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	Women and Ordination Irish Independent July 17, 2010 http://www.independent.ie/opinion/editorial/women-and-ordination-2262977.html AN image of Pope Benedict XVl, in full flowing robes and wearing a golden mitre on his head, deep in a hole in the ground, but still digging furiously, is hard to resist. The Vatican yesterday denied accusations that it viewed the ordination of women and the sexual abuse of children by priests as equally criminal. It had released a document which made sweeping changes to its laws on sexual abuse. This might have been seen solely as a progressive step were it not for a statement about the "attempted ordination of women" as one of the most serious crimes against church law. Yesterday, a Vatican spokesman attempted to explain that it was all a terrible misunderstanding. While sexual abuse was a crime against morality, an attempt to ordain a woman would be a crime against a sacrament. It was not the same as saying that one was as bad as the other. Simple. The trouble is, under church law, anyone found guilty of assisting in the ordination of a woman is punished with instant excommunication, a sanction which does not apply to the most rabid child-abusing priest. Although it would go against the custom of centuries, those honourable and decent churchmen who must be aghast at the apparent linking of ordaining women to child abuse, and the Vatican's subsequent clumsy attempts to explain it away, should stand up and make their views heard. At the very least they should send an urgent message to the Pope. Stop digging.
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