Women as priests

[inky]

I have a friend who was raised as an atheist. We have been talking for some time and she has decided that there must be a God, but she is trying to discern which religion is the right one. Her hangup with the becoming Catholic is that she is a feminist and trying to understand why women cannot be ordained. And of course she has a warped idea of what the Catholic Church teaches about womanhood. How do you explain these things to someone who is coming from a feminist background?
Thanks

 

[Lampo]

These might help. The first one is from the CCC.

kofc.org/un/publications/cis/catechism/search.cfm

catholic.com/thisrock/2002/0201sbs.asp

 

[jmcrae]

I have a friend who was raised as an atheist. We have been talking for some time and she has decided that there must be a God, but she is trying to discern which religion is the right one. Her hangup with the becoming Catholic is that she is a feminist and trying to understand why women cannot be ordained. And of course she has a warped idea of what the Catholic Church teaches about womanhood. How do you explain these things to someone who is coming from a feminist background?
Thanks

Talk to her about the female Saints, going through from the beginnings of the Church until today, with Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, and mention to her that God’s greatest creation is Mary, a lay woman and mother. The priesthood is not a role of power; it is a role of service, just like motherhood.

One of my favourite early Saints was Saint Barbara, who was a business woman. She refused to marry and give her business (and money) to a pagan man, and for this, she was martyred. Notice how the Church did not condemn her for this, but rather, called her a Saint. St. Barbara, therefore, made the decision that is in conformity with Church teaching, to keep her business for herself, and to earn her own money, rather than become dependant upon a man.

 

[catharina]

I have a friend who was raised as an atheist. We have been talking for some time and she has decided that there must be a God, but she is trying to discern which religion is the right one. Her hangup with the becoming Catholic is that she is a feminist and trying to understand why women cannot be ordained. And of course she has a warped idea of what the Catholic Church teaches about womanhood. How do you explain these things to someone who is coming from a feminist background?
Thanks

Maybe look into Feminists for Life. I’ve had no dealings with the organization but have heard a number of Catholic women praise it.

 

[mgrfin]

It’s not in the Church’s authority. There is no other way to put it. The Church just doesn’t have the authority to rewrite 2000 years of history.

We have some arguments against the ordination of women from Scripture: 1 Cor xiv 34-35, and 1Tim ii 11-12. These are as good as it gets if we have to rely on SS for proofs. We have some arguments from Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Epiphanius, and others.

The main argument, in my mind, is the current teaching Magisterium. The Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, 1994, is the reference.

JP2 says 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.

What he is saying that there is ‘defect’, although we should try to find a better word, which prevents the ordination of women.

JP2 was concerned with the current practice of women ordination in TEC, AC, etc. Such ordinations, he points out, sets up further obstacles to union.

The Church is willing to ordain, or re-ordain (conditionally) converted Episcopal clergymen, even if married, but this is not of the same situation as the ordination of women.

This situation of accepting Anglican convert priests, even though married, takes precedence over the situation of accepting back resigned Catholic priests who have married, and who are anxious to return to the active ministry.

Resigned married priests have not be allowed to return to the active ministry, and probably never will. Ordination of women is really on the same prohibited list.

peace.