Women's Ordination: A Survey [edited]

[Melissa]

Survey on Female Ordination

1. Gender…. Female
2. Age…. 41-60
3. What religion are you? Catholic
4. Do you believe the Sacrament of Ordination, also known as the Sacrament of Priesthood, should include women and not only men?
   No (it’s impossible)
5. Are you or have you ever considered taking the sacrament of ordination, or a vow of celibacy?
   No
6. Do you believe that the Vatican should change its policy on Ordination, or that the Vatican should continue to stand firm in its belief that only men should be Ordained?
   Don’t Change
7. Do you feel it is right to excommunicate anyone who is involved in the “Ordination of Women?
   Yes
8. Do you believe that the Ordination of Women will harm the Catholic Church?

No, because it will not (cannot) happen. If it were, however, it would utterly destroy the Church (another impossibility) because we’d no longer be anchored on the rock but on the shifting sands of public opinion (take a look at the Episcopal/Anglican church to see what I’m talking about … I used to be one before becoming Catholic).

 

[Phemie]

You know, in order to have a valid statistic, you need to gather survey results from a non-biased source. An orthodox Catholic bulletin board wouldn’t exactly be an un-biased source unless your paper is on the topic of opinions regarding women’s ordination among Catholics exclusively.

Passus you took the words right out of my mouth (or at least my keyboard).

OP, you might have included in your survey a question about how often the responder attends Mass and whether or not they are involved in ministry in their parish. At least that way you’d have a better idea of who is saying ‘yes’ and who is saying ‘no’.

 

[Bruised_Reed]

Survey on Female Ordination

1. Gender…. Male/Female
2. Age…. Under 18 19-40 41-60 60+
3. What religion are you? Catholic Orthodox Protestant Other
4. Do you believe the Sacrament of Ordination, also known as the Sacrament of Priesthood, should include women and not only men?
   Yes/No
5. Are you or have you ever considered taking the sacrament of ordination, or a vow of celibacy?
   Yes/No
6. Do you believe that the Vatican should change its policy on Ordination, or that the Vatican should continue to stand firm in its belief that only men should be Ordained?
   Change Policy/Don’t Change
7. Do you feel it is right to excommunicate anyone who is involved in the “Ordination of Women?
   Yes/No **They excommunicate themselves really.
   **
8. Do you believe that the Ordination of Women will harm the Catholic Church? **No, because women cannot be ordained to the Catholic priesthood (the Pope does not have the authority to change the teaching on this); no one has the power or authority to do this.

If it were possible, it would harm the Church like it has harmed the Episcopal/Anglican church.**

 

[ASD]

Survey on Female Ordination

1. Gender…. Male/Female
2. Age…. Under 18 19-40 41-60 60+
3. What religion are you? [Roman] Catholic Orthodox Protestant Other
4. Do you believe the Sacrament of Ordination, also known as the Sacrament of Priesthood, should include women and not only men?
   Yes/No, because, as I noted above, I’m a Roman Catholic.
5. Are you or have you ever considered taking the sacrament of ordination, or a vow of celibacy?
   Yes/No
6. Do you believe that the Vatican should change its policy on Ordination, or that the Vatican should continue to stand firm in its belief that only men should be Ordained?
   Change Policy/Don’t Change/Since it’s not a “policy,” let’s say N/A
7. Do you feel it is right to excommunicate anyone who is involved in the “Ordination of Women?
   Feel? Me? Not sure what that’s got to do with anything, but: Yes/No
8. Do you believe that the Ordination of Women [would] harm the Catholic Church? If, in some alterate universe, or some weird, trendy, quasi-reality created by spineless Church leaders, it could happen, yes. In that make-believe land, the women “priests” would be harmful.

Questions missing from survey, what you need to know to make sense of or contextualize answers:

Surely you’re not going to weigh the “opinion” of someone, Catholic or not, who knows absolutely nothing about the Church’s position the same as the opinion of people who have made some effort to understand what’s going on, right? So,

1. How familiar are you with explanations provided by the Holy See regarding ordination of women? Very/Somewhat/Not

1. If you have no familiarity with explanations given by Holy See, can you, based on your knowledge of RC priesthood, formulate a coherent explanation of why the Church can’t ordain women? Yes/No/NA

1. If you responsed negatively to questions 9 and 10, please provide brief explanation of why you’re taking this survey, or why your “opinion” on this matter is of any interest to anyone, including you:

 

[Peirs]

I knew i had forgotten something i always do. ill prolly edit it after school today, because those question would help alot. i can’t believe i didn’t think of it myself though. thank ASD, and i won’t plagiarize.

 

[1ke]

Piers,

You can tell your instructor that the idea of doing a “survey” on whether or not women should be ordained shows complete ignorance of the Catholic Church, her teaching, and the authority of the Magesterium.

In American culture it is hard for people to understand any organization that does not share the American structure of “democracy” (and I use that term loosely because America is a republic, not a democracy). However, Americans seem to think they can take a poll or vote on anything and that the “majority” opinion “wins.”

In the Catholic Church it is not so. The Catholic Church deals with reality as revealedy by Christ.

The “majority opinion” on this means nothing. It doesn’t matter if you take a poll and every single person “thinks” women should be ordained or every single person “thinks” they should not. For it is not a matter of opinion. The deposit of faith, divinely revealed, can only be faithfully passed on by the Church. It cannot be changed.

Women cannot be ordained. It’s not possible. The Church simply has no power to ordain women. You can refer to the papal document Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.

The survey is meaningless. And, frankly, as a Catholic I find it insulting that your teacher would disrespect my faith and trivialize the Sacraments into an opinion survey.

Your instructor should educate his/herself before handing out inane assignments.

And, if it is you who chose this topic-- I suggest you find a new one. Ordination of women is not up for debate or for “survey.”

 

[ChristIsLord]

Survey on Female Ordination

1. Gender…. Male
2. Age…. 19-40
3. What religion are you? Other
4. Do you believe the Sacrament of Ordination, also known as the Sacrament of Priesthood, should include women and not only men?
   No
5. Are you or have you ever considered taking the sacrament of ordination, or a vow of celibacy?
   an emphatic HECK NO!!!
6. Do you believe that the Vatican should change its policy on Ordination, or that the Vatican should continue to stand firm in its belief that only men should be Ordained?
   Don’t Change
7. Do you feel it is right to excommunicate anyone who is involved in the “Ordination of Women?
   Yes
8. Do you believe that the Ordination of Women will harm the Catholic Church?
   No

in short the catholic church shouldn’t ordain women because it says so and if you want to be an ordained woman go join one of the thousands of churches that do. i don’t understand peoples fascination with trying to change a church to fit them, instead of finding one that already perfectly suits their needs…

 

[japhy]

1. Gender…. Male
2. Age…. 19-40
3. What religion are you? Catholic
4. Do you believe the Sacrament of Ordination, also known as the Sacrament of Priesthood, should include women and not only men? No (Holy Orders is only for certain men)
5. Are you or have you ever considered taking the sacrament of ordination, or a vow of celibacy? Yes (I considered the priesthood for a while, but never acted upon it)
6. Do you believe that the Vatican should change its policy on Ordination, or that the Vatican should continue to stand firm in its belief that only men should be Ordained? Don’t Change (Can’t change… it’s not in the Church’s power to change on this matter, because it is not a matter of “policy” but of “doctrine”)
7. Do you feel it is right to excommunicate anyone who is involved in the “Ordination of Women”? Yes (Primarily because they are falsifying multiple sacraments – at least Holy Orders and the Eucharist – and causing others to participate in those falsified sacraments)
8. Do you believe that the Ordination of Women will harm the Catholic Church? Yes

 

[ac_claire]

Hi Peirs,

If you don’t already have your full 25 people, I’ll be one of them.

My replies are in purple.

Survey on Female Ordination

1. Gender…. Male/Female Female
2. Age…. Under 18 19-40 41-60 60+ 19-40
3. What religion are you? Catholic Orthodox Protestant Other Catholic
4. Do you believe the Sacrament of Ordination, also known as the Sacrament of Priesthood, should include women and not only men?
   Yes/No No
5. Are you or have you ever considered taking the sacrament of ordination, or a vow of celibacy?
   Yes/No No
6. Do you believe that the Vatican should change its policy on Ordination, or that the Vatican should continue to stand firm in its belief that only men should be Ordained?
   Change Policy/Don’t Change Don’t change, stand firm. This is a teaching of Jesus Christ from the earliest New Testament times that reflects the natural order that God set up. Not even the pope really has the authority to change it.
7. Do you feel it is right to excommunicate anyone who is involved in the “Ordination of Women?
   Yes/No Yes. In fact, by their disobedience they really excommunicate themselves.
8. Do you believe that the Ordination of Women will harm the Catholic Church? Yes. Women can no more be priests then men can be mothers. It’s just not the way God made us, it’s not in our natures. Any time man tries to buck the natural order it’s a harmful thing.
   
   Thank you for taking your time to fill out this survey, it is much appreciated.**You’re welcome! Good luck on your project. **

 

[Insomniac]

well i did ask her if I could have it pertain to Catholics only because it doesn’t much affect anyone outside the Catholic church. and there are alot of radicals inside the church its self, mostly the arrogant.

Don’t get me wrong–I agree with you on the issue of women’s ordination. However, It doesn’t sound like you’re approaching this particularly objectively. It sounds like you went into this assignment trying to prove the orthodox (and correct) position on this issue, instead of approaching it as a genuine researcher ought to, with as much bias put aside as possible. You can be fair and balanced in your info-gathering (which I’m not convinced that you are. Cast the net wider on the internet for liberal Catholics and non-Catholics. I know the issue will not be changed based on opinion, but it is still relevant to a paper), and the truth will still shine through. And, through this greater objectivity, your teacher will be less likely to be irked with you (since you seem to portray him/her as one of more “progressive” leanings), and inclined to downgrade you for not being impartial.

Also, it might enrich your paper to include the experiences of churches that are structured similarly to the Catholic Church that do permit woman’s ordination (Anglican/Episcopal, for example). The question of women’s ordination IS relevant to the community at large.

1. Gender…. Male
2. Age…. 19-40
3. What religion are you? Catholic
4. Do you believe the Sacrament of Ordination, also known as the Sacrament of Priesthood, should include women and not only men?
   No
5. Are you or have you ever considered taking the sacrament of ordination, or a vow of celibacy?
   Yes
6. Do you believe that the Vatican should change its policy on Ordination, or that the Vatican should continue to stand firm in its belief that only men should be Ordained?
   Don’t Change. It cannot be changed.
7. Do you feel it is right to excommunicate anyone who is involved in the “Ordination of Women?
   Yes. Although it doesn’t matter, as those involved in these “ordinations” are automatically excommunicating themselves.
8. Do you believe that the Ordination of Women will harm the Catholic Church? Yes, as it would do great damage to the Church’s credibility as the One True Church if it flipped flopped on dogma like this, especially in a way that so contradicts the Historic Faith that we share with the Orthodox, etc. It would kill reunion with the East, and alienate those faithful to our Church’s teachings.

 

[Nat2]

Survey on Female Ordination

1. Female
2. Under 18
3. Catholic
4. No
5. Yes, used to want to be a nun.
6. Don’t Change
7. Yes
8. Yes

God Bless!

 

[barb_finnegan]

Hallo, my name is Peirs and I’ve started this thread for a simple reason. I am a Highschool student and as a requirement to write a Rhetorical research paper for my AP Literature class i have to survey at least twenty five people. I decided that since my topic, which is Should the Catholic Church allow the Ordination of Women, that it was best that i found mostly Catholics to survey, though anyone is more then welcome to fill out the survey. it’s not ment to offend people in any way, it’s just a simple questionnaire, and i hope that a few of you can find it in your hearts to take a few minutes out of your time to answer this simple survey.

                                                                            ~Peirs

Survey on Female Ordination

1. Gender…. Male/Female - Female
2. Age…. Under 18 19-40 41-60 60+ - 41-60 [54]
3. What religion are you? Catholic Orthodox Protestant Other
   • Catholic
4. Do you believe the Sacrament of Ordination, also known as the Sacrament of Priesthood, should include women and not only men?
   Yes/No - NO
5. Are you or have you ever considered taking the sacrament of ordination, or a vow of celibacy?
   Yes/No - No on Ordination [see above] Still single, but thought of religious life when younger.
6. Do you believe that the Vatican should change its policy on Ordination, or that the Vatican should continue to stand firm in its belief that only men should be Ordained?
   Change Policy/Don’t Change - DON’T CHANGE. Haven’t you heard of “Ordinatio Sacerdotialis” in 1994?
7. Do you feel it is right to excommunicate anyone who is involved in the “Ordination of Women?
   Yes/No - YES-and they should be thrown out of the Church!
8. Do you believe that the Ordination of Women will harm the Catholic Church?

• YES-the male priest is ‘in persona Christi’ when he is at the altar-and Christ was A MAN! Why can’t Catholics understand this? ROME HAS SPOKEN-CASE CLOSED!!!

Thank you for taking your time to fill out this survey, it is much appreciated.

---

BTW-are you a student in a public, or ‘Catholic’ school? If you’re doing this in a ‘Catholic’ school, then they’re teaching you wrong!

OK, enough ranting…sheesh…

 

[EasterJoy]

Survey on Female Ordination

1. Gender…. Male/Female Female
2. Age…. Under 18 19-40 41-60 60+ 41-60
3. What religion are you? **Catholic **Orthodox Protestant Other
4. Do you believe the Sacrament of Ordination, also known as the Sacrament of Priesthood, should include women and not only men?
   Yes/No (Not that I think my personal opinion is informed enough, let alone authoritative enough, to carry any weight.)
5. Are you or have you ever considered taking the sacrament of ordination, or a vow of celibacy?
   Yes/No*. No to considering whether I have a vocation to the priesthood. I considered being a sister very briefly, which would mean agreeing to never marry. I have thought about women who believe themselves to have a vocation to the priesthood. My heart goes out to them, but there are men in the same boat. The priesthood isn’t a career choice; the bishop(s) have to discern your call, too.
6. Do you believe that the Vatican should change its policy on Ordination, or that the Vatican should continue to stand firm in its belief that only men should be Ordained?
   Change Policy/Don’t Change
   I am satisfied that the heirarchy are correct in their assessment that the issue is “can” and not “will.” It won’t be done because it can’t be done.
7. Do you feel it is right to excommunicate anyone who is involved in the “Ordination of Women?
   Yes/No
   I think it is right to excommunicate anyone who knowingly attempts to perform any ordination (or a marriage, for that matter) for which an impediment exists. I also think it is right to excommunicate anyone who cooperates in maintaining the pretense that someone who does not have valid priestly faculties actually has those faculties. It is regrettable, it is sad, but it is necessary. It is not as if they are forbidden to pray with us or enter our churches. They’re forbidden Holy Communion until they truly return to communion. I think that is an appropriate thing, like forbidding someone with a belly wound from eating anything until they are sewn up.
8. Do you believe that the Ordination of Women will harm the Catholic Church?
   Yes/No
   If it did no harm, it would be permitted. This isn’t a vendetta against women or against change.

Thank you for taking your time to fill out this survey, it is much appreciated.

 

[ASD]

Whoops. 1ke already beat me to this. But, I hate to delete.

well i did ask her if I could have it pertain to Catholics only because it doesn’t much affect anyone outside the Catholic church. and there are alot of radicals inside the church its self, mostly the arrogant. i have an interview with an ordained women as well as the excommunicated Fr. Roy Bourgeois, so my paper won’t be too biased, but i do think you’re right, i’ll still keep this thread open but i’ll look for a site that supports womens ordination as well and see just how insanely different the answers will be

Peirs, since the question of methodology has come up, I will go ahead and ask:

Since the Church isn’t a democracy, what is the point of an opinion poll? I mean, aren’t opinion polls a research technique that only make sense in markets, or something similar? Markets of ideas or products or whatever? They’re used to test the viability of an idea or the legitimacy of a policy. Is that appropriate here?

Look, I won’t be surprised if you find many Catholics who have grown up in consumerist, individualistic democratic societies who don’t pay much attention to anything the Church teaches. On the other hand you’ll find many who do pay some attention to what the Church teaches. So, what follows? What will that nose count actually tell us?

The problem: I’m afraid that anti-Christian and anti-Catholic folk will want to draw incorrect conclusions about the legitimacy of the Church and its teachings.

Consider: If we polled citizens of a regime and discovered that (1) a majority of them do not support policy X; but, (2) they have no way to change policy X, then we would immediately question the legitimacy of both policy X and the regime or system that keeps policy X in place.

My guess is that many people erroneously reason more or less like that about the inability of the Church to ordain women. It will go something like this:

1. 
   *]Fifty-four percent, say, of Catholics in USA think that the Church should ordain women.
   *]The only form of legitimacy, many people think, is majority rule.

1. 
   *]Therefore the Church should ordain women.
   
   Question: Since, regardless of what many people think, premise #2 is not correct, why play into that syllogism at all?
   

   ASD​

   Traditional Latin Mass: Translation and Grammar

 

[porthos11]

I think I should warn the OP that this administering a questionnaire on an Internet forum is not sound survey methodology, and not scientific, since only those who choose to participate will end up surveyed. The results will most likely be skewed. The proper way would be to pick a random sample and ask them. If it’s for a high school paper, accosting 25 people at random should be sufficient.

 

[LeroyCRHP]

Survey on Female Ordination

1. Gender…. Male
2. Age…. 41-60 48
3. What religion are you? Catholic
4. Do you believe the Sacrament of Ordination, also known as the Sacrament of Priesthood, should include women and not only men?
   No
5. Are you or have you ever considered taking the sacrament of ordination, or a vow of celibacy?
   No
6. Do you believe that the Vatican should change its policy on Ordination, or that the Vatican should continue to stand firm in its belief that only men should be Ordained?
   Don’t Change
7. Do you feel it is right to excommunicate anyone who is involved in the “Ordination of Women?
   Yes
8. Do you believe that the Ordination of Women will harm the Catholic Church?
   No

 

[EasterJoy]

---

BTW-are you a student in a public, or ‘Catholic’ school? If you’re doing this in a ‘Catholic’ school, then they’re teaching you wrong!

OK, enough ranting…sheesh…

This is a topic being discussed by Catholics. There are many Catholics who do not understand the issues but who, with an uninformed intellect, follow their feelings on the matter. These ill-informed Catholics include those who are paying tuition to send their kids to Catholic high schools.

It is vital that the issue be addressed in Catholic high schools, since the students may well be getting misinformation at home and even in their parishes.

 

[bilop]

Hallo, my name is Peirs and I’ve started this thread for a simple reason. I am a Highschool student and as a requirement to write a Rhetorical research paper for my AP Literature class i have to survey at least twenty five people. I decided that since my topic, which is Should the Catholic Church allow the Ordination of Women, that it was best that i found mostly Catholics to survey, though anyone is more then welcome to fill out the survey. it’s not ment to offend people in any way, it’s just a simple questionnaire, and i hope that a few of you can find it in your hearts to take a few minutes out of your time to answer this simple survey.

                                                                            ~Peirs

Survey on Female Ordination

1. Gender…. Male/Female
2. Age…. Under 18 19-40 41-60 60+
3. What religion are you? Catholic Orthodox Protestant Other
4. Do you believe the Sacrament of Ordination, also known as the Sacrament of Priesthood, should include women and not only men?
   Yes/No
5. Are you or have you ever considered taking the sacrament of ordination, or a vow of celibacy?
   Yes/No
6. Do you believe that the Vatican should change its policy on Ordination, or that the Vatican should continue to stand firm in its belief that only men should be Ordained?
   Change Policy/Don’t Change
7. Do you feel it is right to excommunicate anyone who is involved in the “Ordination of Women?
   Yes/No
8. Do you believe that the Ordination of Women will harm the Catholic Church?
   
   Thank you for taking your time to fill out this survey, it is much appreciated.

1. Male 2)19-40 3)Catholic 4)No 5) No 6)Don’t Change 7) Yes 8) Yes

The Church can’t ordain women. It is an impossibility, as the Ope has stated.

God Bless

 

[EasterJoy]

I think I should warn the OP that this administering a questionnaire on an Internet forum is not sound survey methodology, and not scientific, since only those who choose to participate will end up surveyed. The results will most likely be skewed. The proper way would be to pick a random sample and ask them. If it’s for a high school paper, accosting 25 people at random should be sufficient.

It’s for a rhetoric class, not a statistics class. The student is merely attempting to harvest some opinions. Nobody harvesting opinions on this forum could possibly be looking for an unbiased sample.

If it were for a statistics class, the number would be higher than 25, considering the size of the pool, the sampling method would be more strict, etc.

 

[samcarter14]

Survey on Female Ordination

1. Gender…. Male/Female
2. Age…. Under 18 **19-40 **41-60 60+
3. What religion are you? **Catholic **Orthodox Protestant Other
4. Do you believe the Sacrament of Ordination, also known as the Sacrament of Priesthood, should include women and not only men?
   No
5. Are you or have you ever considered taking the sacrament of ordination, or a vow of celibacy?
   Yes/No
6. Do you believe that the Vatican should change its policy on Ordination, or that the Vatican should continue to stand firm in its belief that only men should be Ordained?
   Change Policy**/Don’t Change**
7. Do you feel it is right to excommunicate anyone who is involved in the “Ordination of Women?
   Yes/No
8. Do you believe that the Ordination of Women will harm the Catholic Church? Yes
   
   Thank you for taking your time to fill out this survey, it is much appreciated.