From the CNN belief blog CNN’s Richard Allen Greene and Melissa Gray contributed to this report: Catholic Church defends male-only priesthood
Barring women from being Catholic priests is not the result of sexism 2,000 years ago, it’s because women cannot fulfill a basic function of the priesthood, “standing in the place of Jesus,” a leading British Catholic thinker argued Monday.
“This teaching is not at all a judgment on women’s abilities or rights. It says something about the specific role of the priest in Catholic understanding – which is to represent Jesus, to stand in his place,” argued Father Stephen Wang in a statement sent out by the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales.
The bottom line is that Jesus chose 12 men – and no women – to be his apostles, Wang argues.
The choice was “deliberate and significant, not just for that first period of history, but for every age,” Wang says.
Men and women are equal in Christianity, he continues, but “this does not mean that our sexual identity as men and women is interchangeable. Gender is not just an accident.”
He compared the role of a priest to that of an actor playing King Arthur or British soccer star Wayne Rooney in a movie.
“No one would be surprised if I said I wanted a male actor to play the lead,” he said, admitting the analogy was “weak.”
But, he said, “it shouldn’t surprise us if we expect a man to stand ‘in the person of Christ’ as a priest, to represent Jesus in his humanity – a humanity that is not sexually neutral.”
Sorry Father Wang, it’s hard to believe that any god would be so personally vested in penises and testicles but apparently the Catholic Church clergy thinks so. Think it has anything to do with the fact that the Catholic clergy all sport penises? Nothing like keeping the good old boy’s club alive, huh? It’s one of those backwards-facing memes that have become so ingrained in the church culture that it’s hard to think otherwise if you are a member of the clergy. You know sort of like the earth is at the center of the universe and is only 6,000 years old yet this bit of chauvinism is going to be harder to disprove. Frankly, I don’t know how you can argue this nonsense with a straight face.
Upon reflection, this entire thought process does make sense because religion has always been about male domination and the control of other subordinate males. Frankly, it was never about personal salvation spirituality but it was more important in defining the “us versus them” mentality. Moreover; if you can control the males and the attached females come along for the ride and let’s face it, no man is into following a female religious leader. Why? Because regressive Mid-Eastern rationalizations, and I’m sorry but Christianity, Islam and Judaism are all cut from the same bolt of cloth, not only denies the validity of the women in our life but the universality of all life and its very existence in the cosmos. Women are subservient to men, I mean come on it’s god’s will, right?
What’s so weird about all these mid-east religions is how firmly rooted they are in the first millennium. And it’s not just the mid-east religions that are afflicted with is myopic male vision of the universe. Even a religion as enlightened as Buddhism has the male firmly ensconced in the role of the priest and the women as their hand-maiden nuns. It’s as if we didn’t know that there are other worlds out there sporting unknown life forms living out an existence totally independent of our own for billions of years. Why would we? Because we know on those other planets all of the alien spiritual authorities sport penises and testicles; let’s face it, maleness rules the universe! You’re right, I automatically assume that there is other life in the universe, and I assume that some of it is intelligent; in fact, I only question the presence of intelligent life here on earth.
Now don’t get me wrong I am fond of my own male genitalia and I really do enjoy the yin and yang of the male/female dynamic. However; I don’t feel my male organs have been the driving force in my own evolving personal spirituality. Honestly, I would argue quite the opposite and the recent Catholic Church scandals bears witness to my wayward reasoning! Yeah, I’m going to hell for thinking aloud this blasphemy but fortunately for me I never believed in the fairy tale nonsense of heaven and hell. Besides, the sexism of all major religions is a firm rejoinder to me that all religions are the province of earth-bound men and not necessarily that of the gods. Frankly, it would be more than fitting if we get the afterlife we envisioned during our lifetime; with penises or without!
Erik John Bertel
Authors of Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot
With over 200,000 downloads Flores Girl:The Children God Forgot is now available as a free ebook novel on the iPhone!
Wow what a bummer!
there is only one true church. But how can that be true when there are so many cuhechrs that believe in the same God, use the bible for their study and preach goodwill toward men (and women). Are all those cuhechrs not cuhechrs?My experience with priests has been mixed. Some were strict party line and would not deviate from the teachings of Rome even if they were outdated and made no sense. And if you check the record the rules were made by Popes who are men placed in a high position where they have great influence over people. They have the power as has been seen throughout history. Did you ever wonder why Martin Luther left the RCC? Maybe he thought the people were being robbed by some bishop who bought his miter and was now going to get rich with his new found power. Maybe he saw a church that was unbending in its rules. Maybe he thought the people were more important that the priests.I asked a priest one day while he was giving several of us boys the tour of the local seminary why priest couldn’t be married. His answer left me with more questions. I don’t know for sure, but I think the apostles were married. Some were women. Early priests were married. So why can’t a priest be married today? Do you think if they could marry that we would have more RCC priests right now instead of them leaving because they committed that grave sin of falling in love with a woman and getting married? I learned from a priest that I greatly respect that marriage was banned by a pope to save the RCC money by not having to take care of the widows and children when a priest died. I guess that makes as much sense as saying a woman cannot be a priest because the apostles, the first(?) priests were all men. I guess since it wasn’t done before it can’t possibly be done now.Where would we be today if that same logic were applied to flying?
Dear Steve,We welcome your prcesnee if you’re truly interested in serious discussion. However, denigrating Blogs another such as you did with Blogslave is not acceptable behavior here. Blogslave is a very valued and beloved person here in the ECC.Our church has a valid apostolic succession, deriving from the Old Catholic movement in Europe from 1870, as a response to the First Vatican Council’s pronouncement of papal infallibility and primacy of papal jurisdiction over all. We seek to return to an episcopal structure that was seen in the ancient church. You might consider reading Francis A. Sullivan, SJ (2001). From Apostles to Bishops: The Development of the Episcopacy in the Early Church. Mahwah, NJ: The Newman Press. We also have excellent scholars of our own, and you might look at our on-line journal, The Progressive Catholic Review. In particular, Raphael Adams, OSF wrote an article, “Recovering and Revisioning the Office of Bishop.” And Fr. (Rev. Doctor) James Farris, “The Excellence of Synodal Polity.”If you are attempting to persuade “fallen away Roman Catholics” to return to your church, your denigrating attitudes will not convince. We are not “cafeteria catholics” nor are we a people who haven’t carefully studied, gone through discernment and prayer to reach the place where we are. If you think this was a casual decision, you would be sadly mistaken. Many of our priests were previously RCC priests who left for a variety of reasons, some because of the celibacy requirement that didn’t exist in the first thousand years, or others because serving the people was perceived as a lost goal, which had become more one of authoritarian control. Our Presiding Bishop and other bishops in the ECC are chosen by the House of Laity and the House of Pastors, and is not a “top down” polity.Leaving Rome was not simply based on emotions or avoidance of spiritual discipline by our former RCC adherents who have chosen to become Ecumenical Catholics. We honor and respect the Pope and in fact, we pray for him at every Mass we celebrate, along with the bishops of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and others. And, some of our priests came out of protestant backgrounds and have embraced the catholic faith tradition which we practice.So, I pray that you’ll be willing to engage in respectful discussion, but if not, we bless you and send you on your way, but please do not ridicule other people on this blog.Shalom,M-J+