The woman priest debate

by Editor · November 26, 2014

The recent ordination in South Africa of a woman, Dr Mary Ryan, to the Catholic priesthood – an illicit and invalid act in Church law – has inevitably revived a long-running debate.

“For one, it should be fully understood that the present teaching on the ordination of women is valid and, indeed, prudent. The Church cannot change its ancient tradition unless it is perfectly certain that it, in fact, does have the authority to admit women to the priesthood.” Archetypal Gothic artwork of Our Lady of Sorrows from a triptych by the Master of the Stauffenberg Altarpiece, Alsace c. 1455. Image: Vincent Desjardins

Catholics will know that the question of the ordination of women to the priesthood is an ultra-sensitive subject in the Church.

Pope John Paul II in his 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis ruled that the Church does not have the authority to ordain women to the priesthood, and advised that his document was to be seen as closing the debate on the subject. Further he said that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.

Ordinatio Sacerdotalis evidently did not end the debate among the faithful, and not all of the Church’s faithful seem to hold its judgment to be final, or consider themselves bound in conscience by the pope’s judgment that they should.

In that way, John Paul’s apparent attempt to forestall division and disunity by closing the debate might have failed to achieve its objective.

The bishops of Southern Africa in their pastoral statement this month on the subject point out that it is contrary to the spirit of the Catholic Church to be involved in the promotion of women in the priestly ministry and warn that Catholics must avoid participating in invalid celebrations of the Eucharist by illicitly ordained women.

The pastoral statement also called on the faithful to give a religious submission of mind to the definitive teaching of the supreme pontiff and pointed out that in his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis reiterated that the female priesthood is not up for discussion.

Whether this will close the debate on the theory of the ordination of women remains to be seen.

At the same time as the bishops’ pastoral statement was released, a Spanish priest who serves as a consultor to the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture said quite unambiguously that he was absolutely in favour of opening the priesthood to women.

This is not insignificant. Fr Pablo d’Ors is advising the Vatican on a report for its plenary assembly on Women’s Cultures: Equality and Difference, and therefore must be considered as a priest who has the confidence of at least some in the Vatican, and whose views therefore cannot be dismissed simply as those of a renegade.

The views of Fr d’Ors will not change the Church’s teachings, of course, but they might serve as an early signal that the proscriptions on the discussion of women priests may loosen, at least informally.

The sincere study into the permissibility of women in holy orders, and into alternatives such as opening the permanent diaconate to women, might well benefit from this. But if so, then the debate must be invested with certain ground rules.

For one, it should be fully understood that the present teaching on the ordination of women is valid and, indeed, prudent. The Church cannot change its ancient tradition unless it is perfectly certain that it in fact does have the authority to admit women to the priesthood. In light of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, this would require more than the arguments presently put forward.

The discourse cannot be predicated on the realities of social change. The teaching is not intrinsically sexist or misogynistic though it is presented by some in just such unwelcome ways. At the same time, the history of gender politics is not irrelevant to the study of the position of women in the early Church.

If there is to be a debate, it must be on the terms of the Church’s position: that Scripture records Christ as choosing his Apostles only from among men; that it is the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and that it is the Church’s 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.

There is nothing to lose for the Church in allowing further theological inquest in the matter. If the teaching is absolutely solid, as Ordinatio Sacerdotalis presents it to be, then no amount of study and argument can weaken it. And if it isn’t, then truth demands further study.

The question of women priests is an emotive issue, and positions on it tend to be expressed with an antagonism and mistrust that sometimes exhibits little Christian charity. There must be a middle-ground that, even in strong disagreement, can bridge division and heal disunity.