Vatican's ban on women priests defies logic
What is the surest sign that authoritarian white males are losing the battle - any battle?
They become more authoritarian. They snarl. They draw the wagons into a circle. They issue edicts. They threaten. They stomp their feet. They wag a bony finger in the disobedient face.
Yes, even at the Vatican. In fact, it's happening right now as the esteemed cardinals in Rome tell the world to stop talking about ordaining women and, most recently, that the ban on women in the priesthood is now infallible. Stomp - snarl - wag.
Indeed. Where did these men get their upbringing? Did their mothers tell them that temper tantrums would be ignored rather than rewarded? Apparently not, because these men of the cloth who have risen so high in the largest Christian denomination on the face of the earth still think that if they threaten the masses enough, we will all fall into line.
Now they're really in trouble. They've got the National Coalition of American Nuns on their case. This is a group of hundreds of formidable women who take little guff from men who get in their way. They're highly educated and have years of valuable leadership experience.
When the sisters heard that the Vatican - or more correctly, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - had issued a statement that the teaching on the ordination of woman was "infallible," they sat down with pen in hand.
The teaching cannot possibly be infallible, they told Joseph Ratzinger, who heads the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, because it is "unjust and therefore in error." Further, they said, the argument that Jesus only ordained males is also wrong, because Jesus didn't ordain anybody. At least, Jesus didn't ordain in the same way the Catholic church understands ordination.
His disciples merely became convinced and followed him, and if they became worthy helpers they gained access to the inner circle. But to imagine Jesus in an elaborate ordination service, especially one that banned women, is ludicrous in the extreme. (That's me talking, not the good nuns. They were probably operating on ecclesiastical politeness when they wrote their letter.)
The nuns also pointed out that in 1976 the Vatican's Pontifical Biblical Commission said there are no convincing biblical arguments to prohibit women's ordination.
The same Vatican statement said the teaching was infallible because it aligned with church tradition. The nuns pointed out that many traditions of the church have been overturned.
So you see, the nuns have the cardinals coming and going. Other groups will join them in attacking the infallible status of a church tradition. As they unite in this cause, the Vatican will get more and more steamed. But what can the cardinals do to silence the faithful? They have painted themselves into a corner.
Short of condemning most of the American church to hell, they have no more threats left. They can accuse the dissidents of speaking heresy. They can try to shame them, but nothing will stop this movement.
So I will now make my new year's prediction: Women will be ordained in the Catholic priesthood by the year 2010. If it doesn't happen by then, it will likely not happen for another 100 years.
I say this because the movement here in the United States gains momentum every time the Vatican lays down the law. And now the pro-woman faction is in roiling, boiling action that cannot be stopped.
This is the way change always happens in authoritarian churches. Leadership says it can't be done, shouldn't be done and would be morally wrong if it were done. Then the faithful say, "We don't care, we want it." The leaders make all kinds of threats but the laity won't be quiet. Eventually some leader caves in, and it all comes down like a matchstick steeple in a firestorm.
The churches that will have the most trouble in the 21st century are those that impose heavy laws on the people. The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod come to mind, as already one congregation in St. Paul, Minn., has been expelled by the Wisconsin Lutherans because they wouldn't stop promoting women's ordination.
The sad thing is, churches that now welcome women into their ordained ministries would never reverse their positions because women have enriched scholarship, preaching and pastoral care.
Clark D. Morphew
1-5-96
