Thanks to Fr John Boyle for notice of an attempt to hijack the visit of the relics of St Thérèse in the cause of the ordination of women. (See: St Therese and the Priesthood). There is a good article published in Homiletic and Pastoral Review a few years back which covered the quotation usually brought out in favour of the St Thérèse as womynpriest thesis: Did St. Thérèse want to be a priest?Essentially: yes, St Thérèse said she wanted to be a priest. She also said that she wanted to be a crusader; and she expressed enthusiasm for being a member of the Pontifical Zouave. In addition, she said that she wanted to be like St Francis and refuse the honour of the priesthood.
(Hint: she was speaking ... figuratively.)
4 comments:
The spirituality of a Carmelite Nun is to be a Victim-Priest in the true sense of the "priesthood of the faithful" according to VII. Her life is offered as a "host", a "sacrifice" in union with the Savior in the Holy Sacrifice. St. Therese was only indicating her "immense desires" to imitate the "soul" of the priest, in total sacrifical self-giving.
When people see the priesthood as only a "function", "a job", this is what they revert to: anybody can do it.
'Revisionist Theresian theology': I don't think so.
It gets confusing hundreds of years later when the words are figurative rather than literal. In any event, St. Theresa is my heroine, and I don't have many hero figures in my life. I have read everything she has written that I have been able to get my hands on. She has explained so well what I have experienced. And to think that it was all so long ago. It would seem that not all that much changes with the passage of time!
Thank you for this posting, and the comments. As a convert, I find there is "so much to learn, and so little time." It's wonderful to find insight without having to dig to the depths on my own, on every issue.
Therese's "desire" to be a priest was in the field of devotional velleity - nothing approaching the field of voluntas.
She well knew that in its literal sense it was inherently impossible.
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