Replies

You wrote, "You know what I meant. Catholicism is an urban, liberal religion that appeals to urban, liberal Baptists, not traditional ones. "

I beg your pardon: I certainly didn't know what you meant. I didn't know whether you meant the official Catholic theological ecumenists prefer liberal Baptists to traditional ones, or "most Catholics" (in the USA? in the world?) like liberal rather than traditional Baptists.

Nor was it clear for what reason Catholics "like" Baptists. Who proposed teaming up with American Catholics for the social-political purpose of defending the family and the sanctity of life? I'm talking about ECT (Evangelicals and Catholics Together.) Was that the liberal Baptists?

I would imagine that there's a simpler explanation why a group of liberal (rather than fundamentalist) Baptists would show up at a Catholic church for a ceremony of ashes. It's because the fundamentalists wouldn't be likely to attend a Catholic service for ANY reason. (Well, maybe a funeral... And of course I did have Baptists at my wedding, when married a Baptist! Not exactly liberal ones, though, and not exactly urban unless Kingsport, TN is your idea of the wicked metropolis.)

You wrote: "If you're going to smear ashes on the foreheads of female Baptist ministers, you have no right to deny ordination to your own women."

Oh, no, ZC, that's not true at all. Why would Catholics object to Baptists having female ministers? Nobody --- least of all the Baptists --- would make the claim that they have received the Sacrament of Holy Orders!! Female ministers, rabbis, imams --- makes no difference to me, as long as they don't make the false claim that they are, well, priestesses. Woman priests.

Deny ordination? My dear ZC, the Pope says there is nobody in the Catholic Church who is AUTHORIZED to ordain women. Women simply cannot be ordained. Not just must not, but can not, as in "it's an intrinsic impossibility." It's as silly to say that Catholics "deny" ordination to women, as to say we "deny" ordination to apes and archangels.

In Catholic theology, a Sacrament has a particular form and a particular matter. The "matter" of priestly ordination has gender significance --- a man --- just as the "matter" of Holy Matrimony has gender significance --- a man and a woman. Gender, we would insist, is not insignificant and not interchangeable.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to explain.