I want to add one more thing about “power.”
I have yet to meet any woman who states that she aspires to ordination, or that she supports those who do aspire, who understands what is entailed in the Catholic priesthood. To a person, each woman I have met (and I have met several) have a highly distorted and idealized impression of the grit and responsibility involved in the ministerial priesthood, whether that means the diocesan (sometimes called “secular”) priesthood, or the consecrated (religious order) priesthood. If you ask these women, they limit their interest in priesthood to one of two tracks:
(1) administration of the sacraments: confecting the Eucharist, especially; saying Mass.
My goodness, they’ve supposedly yearned for this their whole lives, have felt deprived
and oppressed for being denied the “right” (or privilege) to consecrate bread & wine,
And apparently identify that as the single most important role of the priest.
Code:
And it is. The Eucharist is “the source and summit” of the ministerial priesthood.
Except that it’s a tiny portion of how priests spend their time. I have found it so very
sad & even embarrassing to watch on video these faux “ordinations” of women,
and hearing/reading their comments before & after these events. They’re like children
enchanted with the external pomp & circumstance of ritual. In children it is charming
and expected. In adults it is not attractive and does not earn respect.
(2) ascent to (again) power. If one is not a priest, one will never become Pope. Except
that a very tiny percentage of priests will ever become Pope. In fact, not even a
significant percentage will become Monsignor, Bishop, or Cardinal. And few will
ever become members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. More
importantly, whether a diocesan or Religious priest, ambition is not an attractive
trait in a priest of any kind and is to be avoided and counseled against. Any man
who becomes a priest in the private hope to become a Pope (or even have a position
of leadership responsibility in Rome) is seriously deluded, first of all, and probably
ill-suited to the priesthood, second of all. (Does not have a genuine vocation.)
Here’s what Vocation is about, for both men and women:
SERVICE. It’s about loss of self, forgetfulness of ambition, humility, growth in the knowledge of personal sinfulness and an eager desire to communicate that knowledge and the benefit of humble surrender to God which characterizes the Christian journey. The Christian journey is not about getting to the Vatican a.s.a.p. It’s about getting to Heaven, and sharing the divine life (through grace) now, on earth, so that Heaven is as immediate as possible.
The typical priest has very little power, in any “political” or practical sense. He has a lot of responsibility, very little pay, precious little free time & privacy, and is a recipient of more negativity, complaining, public exposure, and disappointment than most lay people recognize. He has typically very little impact on juridical decisions in the larger Church, whether locally/regionally, or in Rome. Like the lay Catholic, his role is to obey his bishop, whether or not he likes those directives or likes the person of the bishop. His other role is to serve his flock, no matter how negative & ungrateful that flock often is. There’s a priest who has appeared on EWTN TV. His name is Fr. Mark Riccardo or something like that. He says that among themselves, priests describe themselves as “garbage men,” because of all the dumping (in & out of the confessional) which they must take.
In the secular definition of “recognition,” if he’s “lucky,” he may gain some “fame” (briefly, probably) if he appears as a guest or host on a TV or radio show, or if he publishes a book, but that fame also brings with it exposure to criticism and the potential for notoriety rather than admiration.
Against the above backdrop is the ignorant idealization and glamorization of the priesthood which every female aspirant to ordination seems to have. Their “training” has been academic (largely). Very few of them have spent time in the trenches (parishes), and they appear not to be very well acquainted with priests as people. Priesthood is a head-trip to them. And because they have no legitimacy, they are further protected from the real world of parish life after their faux ordinations. If they form congregations (some do try to), the tiny group in attendance consists of other people who are thoroughly supportive of their “priesthoods,” unlike what any parish priest encounters: a congregation which is “stuck” with him, which doesn’t choose to have him (necessarily), and which represents a broad cross-section, usually, of a community or region: people who support him, people who oppose him, people who are out to get rid of him, people who are very self-centered, people who never think to thank him, etc., and people who have so much suffering in their lives that they are preoccupied with their own needs.
Naturally that does not mean, that – as with every giving profession – there isn’t a lot of personal gratification in the priesthood as well. Certainly that can be, and hopefully usually is! But there is not “more” gratification, by nature of the occupation and role, than other giving occupations and roles, particularly when balanced out with negative aspects of the priesthood. Priesthood is both a vocation and a career. And like all careers, it presents ups and downs, triumphs and failures, epiphanies both good and bad, and is often accompanied by doubt (regarding Vocation, even regarding The Faith!) It’s not about a costume or a ceremony. It’s about a life of “blind” self-service in which your location and ministry is mostly chosen for you, not by you.
Confecting the Eucharist does not bring a priest (by that fact alone) “closer to God.” It gives him an awesome and singular power, but the fruit of that power resides in all of us: to be properly disposed & open to receive that power when we receive Eucharist worthily & with openness to those graces. There is no special ‘ticket to Heaven’ in the ministerial priesthood. He will face his Particular Judgment as we all will. His ability to confect the Eucharist and hear confessions merely humbles him – if he has any spirituality within him whatsoever – to realize how unworthy he is to perform such a privilege. He knows he is not ‘worthy’ to do either.
Nor female secular anything else. Nor female movie directors. Nor female heads of State. My probate lawyer is female. I could go to others; I selected her in particular for her competency. Secular roles, not religious roles. My current internist is female; I could go to anyone else; I choose not to; she’s competent. My gut feeling about female “priests” comes from a spiritual sense, which in turn comes from a lifetime – not of custom – but of being formed within the sacraments and the life of the Church, who is guided by the Holy Spirit – not by fad, not by fashion, not secular progress.