Equal but different - the case for women priests #3

St Alban's Psalter

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

It seems to me that proponents of the status quo (a male‑only priesthood) and proponents of change (the inclusion of women in ordained ministry) are often talking past one another. Those who defend the current practice tend to rely on arguments from tradition, symbolism, and ecclesial order, while those calling for change focus on equality, power, and the elimination of discrimination. As a result, the debate frequently becomes polarised rather than genuinely dialogical.

What both sides generally agree on, however, is that men and women are created equally in the image of God (Genesis 1:27):

So God created humankind (’adam in the Hebrew), in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

The role of cultural norms

It is clear that both Scripture and Tradition come to us expressed through particular historical and cultural contexts. The human authors and teachers through whom God chose to communicate His eternal and unchanging truth were themselves shaped by the assumptions, language and social structures of their time.

Accordingly, the ways in which believers think about God and articulate their faith are influenced by the cultural norms of the societies in which they live. It is therefore unsurprising that in biblical and New Testament times women did not occupy recognised positions of leadership in the synagogue, the Temple or the early Christian communities, although there is some evidence of women exercising significant and in certain cases possibly leading roles. This evidence will be considered later in relation to the question of the diaconate.

The case for women's ordination #1

 

First things first.  When we discuss any matter of doctrinal, moral or ecclesiastical importance we ought to seek only one thing – the Will of God. His will is above any individual including the successor of Saint Peter.  Rarely, is papal infallibility invoked in the full sense of the word (‘ex cathedra’ or ‘from the Chair’). 

A heart strangely warmed

 

It was about 8.45pm on the evening of 24th May 1738 when John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had an ‘experience’ in Aldersgate while someone read from Luther’s Preface to the Letter to the Romans.  Wesley wrote of the experience, afterwards, that, "while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."

The weight of the magisterium

A third factor enters into the debate about ordination within the Roman Catholic Church.  In 1994, the saintly Pope John Paul II issued a very significant document entitled Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. He did not mince his words when he declared:

'the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women'

He went even further by declaring the following:

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.

The case for a male only priesthood - based on sacramental and sexual imagery (#2)

Yesterday, I briefly considered an argument from tradition used by the Roman Catholic Church to justify the exclusion of women from ordination to the priesthood. Today, I turn to a second and more theologically complex line of reasoning: the appeal to sexual or symbolism.

In Inter Insigniores – a document of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued in 1976, the Church draws on New Testament references to the Church as a Bride (e.g 2 Corinthians11:2; Ephesians5:22-23).  Inter Insigniores extends this imagery to the ministerial priesthood, arguing that when the priest presides at the Eucharist, he represents Christ in his role as Bridegroom giving himself for his Bride, the Church.

The case for a male only priesthood - based on apostolic tradition (#1)

In today’s blog I present an initial case, grounded in apostolic tradition, for the exclusion of women from priestly ordination in the Roman Catholic Church and, by extension, in other Churches that understand themselves as catholic and apostolic. I will divide up the arguments for into three groups – apostolic tradition, sacramental imagery and magisterial authority.  In later blogs I will consider the case for changing current norms or, at least, to reconsider the position of the Church. Finally, I weigh in with my own thoughts and tentative conclusions.