The Catholic Herald has laid out in clear terms why the Roman Church does not believe it is possible to ordain women. There are various arguments given but in the end the author returns to the point with which he began, namely that priesthood is not the church’s to give: it is God’s to give, and God has given it in a particular way, and presumably to make changes to that way, would be to destroy it. “…the answer to the question is simple: the Catholic Church cannot ordain women because she did not invent the priesthood. She received it. And what she has received, she is not free to destroy.”
We as Anglicans respect the position of the Roman church, even if we don’t agree with it. We might wonder for example, how it is that Catholics decide which elements of faith or church order are God’s, and not the church’s, to give and so cannot be changed, and which can and indeed have been changed, or rediscovered in a new way, that were presumably not given and received to quite the same degree.
The article has a shot at this: “The Church may regulate disciplines. She may alter customs. She may develop her understanding. But she may not take what Christ has given and remake it into something else”.
I wonder. I wonder if we see more of God by looking back to what has happened and been accepted in the past, or by looking forward to the ways that the world – and our society, made up of people in God’s image – is changing. Are we moving away from God’s kingdom or are we moving towards it – in some kind of new world, where people can live equitably, where there is peace and respect and harmony within human society.
And if, as seems likely, the Catholic church does one day decide to ordain women – perhaps because clergy numbers are low or society can simply no longer tolerate such gender inequality – how will they then deal with the arguments that are being put up today against women priests?
And what do you say to women who feel called to the priesthood, if you believe it is not ours to give? …that they do not and cannot fit the spec, and even if they did, that we cannot make the appointment, purely because they are women? That seems so out of step with the Jesus of the New Testament.
Two things are important, living as we do in a largely Catholic country. Firstly that we have love for and openness towards our fellow Christians whatever their tradition, and what we have in common – certainly with the Roman Catholic Church – is way way more than what divides us. And secondly that we are aware of and respect the differences between us and the history behind them, and differ as we might, it is not for us to try and convince or convert others, but to pray for God to lead us all to his Kingdom, with hearts open and hands together.
Read the article in the Catholic Herald here.
PIcture above – Anglican women’s ordination 2014