Posted on 01/01/2013 9:10:46 AM PST by NYer
Kenneth D. Whitehead is a former career diplomat who served in Rome and the Middle East and as the chief of the Arabic Service of the Voice of America. For eight years he served as executive vice president of Catholics United for the Faith. He also served as a United States Assistant Secretary of Education during the Reagan Administration. His most recent book is Affirming Religious Freedom: How Vatican Council II Developed the Church’s Teaching to Meet Today’s Needs (St. Paul’s, 2010).
They just won’t throw in the towel, will they.
there are other churches, the Church of England for instance, that will gladly ordain them.
The Catholic Church says no deal, so go elsewhere if you don’t like it....
the left is an irritant and get their way one cut at a time. it is called incrementalism...and they are good at it.
Leftists claim to be “pro-choice” but in reality they are anything but. No one is forcing them to go to a church that ordains men only. They are completely free to start a religion that ordains females only. But they cannot stand the idea that someone or some organization exists that does not agree with them on everything. Look how they react to Fox News(which in reality isn’t as conservative as they think). They want nothing but absolute control.
Lesbians as ordained, great
“Still, Jesus did not include any of them in the special group of apostles that he appointed, not even his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the human being whom the Church exalts above all others. Jesus seems to have believed that women and men, although equal in their human dignity, had somewhat different roles in the family and in society”
Uh dumb argument, what about Mary Magdalen? Yeah, she was pretty much an apostle. Not that I think women should be ordained, but don’t use stupid arguments to shore up your position.
The obtuse should be careful of accusing others of being stupid.
Mary Magdalen was a disciple, not an Apostle.
I can spot stupidity, that doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes make stupid mistakes, I misread situations all the time. Here though, I am not taking my comment back.
There were 12 Apostles. None of them named Mary.
"Inter Insigniores explains that Jesus did not limit his selection of apostles to men alone because of the culture of his times that did not admit women to leadership positions in society. The document affirms what the record of the New Testament attests to in any case, namely, that Jesus was in no way bound by the culture of his times. In fact, he regularly treated women as the equals of men. The New Testament record clearly shows that women formed a vital part of his following; and were the ones, moreover, who stuck with him at the foot of the cross—just as Mary Magdalen was probably the first witness of the Resurrection."
Here's the question you posed:
Uh dumb argument, what about Mary Magdalen?
Sit up a little higher in your chair so reality doesn't fly so far over your grape.
hey jerk, your comment proves MY point not yours, loser
Yes, yldstrk, Mary Magdalene was certainly an outstanding female disciple, more faithful than the vacillating Peter, more humble than the ambitious James and John, more believing than the doubting Thomas.
But she was not one of the Twelve: think of that.
And even moreso: neither was Mary the Mother of God an Apostle: Mary, who was (and doubtless is) the most perfect human creature who ever existed, whose dignity is beyond the Apostles, and one could argue, beyond the Angels and Archangels as well, since she honored by an Archangel with a title of matchless nobility, "Kecharitomene", and the anouncement that "the Lord is with you."
These things are unique, true singularities: no angel ever revealed to any other human being such an exalted name or title, and none came from heaven to announce to an earthly person that the Lord of Heaven was with her.
I was thinking about this as I was reading the first chapters of the Gospel of Luke, where it also tells that Mary was a contemplative (twice it says that she "meditated on these things in her heart) and a person who participated in the Passion via her profound empathy ("Your own soul a sword shall pierce.")
Mary is undoubtedly greater than the Archangel, and greater than any priest or pope. (Consider this: if Mary appeared to the pope, which of the two, do you think, would fall to their knees?)
To speak of a third Mary: Mary of Bethany, too, is described as a mystic, because she was the one who sat at Jesus' feet and received His teaching inwardly, while her sister Martha was busy with serving. Of course, Jesus loved them both dearly; while still declaring that Mary had "chosen the better part."
This all makes me think that, while serving in a hierarchical structure is a fittingly masculine (Petrine) vocation, the contemplative/mystical life is an especially feminine (Marian) vocation. And it is the better part.
I always tell my RCIA students that the really important and really interesting people in Catholicism are not the priests, nor the popes, but the saints.
That way they can do anything they want.
That kind of reply says more about you than your opinion.
About Mary Magdalen: I don’t think it is an accident that the pope - John Paul II - who did so much to revive the title of “Apostle of the Apostles” (for Mary Magdalen) stated, dogmatically, that women can NEVER, EVER, be priests.
We CATHOLIC women don’t want to be ordained.
We prefer the will of the Father.
Kudos, Mrs. Don-o! May the Mother of God intercede for rich blessings for you this day.
;-)
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