In this commentary, Daniel explains his difficulties with the Catholic Church's attitude to women which, in part, caused him to convert to the Anglican Church…

Within the entire history of Christianity, women and men, in all shape and form have been called to some kind of ministry. Yet, it is clear that some individuals have been called to be set apart in order to fulfil particular roles set down before them by Christ and the Church. These individuals partake in what we call a consecrated life, a life in which they try and fulfil a particular calling such as becoming a nun, monk, friar or join a religious order. However in Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Anglicanism, ordination is distinguished from religious or consecrated life and is the means by which one is included in one of the priestly orders: bishop, priest, or deacon. While the role of Deacon has been opened to women, in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, priesthood is limited to men only.

A controversial issue…

	"Who will roll away the stone..." Batik by Hanna Cheriyan Varghese featured on the Roll Away the Stone website which promotes itself as "a resource in spirituality and nonviolent direct action for Catholics who love their Church so boldly that they will take risks to remove inequality and injustice from its midst and make room for the lifegiving inclusivity of Jesus".

The ordination of women within any church or even religion for that matter has always been a controversial issue, in fact one of the issues I left the Catholic Church over. While I have joined the Anglican Church, a church which practices the ordination of women, over more than just this problem, I must admit I am deeply shocked and confused that the Catholic Church doesn't practice such a thing. To my delight I met other young people who share my concerns with the Church's position, who also seek to learn and know more on the issue and the arguments at hand. In this commentary I'd like to explore the doctrinal position the Catholic Church takes on this issue and then I'd like to share some of the difficulties I've had in accepting that position.

The Catholic view…

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it states that "Only a baptized man validly receives sacred ordination." The Church teaches as far as Priestly and Episcopal ordination is concerned, the requirements needed are a matter of divine law, thus doctrinal. While the requirement that only males can receive ordination to the permanent diaconate has not been promulgated as doctrinal, it is clearly at least a requirement according to canon law. The Church continues to hold this view, affirming her position with scripture, tradition, theology and authority.

The Vatican contends that Jesus did not call any women to be part of the twelve apostles and therefore he established a permanent norm of a male priesthood. In his Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (On Ordination to the Priesthood) Pope John Paul II quoted Pope Paul VI, writing: "[The Church] holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church." Also some of the Church Fathers such as Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Epiphanius, John Chrysostom, and Augustine all wrote in some of their works that the ordination of women was impossible.

One of the more theological arguments made by the Church in response to the ordination of women is the focus on the masculinity of Jesus, and the men he called as apostles. According to the Catechism, the Church sees maleness and femaleness as two different ways of expressing common humanity. As well as this, while many functions are interchangeable between men and women, some are not, because maleness and femaleness are not interchangeable. So as the priest acts "in the person of Christ" and since Christ was a man, only a male priest can signify Christ at the Eucharist. The Church preaches, as water is necessary for a valid baptism, and wheaten bread and grape wine are necessary for a valid Eucharist, because they are what Jesus used or authorized, only men can be validly ordained, regardless of any issues of equality.

However, I feel there are no valid theological arguments excluding women from ordination.

In early Judaism women were second class in religion. Since women were not circumcised, they did not personally become members of the Covenant. They believe that God created man first and full most in His image but woman however was created from man for man and only partly in His image so she might have half a mind. They could not present their own sacrifices. They were always subject to men, also in religious matters.

Yet Jesus changed that.

An alternative reading of the evidence…

Christ made women's ordination possible when he revoked the Old Testament priesthood of Aaron and brought both men and women into a new covenant, his covenant. A new covenant with a new priesthood, replacing a priesthood based on the sacred by a priesthood based on grace; a universal priesthood shared by all the baptized. This priesthood is given through the sacrament of baptism, and baptism is the same whether for a man or a woman. Each woman who is baptised becomes another Christ, sharing in his death, burial and resurrection, just as every man is.

"All of you are children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. All of you who have been baptized in Christ, have clothed yourselves in Christ. Thus there is no longer Jew nor Greek, free nor slave, male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." …Galatians 3: 27-28

From the foundations of the Christian faith, women have been called to take up the cross and follow Jesus in many manners of ministry. Inspiring figures such as Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, Thérèse of Lisieux, Gertrud Heinzelmann just to name a few, and not to mention the many other women within my own life and ministry who have influenced me. In many women, I have seen and see the call of the Spirit upon their lives. Some as teachers, some as mothers, some as doctors, some as scientists, and even some as priests, Anglican and Catholic alike. I will never forgot the moment when I asked one of my young Catholic female friends what see wanted to do with her Bachelor's degree in Theology, and she replied very simply and very seriously, "to become a Catholic Priest." I was shocked, I was in awe and I was inspired.

In broad overview what I find objectionable in the position adopted by the Catholic Church is the way in which it seems to relegate women to a second-class status. I do have difficulties with some sense that seemed to develop in later Christianity, after what St Paul was writing in that quotation from Galatians, and which somehow began to view women as the "servants to" or "handmaidens of" men rather than their equals. For a long time women seemed to be looked on as intellectually inferior to men. I don't believe, whatever differences there are between women and men physically, or in the ways we process information intellectually or emotionally, that women ought be excluded from leadership positions in the Church in celebrating the sacraments, as proclaimers of the Good News of Jesus, or in ministering to people in priestly ways.

©2007 Daniel Gullotta

[Index of Commentaries by Daniel Gullotta]