the position of the Catholic Church: "She holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church."
What? What?
This is driving me crazy!
The Christians on FR say that God created, and loves, each and every one of us, and yet, at the same time women aren't good enough to lead God's flock?
This sounds more like the Stone Masons club, than the church that Jesus started.
Not true! They made Steve Guttenberg a star!
And you are forced to become Catholic??? Did I miss that part. By the way the Orthodox also do not ordain women as priests and many Protestant churches do not allow women to serve as Pastors.
Where did you get the idea that ordination has anything to do with being “good enough”?
No person is good enough for the office.
Certainly no man is.
But only men are called.
Its not about “what I want to do”, but rather about what God wants to do.
And if you choose to be Catholic, the Catholic Church clearly teaches that God does not call women to be ordained, and that such a reality has nothing to do with the dignity or worth of women, but rather it has to do with the reality that Jesus was male. And men and women are different by design, and that difference has significance.
We can all ask God for an explanation on the other side.
The bottom line is this: The Roman Catholic Church has firmly established a set of rules for beeing ordained as a priest. These rules determine eligibility to take on that title and role.
The correctness of the rules is a valid subject for debate, but is irrelevent to this article. This woman, by her act in defiance of the duly established rules governing eligibility for the priesthood, has chosen to exit the Roman Catholic Church.
The debate over allowing women in the clergy is a long-running one, with learned people of all stripes taking any of a thousand (or more) different nuanced positions. I will not engage directly in that debate because I do not have enough personal understanding of the various sides to draw an informed conclusion.
But, again, that has little to naught to do with this article. The woman in question is rebelling against her church. One might even say she was protesting - and in doing so becoming a protestant. That is her right as a human being, but she certainly does not have the right to unilaterally change the church rules just because she doesn’t like them.
Just my $.02.