The Catholic Church has moved on since the day, on
29 July 1904, when Pope Pius X instructed the bishops of Italy not to trust the
intelligence or reliability of women.
In public
meetings, never allow women to take the word, however respectable or pious they
may seem. If on a specific occasion bishops consider it opportune to permit a
meeting for women by themselves, these may not speak except under the
presidency and supervision of high ecclesiastical personalities. (1)
Church authorities have now come to terms with the
fact that women are capable of heading academic faculties, running major
corporations, ruling their countries as prime ministers or presidents. But such
secular competence does not empower women to assume spiritual leadership in the
Church.
Pressed on this issue during a meeting with the
clergy of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI recently asserted that women contribute to
the government of the Church through their manifold services. He mentioned a
number of women saints of the past who have made their mark. But these
services, though crucial to the Church, are purely of an auxiliary, charismatic
nature, he said. The true government of the Church is reserved to men.
The
priestly ministry of the Lord, as we know, is reserved to men, since the
priestly ministry is government in the deep sense, which, in short, means it is
the Sacrament [of Orders] that governs the Church.
This is the crucial
point. It is not a particular man who does something, but the priest in him
governs, faithful to his mission, in the sense that it is the Sacrament, that
is, through the Sacrament it is Christ himself who governs, both through the
Eucharist and in the other Sacraments, and thus Christ always
presides.(2)
The
implication of this piece of typical ecclesiastical jargon is that women have
no authority whatsoever in the government of the Church. Catholic belief holds
that Christ entrusted authority over his Church to the apostles and their
successors. This authority is threefold: the authority of teaching (imposing
doctrine), the authority of consecrating (presiding at the eucharist,
performing ordinations, etc.) and the authority of ruling (imposing moral
obligations, forgiving sins, taking all major decisions regarding Church
discipline). Pope Benedict reiterates that all these forms of authority are
imparted only by the sacrament of holy orders, which is reserved to
men.(3)
Church
Law puts it succinctly: Only a baptized male validly receives sacred
ordination.(4) And: Only those who have received sacred
orders are capable of the power of governance, which exists in the Church by
divine institution. (5) In short: no Church leadership for women!
You may rule a country, youll never rule a diocese!
Where does this discrimination come from?
Although present-day Church authorities attribute
the ban of women from church leadership to Jesus Christ himself as I will
report in a later section, historical research makes clear that its origin lies
in Roman Law.
The influence of the Roman Empire on the
organization of the Catholic Church is undeniable. In fact, the influence has
been beneficial in many respects. For the Romans were great administrators.
They understood the need of good infra-structures, such as roads, office
buildings and a universally accepted currency. Their military and governmental
officials were given clearly circumscribed duties and responsibilities. The
Romans hated confusion and enforced discipline.
It was a great Roman, Pope Gregory the Great
(540-604), who put his stamp on church administration. Gregory belonged to a
patrician family and had served as prefect of the city of Rome for a couple of
years before entering church service. When he was elected Pope, he immediately
began to centralise the entire papal administration. He laid down rules on the
liturgy and pastoral ministry. He co-ordinated new missionary efforts, such as
the conversion of England. He asserted papal authority in face of Byzantine
claims. He left a lasting stamp on the way the official church was run by
applying Roman principles and Roman systems of management. He is considered by
many historians as the architect of the later medieval papacy.(5)
The Romans were also good lawgivers. The
great contribution of Roman legislation was its laying down of simple and clear
principles. Roman law was detailed, specific, practical. It lent itself to
resolving disputes. It was a form of law developed by people who were able
administrators and efficient organizers. In fact, no system of law has been so
influential in the world as that which arose in the city of ancient Rome. Its thinking dominated the Roman empire for more than a thousand years, and in
the Byzantine empire it remained in use till 1453. It formed the basis for the
law codes of most western countries. More important for us: it shaped much of
church law in the Catholic church.
But laws often hide structural prejudice, and
this is what happened in the case of women. For Roman law was hostile to women.
Roman family law was based on the principle that the father of the family
(pater familias) had complete authority both over the children and his
wife. This was defined as paternal power (patria potestas). The wife
depended totally on her husband, being in fact his property. He could do with
her as he liked. He could punish her in any way, even kill her, or sell her as
a slave -- though this last punishment was forbidden after 100 BC. And as
far as family property was concerned, the wife herself did not own anything.
Everything she or her children inherited belonged to her husband, including
also the dowry which she brought with her to her marriage. (7)
The rights of women in general civil Roman
law were not much better. Although the woman was considered a Roman citizen,
she obtained her position only through her husband. Women could not carry their
own name, as little as slaves could. Only men enjoyed this distinct sign of
their being a Roman citizen. Moreover, a woman was excluded from all public
functions and rights:
Women are
excluded from all civil and public responsibility and therefore can neither be
judges nor carry any civil authority, they cannot bring a court case, nor
intercede for someone else nor act as mediators.
Women could not function as witnesses, whether at the drawing up
of a last will, or in any other form of law. Like minors, slaves, the
dumb and criminals, women could not be trusted. Women were also reckoned to be
incapable of representing themselves in law because of the infirmity of
their sex and because of their ignorance about matters pertaining to public
life. (8)
Assimilation into Church discipline
If we understand that this was the condition
of women by civil law, a law which everyone greatly respected, we can
appreciate how this devaluation of women slipped into church thinking. The
inferior status of women was so much taken for granted that it determined the
way Latin speaking theologians and church leaders would look on matters
relating to women. Just listen to this reasoning by Ambrosiaster
(4th cent) which is typical of the time:
Women must cover their heads because they are not the image of God
. . . How can anyone maintain that woman is the
likeness of God when she is demonstrably subject to the dominion of man and has
no kind of authority? For she can neither teach nor be a witness in a court nor
exercise citizenship nor be a judge -- then certainly not exercise
leadership!(9)
Ambrosiaster states that woman has no
kind of authority. Why not? Because by civil law a woman could not hold
any public function or exercise any authority. He goes on to say that she
cannot be a witness in court, or exercise citizenship [ = take part in
public meetings] or be a judge. Why not? Because civil law forbade it.
Now notice the argument. Woman does not bear the image of God because
she is manifestly subject to man as we can see from civil law! The real
argument rests on Roman law which is taken as right and just. And here the true
culprit is revealed. The cuckoo raises its ugly head. The position of woman is
not really decided by any Christian tradition or inspired text, but by the
pagan Roman law which was believed to be normative. (10)
Unfortunately, the thinking of the Latin
Fathers of the Church became part of Church Law, the Corpus Iuris Canonici,
because the first compiler of that law, the monk Gratian, adopted all their
prejudices against women (Bologna ca. 1140):
·Because of her state of servitude a
woman is subject to her husband in everything.
·Even
if a woman is educated and saintly, she still should not presume to instruct
men in a [church] assembly.
·Women
may not teach or baptise or distribute communion . . .
Women may not touch sacred objects . . . Women may not
wear or touch sacred vestments . . . Women may not be part of
a church choir.
·Women
cannot be promoted to the priesthood or even the diaconate.
·Woman is not called woman (Latin mulier) because of the sex of her body but because of the
weakness (Latin mollicies) of her mind. (11)
The Corpus
Iuris Canonici remained the Catholic Churchs official lawbook till 1910.
But long before then the inferior position of women had also enjoyed the
attention of theological speculators.
The era of rationalization
The early Middle Ages saw the start of
systematic theology. Thinkers began to demand reasons for everything, including
for the exclusion of women from the ministries. Women were obviously
substandard, they knew, but were there no exceptions? What about Mary, the
mother of Jesus? Or Mary of Magdala, who had preached to the apostles? There is
evidence that in the 13th century there was still room for explaining the
omission of women from sacred orders as purely a church practice, a custom that
could be changed. Bonaventure (1217-1274), for instance, states:
all agree that women ought not to be promoted to Orders; but as to
whether they are capable [of Orders], there is doubt. (12)
Theological ranks, however, soon closed
solidly behind the Churchs stand against women. A multiplicity of reasons
were generated, including ridiculous ones such as that women talk too much, or
that it is not becoming for them to wear the clerical tonsure. The
justifications that gained most ground were these:
·Women
are not created in the image of God; their purpose is to serve their
husbands.
·Women
still carry the curse of Eves sin.
Jesus Christ did not include a
woman among the apostolic twelve.
Paul forbade women to teach in
church.
·Women
are not perfect human beings and thus cannot represent Christ. (13)
In recent Church documents only the last three
justifications have been retained in a slightly modified form. It was
Jesus Christ himself, we are told, who excluded women from the ministries for
all time to come. That is why the Church has, in fact, never ordained women.
Neither does the Church possess the power to change this practice. For Christ
was a man, and God wants him to be represented only by men in the leadership of
the Church. (14)
This reasoning is so faulty and unsubstantiated that
it would be dismissed out of hand by most present-day scholars if it were not
presented in serious documents by the highest teaching authority in the Church.
The Vaticans arguments, it seems to me, are as pathetic to any
professional theologian as a creationists boast that the finding of
dinosaur fossils confirms the world was created 6000 years ago.
At the risk of boring my readers to tears, let me
sketch the theological jousting with some cartoon-like strokes. The debate can
be read in full on the internet. (15)
Nowhere does Jesus Christ explicitly exclude women
from leadership in his community. The fact that the first twelve apostles were
only men proves nothing. The first twelve were all Jews. Does that mean only
Jews can be priests? Yes but, the Vatican retorts, Jesus ordained the apostles
at the last supper when he said: Do this in commemoration of me,
and only men were present. Were they? We know now that women too must have been
there for the past supper was a paschal meal. Exodus 19 prescribes that women
and children too had to share in a paschal meal. Moreover, whereas previously
only men joined the covenant directly through circumcision, entrance into
Jesus community comes about by baptism which is the same for men
and women. Paul states the consequence clearly: through your common
baptism in Christ there is no longer any distinction between Jew and Greek,
slave and free, male and female. (16)
And what about the claim that the Church never
admitted women to holy orders? It simply is not true. For at least nine
centuries the Catholic Church, especially in its eastern provinces, routinely
ordained women as deacons. This diaconate was imparted through an ordination
rite that, in todays terminology, has to be judged to be fully
sacramental. The bishop imposed hands on each candidate, invoking
the Holy Spirit for the specific purpose of assigning the woman to the ministry
of the diaconate. The ordination rites for male and female deacons were
identical in all essential elements. Both men and women deacons received the
diaconate stole. Church legislation regulated the rights and duties of women
deacons as much as that of the men. Women therefore did take part in holy
orders and, according to the old principle ex facto sequitur posse
(from it having been done it follows it can be done), the
Church can ordain women because she has done so in the past. (17)
Is there any validity in the rationale of Jesus
Christ as a man requiring a male representative? Thomas Aquinas (1224 - 1274), who is quoted by the Vatican as a source for
this opinion, believed women were less perfect biologically because only the
male seed carried future offspring. Every woman is born incomplete, a monster, an accident of nature. Small wonder Thomas
taught that only a perfect human being, that is: a male, can represent Christ.
(18)
The Vatican, while not
sanctioning Aquinass biological ignorance, yet holds on to the biological
pre-eminence of men by seeing a significant divine symbolism in Christs
incarnation as a man.
The fact that Christ is a
man and not a woman is neither incidental nor unimportant in relation to the
economy of salvation . . . Gods covenant with men (!)
is presented in the Old Testament as a nuptial mystery, the definitive reality
of which is Christs sacrifice on the cross . . . Christ is the bridegroom of the Church, whom he won for himself with his blood,
and the salvation brought by him is the new covenant. By using this language,
revelation shows why the incarnation took place according to the male
gender, and makes it impossible to ignore this historical reality. For this
reason, only a man can take the part of Christ, be a sign of his
presence, in a word represent him (that is, be an effective sign of
his presence) in the essential acts of the covenant. (19)
The reasoning is seriously flawed. Its derivation
from prophetic imagery and Ephesians 5,21-33 is arbitrary. It contradicts the
traditional doctrine that Christ was incarnated as a human being (not
just as a man). The old principle states: What is not assumed [into
Christs humanity] is not saved. If maleness is constitutive for the
incarnation and redemption, female humanity is not assumed and therefore not
saved. (20)
Also, the symbolism limps. If the Church is the
bride and Christ her groom, how can the Vatican exclude women from representing
the groom while including both women and men in the bride? And if Christs
maleness and the maleness of his priests is so crucial in Gods plan of
salvation, has the phallus not become the defining symbol of Christ in the
eucharist? (21)
The truth of the matter is that few Catholic
theologians subscribe to the official rationalizations.
Stand off between the Vatican and Catholic
scholarship
As I have stated elsewhere, (22) by all evidence
available to me, I estimate that at least three-quarters of Catholic
theologians disagree with the official position held out by the Vatican. They
do not accept as proven that Jesus Christ himself excluded women from future
ministries. They ascribe the woman-hostile church practice of previous
centuries to cultural bias. They see no valid reason why the Church could not
admit women to all ministries and leadership positions.
I say: by all evidence available to me,
for a blanket of silence has descended on the theological community after Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994) which effectively forbade discussion on
the question. Theologians serving seminaries and universities under Church
control are, after all, required to swear an oath of loyalty that implies
agreement with the Vatican. As one theologian put to me: I have three
good reasons to keep my mouth shut. They are called Sharon, Alice and Bob - my
children whom I need to feed.
With Polish rigour and German thoroughness, the
whole Church apparatus has been rigged to conform. The Curia began
consistently to fill all leadership positions with candidates favourable to its
own views. Bishops are only chosen if they have first indicated that they agree
with the Vatican. Bishops are like the flagstones in St.
Peters, one Vatican source observed. If you lay them down
properly from the start, you can walk over them for the rest of their
lives. It is not unlike the old Soviet Russia where all top officials had
to be screened and appointed by the central Polit Buro.
The CDF (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith)
follows up on this structural control by censuring anyone who steps out of
line. The Vatican criticises bishops in person if they have organizations in
their jurisdiction that favour women priests. The Vatican sends letters to
bishops ordering them to reprimand and punish church personnel who support
womens ordination, often mentioning dissident persons by name. The party
line is clearly spelled out.
The bishop should prove his
pastoral ability and leadership qualities by resolutely refusing any support to
those people - whether individuals or groups - who defend the priestly
ordination of women, whether they do so in the name of progress, of human
rights, compassion or for whatever reason it may be. (23)
All such repression of open discussion happens in
flagrant contradiction to the solemn stipulation of the Second Vatican Council
that all the faithful, both clerical and lay, should be accorded a lawful
freedom of inquiry, freedom of thought and freedom of expression.
(24)
As a result of Vatican pressure, most Roman Catholic
theologians do not publicly discuss the issue. But I know what they think from
private correspondence and from personal contacts. I am a member of the
Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain, the Catholic Theological
Association of Europe and the Catholic Theological Society of America. The
credibility of the magisteriums banning women from ordination borders on
zero. Scholars agree with Elisabeth Johnson, not with Joseph Ratzinger.
It could have been so different . . .
Forty years ago the Catholic Church seemed to steer
free from its inborn reactionary and dictatorial tendencies. Between 1959 and
1965 I witnessed a new spring. The Second Vatican Council opened windows in all
directions and provided the first chance of real Church reform. I was lucky
enough to be in the eternal city during those exciting days. Everything
suddenly seemed possible. Even for women! The current joke was: at the
next Council, bishops will be invited to bring their wives, at the one after
that to bring their husbands.
Do not forget that for the first time in the
Churchs history women were actually allowed to be present in St.
Peters Basilica, the Council hall, even though the lucky ones were only a
handful with no more than observer status. But Gertrude Heinzelmann and other
intrepid women managed to hand in a formal request that womens ministries
should be considered. The issue was on the table, though it did not make it
onto the agenda.
Cardinal Ottaviani embodied resistance to change. He
was Prefect of the Holy Office and so Cardinal Ratzingers worthy
forerunner. His official motto read: Semper Idem - Always the
Same. He suffered significant defeats. One liberating document after the
other was accepted by the Council fathers. I remember the day when Ottaviani
overran the ten-minute time limit put on speakers and Cardinal Alfrink of
Utrecht, Council moderator for the day, forced him to stop. The Council fathers
applauded. Ottaviani stepped down with a red face. It was the end of
Ottavianis dominance. Or so it seemed to optimists like me.
In India I witnessed the Churchs genuine
efforts at reform. It affected worship, religious life, seminary training,
dialogue with other religions and many other key apostolates. The energy
created was astounding. Apart from some grumpy old stick-in-the-muds who dug in
their heels, bishops, priests, religious sisters and lay leaders eagerly joined
in. We felt happy, enthusiastic, exhilarated by the new prospects. It made us
overlook the storm clouds that were building up in the Vatican centres of
power. In 1975 I suggested to an all-India seminar that the bishops should look
into the possibility of admitting women to holy orders.
What had meanwhile taken place in Rome is only now
becoming clear. We could have known. We should have noticed the first
symptoms.
Cardinal Ottaviani had been restored to considerable
influence under Pope Paul VI. When the international committee of experts
recommended that contraceptives could legitimately be used by married couples
in certain circumstances, Ottaviani and three allies blocked the report. They
persuaded a worried Paul VI to reject the committees findings and sign
the now infamous encyclical Humanae Vitae that bans contraceptives
always and everywhere. It goes against nature, we are told. The Churchs
stand has had serious consequences for a country like India where poor women
often have no way of protecting themselves from violent husbands who stumble
into the hut after a binge on local gin, and demand sex.
Adaptation to Indian forms of worship was proceeding
well. Ten special indults were granted by the liturgical office in the Vatican
during the first years of sincere reform. Then the frost set in. The
archconservative Cardinal Knox took over liturgy. He had been appointed away
from Sydney because people there could not understand his kind of humour, it
was said. Ottaviani did. He and Knox refused approval to a new eucharistic
prayer for India that had been prepared by Indian liturgists during years of
consultation. Reason: it included Indian theological terms!
I have painted the scene because this was the
context in which the question of womens ministries was raised, and
aborted in the womb!
What? Surely no women at the altar!
1971 was a year of promise. Representatives from all
over the world gathered at the Bishops Synod in Rome. The Canadian
Bishops Conference - God bless them! - through their spokesman Cardinal
Flahiff, formally requested the Church to open the discussion on admitting
women to all the ministries. Others concurred. How would the Vatican
respond?
The Canadian request was timely from point of view
of the Churchs rank-and-file members. That is: the ordinary faithful,
carriers of inerrancy according to Vatican II. However, from a Church political
point of view, the timing could not have been worse. Conservative forces were
reorganising themselves under the leadership - you have guessed it! - of
Cardinal Ottaviani. These could not possibly conceive of a change so
fundamental as women entering holy orders. Absurd!
But the Vatican authorities went through the
motions. A special commission was set up to study the Function of Women in
Society and the Church (1973). The Biblical Commission was asked to look at
the question from a scriptural angle. It would all work out, they were
sure.
Imagine their surprise and panic when support for
women as priests welled up spontaneously in many official bodies. The Vatican
acted immediately to stamp out such signs of rebellion.
The commission on the Function of Women was
directed not to discuss womens ministries, even though this had been the
reason why it was set up. Dissenting voices (1974 - 1975) were suppressed as we
know from the records of Rie Vendrik, a Dutch representative. The final report
of the commission was never published. (25)
The Pontifical Biblical Commission (1975)
came out in favour of the ordination of women. In response, its report was
withheld from publication. And, to muzzle the commission for good, it was
henceforth made totally subject to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, as the Holy Office was now called. The truth only emerged when the
commissions chairman, Fr. Stanley, resigned, and when the report was
leaked to the press. (26)
Meanwhile the worldwide Anglican Church had been
involved in discussions on ordaining women. In November 1975, a theological
working group of the Anglican/Roman Catholic International Consultation met in
Assisi to consider women priests. Rome appointed two Catholic specialists: Frs.
Eric Doyle OFM and Hervé Legrand OP, to represent the Catholic Church,
expecting them to defend the traditional position. They did not. Both expressed
support for the ordination of women from a scriptural/theological point of
view. Rome promptly refused to acknowledge the Assisi report. Fortunately the
Anglicans published it. Rome then put pressure on the Catholic theologians to
revise their opinion - which they refused to do. (27)
By this time Ottavianis group had thoroughly
woken up. They felt they had to nip this in the bud: this dangerous rebellion
from grassroots theologians.
In 1975 and 1976 Pope Paul VI repeatedly wrote to
Archbishop Donald Coggan, the primate of the Church of England. These letters
tried to demolish any illusion that the Catholic Church might one day be
willing to ordain women. Also, in 1976, Paul VI firmly ruled out women's
ordination in Inter Insigniores, the first document by a modern pope to
raise the question.
The echo we hear right through is Ottavianis Semper Idem. Unwittingly he may have played his trump card by appointing
Joseph Ratzinger as a permanent member to the CDF. Then John Paul II
became Pope, a man of philosophy and ferocious faith who was disgusted at
the degenerate West with its culture of death.
The restoration of ancient values, including womans place as mother of
the family, was now going to be promoted with ruthless zeal. Hands off the
chalice and push the pram!
Leaders in a dysfunctional Church?
It is blind religious zeal that undoubtedly drives
the small group that has seized almost unlimited control of the structures of
the Church. Pope Benedict XVI has clearly indicated that fighting relativism is his main objective. Relativism is the central
problem for faith today. (28) Eradicating relativism validates the abuse
of papal authority, the silencing of prophecy in the Church, the reduction of
bishops to rubber-stamp officials, the repression of academic research and
dismantling of free discussion. All to defeat the relativism of a multi-faith
society, situational sexual ethics, critical journalism, open TV and radio,
scientific bible studies, rights campaigns by celibates, gays and women!
The return to 19th-century piety undoubtedly
comforts a small traditional minority and, perhaps, uneducated Catholics in
Asia, Africa and Latin America. For the others, the official Church is a source
of conflict and unrest. Condemnation of contraceptives that everyone uses.
Insistence on unmarried priests in the face of clerical child abuse and
dwindling vocations. No human rights in the Church. Censure of freedom of
expression and other modern values to which we owe so much. Brutal treatment of
individuals while preaching love, blaming Jesus for discrimination against
women. Small wonder that the clerical Church we have become has been compared
to a dysfunctional family.
In these families an addictive father sets up a pattern of
control and abuse. In order to survive, everyone colludes and tries to placate
and appease him by turning inward to protect the familys reputation. The
dominant abuser determines everything that the family will do and think:
loyalty to him becomes the test of membership. In this process everyone becomes
co-dependent in the addiction, and thus the system continues. (29)
The papacy has consolidated its power under Pope
John Paul II, but its inner credibility has been hollowed out. When Romes
stranglehold eventually collapses, as I am sure it will one day, reform will
focus on restoring proper authority to bishops, theologians and lay people, and
reducing the power that the papacy has unlawfully appropriated to itself. (30)
On that day the Catholic Church can also shed its
fear of our relativistic and secular world. The lasting solution to the present
religious crisis lies neither in the outright rejection of the newly discovered
values, nor in a compromise that would water down our Christian faith. The
answer lies in true integration: in allowing the salvific words and deeds of
Jesus Christ to take root once more in the new secular realities and to
transform them from within.
It should be
recognised that the scientifically-minded, autonomous and fulfilment-seeking
culture of our western countries is a distinct new culture, like cultures the
Church meets in any other missionary situation. Here, like elsewhere in the
world, the Word of God needs to be incarnated, with a preservation of all that
is good in our culture. The Second Vatican Council spelled it out.
The seed which is the Word
of God grows out of good soil, watered by the divine dew. From this soil the
seed draws nourishing elements which it transforms and assimilates into itself.
Finally it bears much fruit . . . From the customs and traditions of
their people, from their wisdom and their learning, from their arts and
sciences, local churches borrow all those things which can add to the glory of
their Creator, manifest the grace of the Saviour or contribute to the right
ordering of Christian life. (31)
The Catholic
Church needs to shed unnecessary past accretions, such as the bias against
women, and adapt itself to the new world in which we find ourselves, as the
Church has done during other crucial periods in its history. Evangelisation
means continuous incarnation, in which the Word can only become new flesh by
taking that flesh seriously.
Will women be ordained leaders in the Catholic
Church?
I look at history. The ruthless migrating nations
that ravished the Roman Empire destroyed Christian communities. They also laid
the foundation of flourishing Christian medieval societies. I see that
atrocious horror, the second world war, paradoxically giving birth to
computers, travel by jet, nuclear energy and satelite communication. It also
liberated women in many countries and brought the United Nations closer
together. I see communism, contrary to everyones calculations, crumbling
in Eastern Europe even though it seemed secure under a canopy of terror.
Yes, women will become leaders in the Catholic
Church: deacons, priests, bishops and popes. Perhaps sooner than we dare
expect. Christs Spirit has not died. She is very active in the body of
the Church. Though she works through human instruments, she will not fail.
John Wijngaards
(1) P. Gaiotti de Biase, Le origini del movimento cattolico femminile, Brescia 1963, p. 74.
(2) Osservatore Romano 3 March 2006.
(3) Pope Benedict in an interview on Vatican Radio of 13 August 2006: The power to take legally binding decisions is limited to those in sacred orders, that is: to men.
(4) Canon 1024.
(5) Canon 129, § 1.
(6) F. H. Dudden, Gregory the Great, his Place in History and in Thought, London 1905; B. Colgrave, The Earliest Life of Gregory the Great by an Anonymous Monk of Whitby, Cambridge 1985; R.A. Markus, Gregory the Great and his World, Cambridge 1998.
(7) In later time this absolute power of the husband was somewhat diminished leading to what was known as a form of free marriage which husband and wife could agree upon. However, even in this new situation, the husband had the right to make the final decisions in all questions concerning the family: for instance the place of residence which the wife had to share with him, the education of the children, the exclusive rights on her wifely duties, while the husband himself could make love to other women with impunity.
(8) H.Heumann and E.Seckel, Handlexikon zu den Quellen des römischen Rechts, Graz 1958, pp. 246 and 265. L.Wenger, Institutes of the Roman Law of Civil Procedure, Littleton 1940; F.Schulz, Classical Roman Law, London 1951; M.Kaser, Roman Private Law, Oxford 1965.
(9) Ambrosiaster, On 1 Corinthians 14, 34.
(10) J. Wijngaards, The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church. Unmasking a Cuckoos Egg Tradition, London 2000; New York 2001.
(11) Corpus Juris Canonici, edited by A.Friedberg, Leipzig 1879-1881; reprint Graz 1955; Ida Raming, Exclusion of Women from the Priesthood, Scarecrow Press 1976, passim.
(12) Bonaventure, Commentarium in IV Libros Sententiarum Magistri Petri Lombardi, div. xxv, art. ii, qu. 1; published in Opera Omnia, Quaracchi 1882-1902.
(13) The actual texts of the 26 medieval theologians whose texts have been preserved can be accessed from http://www.womenpriests.org/theology/overv_th.asp.
(14) Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, Apostolic Letter by Pope John-Paul II on Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone, 22 May 1994; Ad Tuendam Fidem, Motu Proprio by Pope John-Paul II, May 28 1998; Commentary on Ad Tuendam Fidem, by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 29 June 1998.
(15) Www.womenpriests.org provides more than 500 academic texts supporting arguments for and against.
(16) Galatians 3,28. John Wijngaards, Did Christ Rule out Women Priests?, London 1977, 1984.
(17) John Wijngaards, No Women in Holy Orders? The Women Deacons in the Early Church, London 2002; Women Deacons in the Early Church. Historical Texts and Contemporary Debates, New York 2006.
(18) For access to Thomas Aquinas texts on this whole question of biology and male representation, see http://www.womenpriests.org/theology/aqui_gen.asp.
(19) Commentary on Inter Insigniores § 100 - 102. See also Mulieris Dignitatem § 25-26; Christifideles Laici § 51.
(20) Elizabeth A. Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse, New York 1992, p. 153.
(21) Hans Urs von Balthasar, who inspired much of the Vaticans thought in this matter, states so explicitly. What else is Christs eucharist but, at a higher level, an endless act of fruitful outpouring of his whole flesh, such as a man can only achieve for a moment with a limited organ of his body?, Elucidations, trans. John Riches, London 1975, p. 150. See also Tina Beattie, Gods Mother, Eves Advocate. A Gynocentric Refiguration of Marian Symbolism in Engagement with Luce Irigaray, Bristol 1999, p. 64-65.
(22) John Wijngaards, Women Bishops? Views in the Roman Catholic Church, official and otherwise, in Women and the Episcopate, London 2006, pp. 37-48.
(23) Letter to Bishops from the CDF, Osservatore Romano 13 September 1983. The injunction is frequently repeated on the occasion of Ad Limina visits of bishops.
(24) A. FLANNERY, Vatican Council II, New York 1988; Gaudium et Spes, § 62 p. 968.
(25) Dirkje Donders, The Tenacious Voice of Women. Rie Vendrik and the Pontifical Commission On Women in Society and in the Church, Utrecht 2002.
(26) Biblical Commission Report Can Women Be Priests?, Origins vol. 6 (1976), 1 July; see also James Corridan (ed.), Sexism and Church Law, New York 1977, pp. 163-172.
(27) Brenda Abbott, What is the Lasting Significance of Eric Doyle's Contribution to the Debate on the Ordination of Women in the 1970s?, Canterbury 2003.
(28) Cardinal Ratzingers address to doctrinal commissions in Latin America, May 1996; read also his inaugural speech as Pope.
(29) P. Collins, Papal Power. A Proposal for Change in Catholicisms Third Millennium, London 1997, p. 103; see N. and T. Ormerod, When Ministers Sin: Sexual Abuse in the Churches, Sydney 1995, p. 80.
(30) ; P. Chirico, Infallibility: the Crossroads of Doctrine, Wilmington 1983; J. M. R. Tillard, The Bishop of Rome, Wilmington 1983; P. Granfield, The Limits of the Papacy. Authority and Autonomy in the Church, New York 1990; L. M. Bermejo, Infallibility on Trial: Church, Conciliarity and Communion, Westminster 1992; A. W. R. Sipe, Sex, Priests and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis, London 1995; J. Berry and G. Renner, Vows of Silence. The Abuse of Power in the Papacy of John Paul II, New York 2004.
(31) Ad Gentes, no 22; W.M.Abbott, The Documents of Vatican II, Guild Press, New York 1966, p. 612; see also A.Shorter, Towards a Theology of Inculturation, Chapman, London 1988, esp. pp. 191-205.