Female Priests

[Petaro]

Regarding the nun thing:

My RCIA teacher was always very disappointed in how nuns are treated by the church. The only specific example I can recall off the cuff is that most (all?) nuns are required to take vows of poverty and that diocesan priests can amass as much wealth as they like.

Assuming that’s true, it doesn’t seem particularly fair.

Nuns have found their vocation in orders along with many priests such as the Franciscans etc that take a vow of poverty, Or a form of true communism that holds all things for your use but held in title by the order.
A diocesan priest can hold what little he earns in his own name, as well as keeping inheritance. But, in the modern age I see the stipend of a parish priest barely able to pay for the running of a car, much less amassing great wealth.
If asked you may find that the ordinary nun finds poverty a freeing experience allowing her to act in the will of the Lord more freely than you and me that have to bring home the bacon to run our lives.
Your RCIA instructor may be making the mistake of making judgment on a buildings interior by consideration of the front door.
The single most dangerous effect of this last twenty years has been the emptying of the convents.If feminism has achieved one thing it has destroyed the role of women in the Church to its great detriment and the detriment of the will of the Holy Spirit. Let us hope that the aspirations for women ascribed to our Pope leads to formal action in the revitalization of the role of women in the Church.

 

[QuasiCatholic]

The single most dangerous effect of this last twenty years has been the emptying of the convents.If feminism has achieved one thing it has destroyed the role of women in the Church to its great detriment and the detriment of the will of the Holy Spirit. Let us hope that the aspirations for women ascribed to our Pope leads to formal action in the revitalization of the role of women in the Church.

I think the best thing the church could do re: the role of women / shaking up the establishment a little would be to allow women to attend seminaries (or at least create all-female seminaries.) Not to say they should be ordained as priests, but I think women should be allowed to officially achieve the same high level of Catholic theological study as priests do, and that the Church hierarchy all the way up to the vatican should then allow these female theologians to sit on committees or decision-making bodies that are currently all-male due to being priests-only at the moment.

 

[Memaw]

I think the best thing the church could do re: the role of women / shaking up the establishment a little would be to allow women to attend seminaries (or at least create all-female seminaries.) Not to say they should be ordained as priests, but I think women should be allowed to officially achieve the same high level of Catholic theological study as priests do, and that the Church hierarchy all the way up to the vatican should then allow these female theologians to sit on committees or decision-making bodies that are currently all-male due to being priests-only at the moment.

Women already do study at Seminaries. God Bless, Memaw

 

[aicirt]

What authority made this decision?

The decision to allow female altar servers? Don’t know. Did come about after Vatican II.

 

[Mongol]

Female priests are not priests nor are they Catholic

Hold on there chief. Just because someone’s disobedient doesn’t make them not Catholic. If you’re baptized, you can never be not Catholic, no matter what sort of shenanigans you get up to…

 

[manualman]

I think the best thing the church could do re: the role of women / shaking up the establishment a little would be to allow women to attend seminaries (or at least create all-female seminaries.) Not to say they should be ordained as priests, but I think women should be allowed to officially achieve the same high level of Catholic theological study as priests do, and that the Church hierarchy all the way up to the vatican should then allow these female theologians to sit on committees or decision-making bodies that are currently all-male due to being priests-only at the moment.

Good morning, Mr. Van Winkle! Hope you had a nice nap. Btw, it’s 2014, not 1976 anymore. Everything you propose has been true for many decades now.

As to the other poster noting about nuns vs priests in regards to wealth, few people realize what’s going on here. Diocesan priests are not “religious” (i.e. members of a religious order). Priests don’t take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. They make promises regarding the latter two to their bishop and to God, but not vows the way religious do. Diocesan priests are not taken care of for life by the diocese. Formally, they are employees and are responsible for saving up for their own retirement, cars, living expenses, etc.

Ordered priests, brothers and sisters all take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. They get no real salary. Instead, any earnings they bring belong to the order and the order provides for all their material needs until death.

The joke often goes that religious take vows of poverty and diocesan priests live them out. In this day and age, few religious go hungry or shiver at night, much less worry about their future. Diocesan priests, on the other hand, quite commonly are broke and keep a healthy supply of duct tape, i.e. repair kit, in the car trunk (highly dependent on the parish they serve, usually).

 

[Zzyzx_Road]

Will just say here that being a diocesan priest is definitely not a license to print money. One doesn’t get into for the status of worldly things although some bishops and cardinals have certainly been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Have to remember all parish income comes from the Mass collections and whatever charitable events it hosts through the year. All the priests in the parish, the utilities, the grounds maintenance, the services (priests do file tax returns!), etc. get paid out of that. If it’s not enough, can request more funding from the bishop which usually comes back in the form of extra contributions from the more well-to-do parishes to support the poorer ones.

Back to the thread topic: some may consider it a stereotype that women remember everything while men forget everything. But sometimes the blind rush to judging that stereotype hides the truth of the matter. Which is that women do tend to remember more than men do. For which reason alone men are far better suited to the confessional than women. I don’t mind confessing to a priest without any shield between us, man to man I trust him, but I could never give a woman confessor the same degree of trust for this reason.

 

[QuasiCatholic]

Women already do study at Seminaries. God Bless, Memaw

Well maybe what they need to do then is better advertise that fact. I’ve never heard of a woman going to a Catholic seminary, I’ve never heard a priest mention it as an option while talking about vocations, and I know several people who received Catholic education from preK through college who I’m pretty sure didn’t know that was an option for them either.

 

[Mulligan2]

Many non-Catholics as well as misguided Catholics have been calling e church sexist for “excluding woman”. Those who demand woman priests are heavily underestimating the crucial role Nuns play in the Catholic Church.

Mother Teresa and the sisters of charity are one example of opportunities for woman who hope to join the church; helping the destitute of the world is a VERY important job.

I welcome any agreement or criticism, just so long as evidence and respect accompanies it.

Also, the link below is to a list of woman who (if still alive) would have opposed letting woman become priests.

catholic.org/saints/female.php

I’m confused about your comments regarding Nuns. I wonder if 60 years ago similar comments were made about women who wanted to be doctors - i.e. that they were underestimating the crucial role that nurses played in health care, and that they shouldn’t want to expand beyond their “place” in society?

It won’t be too long before we have a female President of the United States. It will be quite interesting for the Pope to meet with “the most powerful person in the world” - and having that person be a woman.

Regarding female priests, I don’t see it happening, but I have no objections to it. In fact, I would welcome it.

 

[edwest2]

Pope John Paul II:

"4. Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church’s judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.

“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. Lk 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.”

Peace,
Ed

 

[Memaw]

Well maybe what they need to do then is better advertise that fact. I’ve never heard of a woman going to a Catholic seminary, I’ve never heard a priest mention it as an option while talking about vocations, and I know several people who received Catholic education from preK through college who I’m pretty sure didn’t know that was an option for them either.

Women don’t go there for a vocation just an education! God Bless. Memaw

 

[Memaw]

I’m confused about your comments regarding Nuns. I wonder if 60 years ago similar comments were made about women who wanted to be doctors - i.e. that they were underestimating the crucial role that nurses played in health care, and that they shouldn’t want to expand beyond their “place” in society?

It won’t be too long before we have a female President of the United States. It will be quite interesting for the Pope to meet with “the most powerful person in the world” - and having that person be a woman.

Regarding female priests, I don’t see it happening, but I have no objections to it. In fact, I would welcome it.

I don’t think the Pope would 'bat an eye" meeting a women president, the Pope met with Margaret Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth all were very gracious. and over 30 years ago my husband heart specialist Dr. was a Mercy Nun. She was a Dr. before she became a Nun and continued her medical practice. It was knowing an ill Bishop, that she converted after talking with him. She told me her very interesting story. God Bless, Memaw

 

[estesbob]

Yeah, right. Reminds me of another argument I’ve heard on the matter of women priests: women do not belong in confessional, since they will inevitably gossip to their friends everything the penitent confessed.

I fully support the Church’s position regarding woman priests, but can we please not resort to obviously sexist argumentation?

The other day my wife reminded me of something I allegedly said 24 years ago. No way I want to go to confession to someone who has that kind of memory!

On the serious side perhaps you could consider the possibility that the poster wasn’t being sexist, but rather was being humorous

 

[estesbob]

Regarding the nun thing:

My RCIA teacher was always very disappointed in how nuns are treated by the church. The only specific example I can recall off the cuff is that most (all?) nuns are required to take vows of poverty and that diocesan priests can amass as much wealth as they like.

Assuming that’s true, it doesn’t seem particularly fair.

Nobody is forced to take vows. In addition how many diocesan priest do you know who have amassed vast amounts of wealth? Where would they find the time to do this?

 

[estesbob]

I’ve got 4 daughters that remind me of things I just simply cannot remember.
Yes some of us can be wired differently but generally speaking men are the way they are and women are the way they are.

Women are the toughest and bravest and strongest of the two sexes that’s for sure.

But men are suited to priesthood.

youtu.be/3XjUFYxSxDk

I have four daughters also. Reminds me of that Nietze quote" that that does not kill us makes a stronger"

 

[Petersmate]

I have four daughters also. Reminds me of that Nietze quote" that that does not kill us makes a stronger"

Well I survived the teenage years and they still talk to me.

And I’m not dead.

 

[estesbob]

Well I survived the teenage years and they still talk to me.

And I’m not dead.

Me too!

 

[QuasiCatholic]

Women don’t go there for a vocation just an education! God Bless. Memaw

If you go to a seminary to get a divinity degree because you feel called to be a theologian or a church leader of some sort, you are going to seminary for a vocation.

I don’t think a lot of people get master’s degrees just for the fun of it. Especially not master’s of divinity.

 

[Memaw]

If you go to a seminary to get a divinity degree because you feel called to be a theologian or a church leader of some sort, you are going to seminary for a vocation.

I don’t think a lot of people get master’s degrees just for the fun of it. Especially not master’s of divinity.

I was talking about a priestly vocation!!! I thought the subject was about women priests! God Bless, Memaw

 

[Rau]

Nobody is forced to take vows. In addition how many diocesan priest do you know who have amassed vast amounts of wealth? Where would they find the time to do this?

I doubt they have time to amass wealth. But they may be gifted items from their family.