Women Still 'Not Worthy', by Charles Lewis, Ottawa Citizen, October 24, 2011

Women Still 'Not Worthy'

By Charles Lewis
Ottawa Citizen
October 24, 2011

www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Women+still+worthy/5595519/story.html

Activists of the U.S. Women's Ordination Advocates called on Pope Benedict XVI to ordain women during a 2010 vigil in St. Peter's Square. The call to allow women to become priests is getting stronger, along with the demand for an end to celibacy.

Some have called it a longstanding conflict, but others see it evolving quickly into outright revolt.

In Austria, one of Europe's most Roman Catholic countries, more than 400 priests - a 10th of all the clergy - are calling for radical changes to the priesthood.

The group, known as the Austrian Priests' Initiative, wants to abandon two of the church's most tightly held practices: mandatory celibacy for priests and keeping the clergy exclusively male.

There have always been elements in the church calling for such changes, but this time it appears the determination has reached a new level of militancy that is unlikely to fade away any time soon.

"(Hundreds of priests) have thrown down the gauntlet over a number of issues of church authority that will not go away no matter how resolutely the church in Rome refuses to discuss them," wrote The Tablet, the highly respected and authoritative British Catholic magazine. The magazine even goes on to raise the spectre of a schism in the Austrian Catholic Church if Rome refuses to bend.

In Ireland, too, another traditionally staunch Catholic country, a group also representing about 10 per cent of its priests is calling for massive reforms.

Father Sean McDonagh, of the Association of Irish Priests in Dublin, said the need for female priests fits the spirit of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council: "The biggest fight in the council was (over) 'Do you put the hierarchy first or are we all together people of God.' And fortunately the latter won out."

The council also said the centre of Christianity is the eucharist, a service that only a priest can lead, he noted. But many Catholics will not be able to take part in this most sacred sacrament because of the extreme shortage of priests, he said: "I believe the leadership should design ministry to meet the needs of the people and that should include women."

No one expects Rome to suddenly capitulate, regardless of the threat to Catholic unity. However, the shortage has set off serious and widespread debate about whether an all-male, celibate priesthood has its roots in the Bible and Catholic theology and whether it is key to retaining Catholic character.

On celibacy, both sides agree it is not dogma, but tradition, and in theory it could change.

The ordination of women is far more divisive - and, for some, dangerous.

Last year, Father Roy Bourgeois, an American priest and a member of the Mary knoll Fathers & Brothers, was removed from the order because of his open support for ordaining women.

Bourgeois told the newspaper, "They want two words: I recant. For me, the real scandal is the message we are sending to women: You're not equal, you cannot be priests, you're not worthy."

But Christopher Malloy, associate professor of theology at the University of Dallas, an orthodox Catholic school in Texas, said there is a simple reason women cannot be ordained: The church believes the issue is closed: "It's a settled matter. The church has said that it is certain it does not have authority to (change) this. The reason I stress this is because unfortunately half the Catholics you talk to think it can change. And they are in error there.

"There might be schismatics out there who no longer accept the teaching, but that is the teaching. If it were overturned, the divine character of the church would be upset."

But what do the Gospels actually say? They reveal that Jesus' most loyal follower was his mother, Mary. When he was being crucified, it was the women - not his disciples, except for John - who stayed at the foot of the cross.

And while Jesus was being led to death, Peter denied him three times. Finally, the first person to see Christ after he rose from the dead was Mary Magdalene, who ran to tell the apostles, who were wringing their hands in grief. "He could have picked Mary as an apostle but he didn't," said Malloy.

"Holiness is not at issue. Jesus had plenty of holy women around him. What's at issue is that the apostles were men and Jesus was a man. And because the priest stands in the person of Christ, the priest must be a man too."

Margaret O'Gara, professor of systematic theology at the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto, agrees the church has closed the door on the issue. But the reasons it has given for being so dogmatic do not convince her the teaching is correct. "I would say if the Catholic Church doesn't want to ordain women, they're going to have to find better arguments," she said.

In 1976, the Vatican said Jesus did not pick women as apostles, so neither should the church. It gave as a secondary reason Christ was a man, so priests should all be men.

O'Gara said neither argument makes sense theologically. "We say women resemble Christ when they're baptized," she said. "We say they are in the image of Christ when they died for the faith, when they were martyrs. So then why can't they be in the image Christ as priests?" In 1994, Pope John Paul II gave a third reason. He said Christ did not start out with the intention of picking men but through prayer decided only men should be picked.

"This is a better argument than that Christ was a male, but how would we know what Christ prayed?" O'Gara asked.