Oh… is that article offensive. So basically if ladies were just off the Pill, then they would want to pop out lots of children and be merry 1950s housewives. I wasn’t interested in being a housewife when I was nine, so I guess that puts that to rest. Or did the Pill somehow infect the drinking water in such a way that it turned tween girls in the 1990s into future feminists?
And for the record, I have no desire to be a priest. But I do have a desire to work and I do have a desire to do more than the traditional roles for women. I didn’t go to college to get a Mrs. Degree.
As for the argument, I think that the argument over ordination of women is twofold. First, I think that it is symbolic of the fact that the Church remains uneasy with women having leadership roles in business, society, etc. They are especially uneasy with women of childbearing years not dedicating themselves to marriage and raising children (or having more children) if they aren’t religious. I think that the popes and many of the bishops think that encouraging women to have careers has led them to delay marriage, limit their families, etc. I think that for instance Pope Francis disapproves of middle class women who work and thinks that we are all doing so out of “greed.”
Second, the Church is clerical and hierarchical in nature and only men who can be priests. Priests have a final say about what goes on in the parish based on the nature of the Church. There are parishes that pop up once in awhile where a priest overrules the desire of a parish regarding altar girls like what happened in San Francisco. Or perhaps a more traditional priest lectures a religious sister old enough to be his mother about the fact that she isn’t wearing a religious habit and she isn’t teaching the children religion the way he wants. Or a group of sisters who have been working to end human trafficking forever have been told by the new hardcore culture war bishop that this is no longer a priority because it might lead to the distribution of condoms.
