have always lived in self-denial in service of men has been damaging for them since they have learnt to restrain their personal desires and have not developed their full potential. He believes that women should be in a position to enter into the priestly ministry as the selected alternative of a responsible and free agent since the self-sacrifice concept is redeemed through their priesthood. Green is of the opinion that while a woman priest challenges inherited understandings, she allows the Church to get an absolute picture of humanity and of God. Conclusion Apparently, priesthood in the Catholic Church, is power – any decision-making structure must include an ordained person. I concur with Lamarre that empowering women would be for the whole church’s good. The Catholic Church has not fully managed to hold women from ordination. Those who wish to be ordained have always strategized on how to claim for their power and put into effect their ministry. Today, many of these women carry out priestly functions, either in the church, with no official power, and frequently performing limited roles or within small, independent communities with no official authority. Others leave for other protestant churches where they become ministers or priests. Works Cited Bogle, Joanna. Women priests - no chance. This Rock. 1997. Web. Green, Ali. A theology of women's priesthood. London: SPCK Publishing, 2009. Print. Lamarre, Meaghan. Impact of Catholic feminist dissent. 2008. Web. Robinson, B.A. The Roman Catholic Church and female ordination. 2009. Web. Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA. Roman Catholic womenpriests. 2010. Web. Sharper, Becky. The Catholic Priesthood: now with women! 2010. Web. Witham, Larry. A. Who shall lead them?: The future of ministry in America. New York: Oxford University press, 2005. Print. Read More