Many Gifts, One Body: Women, Ordination and the Catholic Church

(I wrote this paper in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a class; it was presented to the instructor on August 5, 2010... It got a 99 :-) )

The hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of women is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved. That is why, at this moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women imbued with the spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling.

--The Second Vatican Council’s Message to Women, December 8, 1965

            Women are no strangers to Christianity. With the exception of John the Beloved Disciple, only women remained with Jesus as He hung on the cross [Mt 27:55-56] and in all four Gospels, women were the first to receive the news of Jesus’ resurrection. [Mt 28:1-10; Mk 16:18; Lk 24:1-12; Jn 20:1-18 NAB] St. Paul mentions a minister named Phoebe [Rom 16:1] in addition to many other women active in the early Church. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the perfect example of the faithful follower of Christ. Throughout the centuries, holy women have served the Church as wives and mothers, housekeepers and religious teachers and Doctors of the Church. Yet, there is one thing a Catholic woman has never been: a validly ordained priest. A growing faction within the Catholic Church is calling for the Church to ordain women as a matter of justice and equality. They fail to see that the reservation of ordination to men is a gift to the Church that allows men and women to apply their equal yet different gifts to the mission of Jesus Christ and His Church.

The 100 women who have attempted ordination in the past eight years claim to have received the sacrament validly but illicitly because validly ordained bishops ordained the women who in turn ordained them.[1] These women and their supporters want the Church to recognize the ordinations and allow them to minister to Catholics in this time when bishops are shuttering parishes for lack of priests. They appeal to anyone who will listen, saying the Vatican stance shows it is guilty of offenses ranging from outright misogyny to the violation of “international law, our human rights, the example of Jesus and integrity of conscience.”[2] Some question why, when God chose a woman to give Jesus Christ flesh and blood in her womb, women are not fit to make Him present, Body and Blood, in the Eucharist.[3] In her book Sacraments Alive, Sandra DeGidio admits that she brings to her chapter on Holy Orders “…some pain. Pain for my sisters who feel gifted for and called to a priesthood that is not open to them.”[4] The arguments are heartfelt, sincere and-on the surface-logical. Who has the right to deny a vocation based solely upon gender? It simply is not fair.

Compounding the difficulty for the Vatican is the recent Vatican document listing updated disciplinary norms for various offenses within the Church, including for women who attempt ordination (and those who attempt to ordain them) and for those guilty of sexual abuse. Calling both gravioribas delictus (grave crimes) and placing them in the same document provided fodder for those on the women’s ordination front. The Internet went wild with misleading articles claiming the Church felt the crimes were analogous. The Church’s statement, however, clearly distinguished between sexual abuse as a crime against morals and attempted ordination as a crime against the sacraments.[5] Mary Kay Kusner, who calls herself a “womanpriest” (sic), took the opportunity to plead her case in the media: “It is unjust and discriminatory that the males at the Vatican continue to deny us employment and decision making within the Roman Catholic Church.”[6] Kusner and her cohorts consistently make the issue one of sexism and fail to acknowledge the Church’s primary reason for not ordaining women: the Church does not have the authority.

While there exists evidence from the early Church of women serving in ministry, their function was ministry to other women. The Apostolic Constitutions state clearly, “A deaconess does not bless, but neither does she perform anything else done by presbyters and deacons, but she guards the doors and greatly assists the presbyters, for the sake of decorum, when they are baptizing women.”[7] So, from the late 4^th century, it was already the teaching of the Church that only men could serve as priests. With the exception of Judaism, priestesses were common in religions of Jesus’ day.[8] Jesus knew this and had many holy women among His followers-including His Blessed Mother. Yet, Jesus only chose men as His closest companions and as His first priests.[9] The claim that Jesus was conforming to society accuses Jesus of sexism when He “had no qualms about shattering the cultural norms regarding interaction with women.”[10] In 1994, Pope John Paul II issued the following statement:

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. Luke 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.[11]

Case closed. Still, it seems harsh. Scripture, however, supports the Church’s position. The Levitical priesthood prefigured the sacramental priesthood, which the priesthood of Jesus Christ fulfills.[12] Revelation [Rev 21:9-10] and St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians [Eph 5:21-32] both place Jesus Christ in the role of Bridegroom with the Church as Bride of Christ. A female priest would violate the scriptural image of Christ the Bridegroom, replacing it with a relationship both unnatural and lacking fecundity. This metaphor calls for an exclusively male priesthood, something the Church cannot change; and explains why the only valid subject for the sacrament of Holy Orders is a baptized male.[13] 

Attempted ordination of women is a crime against the sacraments because it affects the sacramental economy. While the sacraments act ex opere operato, they are dependent upon the validity of the minister specific to that sacrament. This is why parents can allow children to play Mass without fear of profaning the Blessed Sacrament, and it is why a person who intentionally simulates a sacrament is guilty of a crime against the sacraments. A Catholic expects that the priest celebrating the Eucharist or Reconciliation with her does so validly and licitly. She has no reason to think otherwise. Ironically, in their attempt to make the sacraments more accessible through their (invalid) ordinations, these womenpriests actually deny Catholics who approach them access to the sacraments and to sacramental grace.

“No one has a right to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders. Indeed no one claims it for himself; he is called to it by God….[He] must humbly submit his desire to the authority of the Church….”[14]  Lack of humility and submission are the hallmarks of womenpriests like Mrs. Kusner, “[The Vatican’s July 2010 statement] causes us to lessen all the more the authority of the Church.”[15] Her statement reveals her heart: if she cannot humbly accept the authority of the Church, whose authority does she accept? Does she faithfully transmit the teaching of the Church she claims she serves? If there is no humility, no obedience, can there be love?

Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves. [Rom 13:1-2]

The womenpriests’ disobedience of the Magisterium is no less than disobedience of God. If one believes Jesus Christ instituted the Catholic Church and that he promised that nothing would prevail against Her, then one must believe that the Church has the ability and authority to hand on the faith exactly as God intends. “…The Catholic Church is one body, having many members. The soul that quickens this body is the Holy Spirit; and therefore in the Creed after confessing our belief in the Holy Spirit, we are bid to believe in the Holy Catholic Church.”[16]  

            Extending his metaphor of the Church as the Body of Christ, St. Paul beautifully teaches that the diversity of the parts of the body contributes to the whole, rather than threatening the unity of the body.[1 Cor 12:12-26]  To the Romans, St. Paul writes,  “...we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually parts of one another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us exercise them.” [Rom 12:5-6]

            The saddest, most consistent mistake of those pushing for women’s ordination is the confusion of equality and sameness. When speaking to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Permanent Observer Archbishop Migliore reminded them “Gender equality is not sameness and difference is not inequality”[17] Equality, he told them, is complimentarity-men and women working together in their uniqueness for the development of society and humanity. The same is true for the Church. Each person- ordained, lay, religious, male or female- must offer his gifts for the good of the body. Each gift is necessary; each gift is equal…yet none are the same. Archbishop Migliore says that women “are dynamic agents of development in the family, society and in the world….Empowerment of women presupposes universal human dignity…the dignity of every human.”[18]

Since the Second Vatican Council, the role of all the laity has expanded in liturgy and in the Church- this is most evident in the more visible roles women have assumed. If there was not a male altar server available, a woman with sufficient knowledge of Latin could speak the Latin Mass parts proper to the altar server, but could not move about the altar. In the early 1970’s, women became Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion and could read scripture other than the Gospel during Mass. The 1975 General Instruction of the Roman Missal specified that women could serve “outside the sanctuary” and in 1992 came permission for female altar servers. The 2000 General Instruction of the Roman Missal allows women to fill “liturgical functions not proper to the priest or deacon” such as cantor, sacristan, commentator, usher and master of ceremonies.[19]

The United States Bishops have asked women to offer their voice in consultation and through cooperation in the exercise of authority.[20] At the parish level, women are pastoral leaders, catechists, teachers, altar servers, cantors and lectors. They serve on finance, liturgical and pastoral councils in their parishes. In the early 1990’s, women filled 85% of the non-ordained ministerial positions in Catholic parishes in the United States.[21] Their gifts extend beyond the walls of the local parish with ministries to the hospitalized and homebound. In the broader Church, women are at the helms of Catholic hospitals and universities. Women are respected theologians and hold national positions within the Church as well as within the Vatican itself.

Women comprise 20% of Vatican employees; Flamina Gionvanelli is the highest ranking among them.[22] She is 3^rd in command at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace-where nearly half the employees are women. Mrs. Giovanelli feels the complimentarity women provide is essential, “Women represent the practical side of theories…. I’ve always had the confidence to speak my mind knowing my opinion will be listened to and it will count.”[23] Mrs. Giovanelli’s 35-year career at the Vatican is a reflection of a new type of feminism proposed by Pope John Paul II. Rather than abandoning femininity in a misguided effort to be the same as men, the new feminism celebrates women’s gifts of “wisdom and moderation, courage and dedication, spirituality and fervor for the good of the Church.”[24] This is a feminism celebrating the dignity women possess as daughters of God and encouraging women, who uniquely share in God’s creation, to offer their nurturing spirits to a hurting world.

            Men cannot give birth. Women cannot be priests. The Catholic Church, who claims Jesus Christ has given her absolute authority to dictate the rather intimate details of the lives of over one billion Catholics, insists Christ has not given her the authority to ordain women as priests. The anger and disobedience of women who attempt ordination generates division. Their interviews show they want to bring attention to themselves and their agenda, not to the mission of Jesus Christ and His Church. Such amazing energy and fervor could be building up the Church rather than leading misguided Catholics away from valid sacraments. Women and men should see differences between the genders as a beautiful gift in God’s plan, not as inequality. The Church, for Her part, must continue to help people recognize and employ gifts unique to the genders- and to individuals-and continue without compromise Her work to bring about the Kingdom of God.

[1]Stephanie Wise, “Female Priests Respond to Vatican,” Iowa City Press-Citizen, July 18, 2010, http://press-citizen.com/article/20100718/news01/7180316/1079/ (accessed July 21, 2010).

[2]Ibid.

[3]Norm Leveillee, “Equality of Women in Our Catholic Church,” http://members.cox.net/normlev/norm7-3.htm (accessed July 21, 2010).

[4]Sandra DeGidio, Sacraments Alive, [Mystic, CT, Twenty-Third Publications, 1991], p. 122-3.

[5]Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Gravioribus Delectis, [Vatican City, July 2010], re-printed at http://zenit.org/article-29899?l=english, art 5-6 (accessed July 26, 2010).

[6] Wise.

[7]Clement of Rome, Apostolic Constitutions, [AD 400], http://www.catholic.com/library/women_and_the_priesthood.asp (accessed July 21, 2010).

[8]Jason Evert, “Why can’t Women Be Priests?” www.catholic.com/thisrock/2002/02015bs.asp (accessed July 20, 2010).

[9]Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Catechism of the Catholic Church, [Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City,1994],1577.

[10]Evert.

[11]John Paul II, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis , [Washington DC, USCC Publishing Services,1994], 4.

[12]CCC 1544.

[13]CCC 1577.

[14]CCC 1578, referencing Heb 5:4.

[15]Wise.

[16]Thomas Aquinas, quoted at http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=33610 (accessed July 25, 2010).

[17]Zenit, “Holy See to UN: Gender Equality Isn’t Sameness,” http://zenit.org/article-29780?l=english (accessed July 25, 2010).  

[18]Ibid.

[19]John Lilburne, www.Romanrite.com (accessed July 22, 2010).

[20]United States Council of Catholic Bishops, “Strengthening the Bonds of Peace,” www.usccb.org/laity/bonds.shtml, 12 (accessed July 22, 2010).

[21]Philip Murnion, New Parish Ministers: Laity and Religious on Parish Staffs, [New York, National Pastoral Life Center,1992].

[22]Rome Reports, http://www.romereports.com/palio/modules.php?t=Flaminia-Giovanelli--the-first-lay-woman-appointed-to-a-high-level-position-at-the-Vatican&name=News&file=article&newlang=english&sid=1567 (accessed July 25, 2010).

[23] Ibid.

[24] Pope John Paul II, “Women are Essential to the Church’s Mission,” General Audience July 13, 1994, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/alpha/data/aud19940713en.html (accessed July 20, 2010).

WORKS CITED

Aquinas,Thomas. quoted at http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=33610 (accessed July 25,2010).

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Gravioribus Delectis, [Vatican City, July 2010], re-printed at http://zenit.org/article-29899?l=english (accessed July 26, 2010).

DeGidio, Sandra. Sacraments Alive, [Mystic, CT, Twenty-Third Publications, 1991].

Leveillee, Norm. “Equality of Women in Our Catholic Church,” http://members.cox.net/normlev/norm7-3.htm (accessed July 21, 2010).

Lilburne, John. www.Romanrite.com accessed July 22, 2010.

Murnion, Philip. New Parish Ministers: Laity and Religious on Parish Staffs, [New York, National Pastoral Life Center, 1992].

Pope John Paul II. “Women are Essential to the Church’s Mission,” General Audience July 13, 1994, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/alpha/data/aud19940713en.html (accessed July 20, 2010).

Rome Reports. http://www.romereports.com/palio/modules.php?t=Flaminia-Giovanelli--the-first-lay-woman-appointed-to-a-high-level-position-at-the-Vatican&name=News&file=article&newlang=english&sid=1567 (accessed July 25, 2010).

United States Council of Catholic Bishops, “Strengthening the Bonds of Peace,” www.usccb.org/laity/bonds.shtml, 12 (accessed July 22, 2010).

Wise, Stephanie. “Female Priests Respond to Vatican,” Iowa City Press-Citizen, July 18, 2010, http://press-citizen.com/article/20100718/news01/7180316/1079/ (accessed July 21, 2010).

Zenit, “Holy See to UN: Gender Equality Isn’t Sameness,” http://zenit.org/article-29780?l=english (accessed July 25, 2010).

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