Posted on 04/28/2008 6:33:10 AM PDT by NYer
In the run-up to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States, there was a tremendous display of unseriousness at the National Press Club, followed by a sacrilege at a nearby Washington, D.C., church.
A misguided group called the Women's Ordination Conference held a protest – a press conference and an all-woman "Mass" at a local Methodist church. The group, as the name suggests, wants to see "the ordination of women as priests, deacons and bishops." Sadly, the group doesn't understand women or the Catholic Church.
In a prepared statement, WOC executive director Aisha Taylor declared:
"The failure to ordain women is a blatant manifestation of sexism in the church that has wider repercussions in the world.
"In the three years of his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI has made a few encouraging statements about women, but he has done nothing that suggests willingness to open the discussion on women's ordination. That's why for his 81st birthday, we are offering the pope a present: the gift of women, their leadership, talents, experiences and unique perspectives."
The group trailed the popemobile to papal events with a billboard truck that asked: "Pope Benedict, How long must women wait for equality? Ordain Catholic Women."
As they are stuck on their version of "equality," the fundamental problem with the group and its message is that whatever Benedict says or does will not be enough for them. They are not open to listening, but to dictating an unworkable agenda. If they were open to it, they would hear and see the Roman Catholic Church's embrace and celebration of women. Women will not be priests, but they will always be an essential part of the Church.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
You have it backward. It's the Church which is good; some of the people are seriously flawed. The topic at hand is a case in point. And if the hope you have is for democracy, it's misplaced. You should look to the myriad Protestant denominations with which you're clearly more closely aligned.
The Catholic Church has adapted to society throughout its history, though often at a slow pace. If you think otherwise, you’re kidding yourself.
The Catholic Church will hardly wither and blow away because some whining feminists don't get their way. If you think otherwise, you're kidding yourself.
The Catholic Church will eventually adapt, and there will be female priests, just as there are female altar servers, female eucharistic ministers, etc. People in your camp will whine and grumble as you always have. The precedent is clear, and you’re right, the Church won’t wither and blow away. It will adapt in order to survive, as it’s always done.
I'm not a Catholic. You think Jesus would have modified His Message because of the times? His treatment of women would have been the same today as it was then, because the way the Lord treated people is the way people should treat one another.
St. Charles Borromeo being full is not fantasy.
St. Gregory the Great being full is not fantasy.
Our Lady of Guadalupe (yeah, I know) being full is not fantasy.
The constant construction and expansion of new Parishes in Virginia is not fantasy.
We don't need wymynprysts. We need to more, and expanded, orthodox seminaries.
In the first place, it’s not a metaphor (which is why I used the quotes) — a metaphor is a figure of speech, and a good one can be illuminating, but it’s still only words. The priesthood is in some part a symbol, reflecting a reality deeper than language.
Thank you for making your position clear.
Good day to you.
I agree completely. Much deeper than language, which is why it is an utter failure as a justification for denying women the priesthood.
“The majority of new priests are coming from other continents,...”
Not in my archdiocese, but still, it's true, a large number are coming from other continents.
Interestingly, they're coming from places where Catholics are significantly more “conservative” in belief than most dioceses in the United States. The foreign-born priests that I've been privileged to know are far less likely, as they move into the hierarchy, to push for womynpriests than some of the folks currently in the hierarchy.
As well, the homegrown priests we have in our archdiocese are nearly all significantly more “conservative” than the previous generation.
The greatest shortages of priests are in the least orthodox dioceses.
Kind of a self-correcting problem, it seems to me.
sitetest
Jesus knew his audience, and used a template people were able to understand and relate to at the time. I’ve yet to meet a Catholic priest who would tell you otherwise.
Ordination is not a right, it is not something anyone can demand, and the lack of ordination does not make anyone a "second-class citizen".
But if you're a Catholic, it should be sufficient for you that the Church's inability to ordain women was infallibly taught by Pope John Paul II. That means it will never change. Not in your lifetime, not in your children's lifetime, not 10,000 years from now.
There wouldn't be any need for female altar servers and female eucharistic ministers if the Church in Western countries hadn't caved to the zeitgeist of the 1960s!
He called them "true children of their father, the devil" and "whitewashed sepulchers". He didn't give a flying hoot about cultural conventions.
Besides, priestesses were all over the ancient world; it was a common place. But never in Judaism, only in paganism.
“There wouldn't be any need for female altar servers and female eucharistic ministers if the Church in Western countries hadn't caved to the zeitgeist of the 1960s!”
There is one church near me that doesn't permit female altar servers. It is clearly the most “conservative” local parish we hav nearby. It is the parish that produces more vocations to the priesthood than all the others near me put together.
sitetest
Good point! It rather bemuses (and rather amuses) me when people claiming to be Christian use the argument that something-or-other in Christianity is only because Christ lived in such benighted times. Do they really think that if only God had thought about it a bit more or were a little bit smarter, Christ would have been born in a more enlightened age, one rather like our own, in fact? ;-)
Dig in those heels. We shall see.
Nope. We'll leave, and watch your apostate church join the Episcopalians in perdition and apostasy.
But you're living a fantasy, because that will never happen. Never.
Go to a mainline Protestant church that ordains women, and see how many men you see in the congregation between the ages of 20 and 60. They leave. They go away. They don’t want any part of your feminized so-called Christianity.
Where do you come up with this??? The Catholic Church in the US isn't as strong as it may have appeared to have been 50 years ago but it's far from dying. In fact it's the most vibrant Church in the developed, first world.
I also noticed in a previous post that you think ytoung people are abandonning the Church. Maybe in your parish...which from the tenor of your comments I would guess is probably very liberal...but not in the Church at large. Young people are the core of our Church...more and more of them are finding their way to a religious vocation and many of those who don't are finding fullfilment in the vocation of marriage and family life and are some of the most traditional Catholics around.
Hey T.M., can you give us a ballpark estimate of how long you think we have to go until we get validly ordained priestesses? Like 5 years, 20years, 100 years, 500 years or what?
Freegards
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