Therefore I think that Fr Wang has done the right thing in making it clear that Pope John Paul said that he did not have the authority to change this teaching, and to address straightforwardly the question of "cultural conditioning" which is one of the most popular arguments against Catholic teaching. For Catholics, it is also important to understand also that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a response concerning the status of this teaching. Since the text is not at the Vatican website, here it is for you:
Dubium: Whether the teaching that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women, which is presented in the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis to be held definitively, is to be understood as belonging to the deposit of faith.Catholic campaigners for the ordination of women have the little joke among themselves of referring to this as the "dubious dubium". There is nothing dubious about it: the dubitation comes from a misunderstanding of infallibility in the Church. Pope John Paul did not issue a definition that would fall under the category the extraordinary magisterium of the Pope. The teaching is already infallible because of the universal ordinary magisterium; a solemn definition would perhaps have undermined the importance of the ordinary magisterium. The teaching is to be held definitively (definitive tenenda) and forms part of the deposit of faith. It is not therefore open to a Catholic theologian to say, for example, that he does not know whether women can be ordained or not.
Responsum: In the affirmative.
Responsum ad dubium circa doctrinam in Epist. Ap.“Ordinatio Sacerdotalis” traditam, October 28, 1995. AAS 87 (1995) 1114
That being said, it is still important to encourage theological reflection on the underlying reason for the male priesthood in the Christian Church. Fr Edward Holloway, back in 1975, offered a thoughtful approach to the question in his article Sexual Order and Holy Order, published by Faith. He argues that in the overall plan of God, the creation of the human person as male and female finds its ultimate meaning in the incarnation of Christ, born of Mary. Within the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, the priest receives a sacramental character in Holy Order whereby he is configured to Christ. Holloway suggests that this configuration is to the incarnate Christ the High Priest and that consequently, the sexual order of creation must be reflected within the sacrament of Holy Order.
Fr Wang's article has been taken up by the CNN Belief blog generating a very large combox (1,114 comments at the time of writing this post). Many of them are hostile to Catholicism generally and to the priesthood in particular. If you have the time, you might want to go over and join in the debate. I also recommend reporting comments that are genuinely abusive - lively debate and a fair amount of flaming is to be expected in the comments area of a major news outlet but most have posting guidelines. CNN's Terms of Use include:
You agree not to upload, post or otherwise transmit any User Content that is offensive to the online community, including blatant expressions of bigotry, racism, abusiveness, vulgarity or profanity.It is quite proper to flag a comment when these terms of use have been violated.
6 comments:
The question of cultural conditioning cuts both ways, of course. To those of us born and raised in the second half of the c.20th/early 21st in a western culture that insists on the equality of men and women in all areas, regardless of any evidence of the harm this ideology can cause (particularly where children are involved), support for the ordination of women is to be expected. It is, however, purely the result of cultural conditioning and is not accepted or supported by most of humanity in the rest of the world or in other epochs.
If the ordination of women is beyond the Church's authority then why isn't drastic alteration of the Sacred Liturgy? To me this is just as fundamental.
Pope St Damasus composed many orations for the Mass. Pope St Gregory changed the order of prayers in the Roman Canon. St John Chrysostom and St Basil made significant alterations to the Sacred Liturgy.
None of these changes was as fundamental as the introduction of women priests by the Collyridians.
It was only recently that I read a priest saying that the aspect of the priesthood which strikes home to him most of all, is when he says those famous words "This is MY body" and "this is the cup of MY blood" and THEN those very words change the bread and the wine into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of JESUS CHRIST!!!!
It is those words which drives home to him the very fact that HE, the priest, is an ALTER CHRISTUS.
I'm sorry that I cannot remember which priest wrote that but the significance is that he, that man, who is a priest, at that MOMENT is another man, Christ, our High Priest. It takes a MAN to be another MAN. A woman just cannot be another man! A woman cannot be a father any more than a man can be a mother.
Those words, I found very significant.
JARay
As the Guild Master says, cultural conditioning indeed cuts both ways.
Fr Stephen Wang has set out the arguments most clearly.Dear Father Stephen,
Part of the problem that many people have, is the confusion of ministry and priesthood. They are not the same and all Christians, male & female are called to ministry. Someone recently asked what Pope Benedict’s reaction would be when he meets an Anglican. female priest in England. He will, of course, recognise her as a “minister of the Gospel” but not a priest in the Catholic sense. That is how we can regard good female hospital chaplains. Indeed, hospital and school chaplains can be lay people. A friend of mine from St Stephen’s House days is now a Catholic parish priest. He will attend the licensing of Anglican women clergy in his area although he does not believe women can be priests. He does so out of charity; and indeed, he would attend the commissioning of Salvation Army officers who are not priests in any sense, but who ministers of the Gospel. What the Church of England has done is to move towards greater clericalising of the the church by making women priests. There is great disagreement among Anglicans about what priesthood means and most women priests are not from the Anglican tradition which would uphold a Catholic view of priesthood. The nwoamn vicar in my village has few eucharists and most services are of the “all age service” variety.” These do not require an ordained ministry.
As Alex says, there is a need for the minsitry of all to be developed whilst affirming the theological need for a male priesthood. Most misunderstang of the issue seems, to me, to reflect a deficient incarnational theology which leads in turn to a deficient sacramental theology and a deficient ecclesiology. Newman and Pope Benedict are rooted in the patristic tradition, the insufficient emphasis of which in Anglican theological education has led to the gains of the Oxford Movement being abandoned but carried on in the Catholic church.
Fr Tim is right. The Tridentine and Sarum uses were themselves a result of development. The extraordinary use is celebrated in Shefford, near Bedord but another traditional rite is that of the Ukranainians (Uniate) in Bedford fortnightly. They have the biggest vtabernacle I have ever seen! I lioke any rite well done with good music. I can recomment the Oratory, Cathedral, Farm St, Spanish Place in London and the Blackfriars and the the Oratory in Oxford.
Regarding ordination of women to the priesthood, it is interesting that the posters on buses are calling for the exercise of papal authority such as has never been seen or claimed before. Thaye are calling for a papal diktat when the last Pope said he had not the authority to make the change. Women's ordination is not in the spirit or letter of Vatican II, niether can it be argued from Newman's doctrine of development.
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