Catholic Priestesses : Right or Wrong?
         According to an AFP report out of Ottawa, Canada nine women, including an American and Canadian, are planning to be "ordained" priestess of the Catholic Church on the St Lawrence River in July. The big problem of course is that the Catholic Church does not, and never has, allowed women to become priests. Similar mid-stream "ordinations" have taken place in Europe, with all participants being excommunicated after refusing to renounce their vows and repent. To add insult to injury, some of these future "priestesses" are married, some are divorced, and while not mentioned specifically, the group has said they do not consider sexual orientation to be a matter of any concern either. So, it would be safe to say that things like doctrine, canon law, Scripture and tradition mean nothing to these women. Performing the "ordinations" will be an Austrian woman and a German woman who became priestesses in the same way in Europe, and they claim were later "ordained" bishops by male compatriots.
         Monsignor Serge Poitras of the Apostolic Nunciature in Ottawa pointed out that these actions are meaningless as far as the Church is concerned and noted that Pope John Paul II already put the issue to rest in 1994. Likewise, Pope Benedict XVI, prior to his election in 2002, said that actions such as these are, "a grave offense to the divine constitution of the Church....is an affront to the dignity of women, whose specific role in the Church and society is distinctive and irreplaceable". As usual, the Pontiff has put the issue in the correct light and illustrates what is really an overlooked but huge disgrace and even fiendish attack on something that is sacred, not only the priesthood, but womanhood as well. The Catholic Church, as usual, gets right what all others get wrong, in this case the special, unique and essential role of women in the world.
         Attacks on the Church seem to come from every corner. Catholic devotion to the Holy Mother causes Protestants to accuse the Church of worshipping a woman, while the secularists and religious dissidents accuse the Church of hating women for not allowing them to become priests. What these women are doing, however, is the real attack on their gender, not what the Church teaches. They also, by their own actions, show their dishonesty when they claimed to be called by God to do these things. They show it by their attitude that they will only serve God if it is the way that they wish. If these women really wanted to serve God, and their motives were pure, they would be willing to endure any sacrifice and perform any work, fulfill any role, no matter how trivial in the eyes of the world so long as it is in God's service. But, instead of taking this attitude, they are saying that they will only serve God if they can bear the title of priest.
         Calling for women's ordination is also an attack on the essential role in the Church women already play. Through their insistence on becoming priests and refusing to do anything else, these women are basically saying that all of the many roles women already fill (and they are vastly numerous) from teaching, nursing, praying, counseling and on and on, are not good enough. They see the Church, in other words, in a distorted way. They don't see unique people with a unique role, but rather they themselves have categorized these roles in an elitist fashion, and deemed the role of priest to be somehow superior to their own role in life and then began to covet that role instead of being satisfied with where they are and trying to do the best they can in the position God gave to them.
         By their actions, one gets the impression that these women would have considered even the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary as unacceptable, and had they been in her place would have refused the Archangel because they would be asked to bear Christ rather than fill the role of Christ themselves. Their entire attitude is one of "I will not serve" rather than, "let it be done unto me according to Thy will". All throughout scripture, tradition and history there have never been women priests, but women have always played a unique and essential role. In the Old Testament, women could become Judges of Israel, and in the New Testament we read about women who stayed in the Temple and prophesied about God all their lives. Similarly in the history of the Church, women have often performed great and miraculous works.
         St Helen, Empress Mother of Rome, recovered the True Cross from the Holy Land. St Joan of Arc led troops into battle to ensure that the legitimate King of France was able to be crowned. St Catherine of Siena succeeded in convincing the Popes to return to Rome where it was their duty to be. The Contessa Matilda of Canossa led Papal forces against the German Emperor to uphold the independence of the Church. Queen Isabella of Castile drove the last of the Muslims out of Spain and laid the foundation for the united country that was a cornerstone of Catholic Europe. Empress Maria Theresa, the only woman to rule the Hapsburg Empire, stood alone against almost all of Europe during the so called Enlightenment in defense of Catholic principles. St Margaret Marie Alacoque received the vision of the Sacred Heart and had her words been heeded could well have prevented the French Revolution. St Catherine Laboure was chosen to receive the Miraculous Medal, St Bernadette was blessed with the vision of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, St Maria Faustina was blessed with the vision of the Divine Mercy of Christ and there was Mother Pasqualina who ran the papal household during the reign of Pope Pius XII. Women have been given some of the greatest blessings and most important roles for the Church, the world and the very salvation of souls.
         Then of course there is the case of the Blessed Virgin Mary. With her, and this is only recognized by the Catholic Church, we are presented with the fact that it was a woman who God chose to bless with the highest, most exalted and vital role of any of His creations throughout all of time. Only Mary was immaculately conceived, only Mary could bring Christ into the world and no other human being in the universe has had a closer relationship with Christ than she does, and so no other person, no other creation and no other saint is greater in Heaven than Mary, the simple wife of a carpenter who never had any more prestigious a job in her lifetime than being a mother and housewife, and yet she did more than any other person ever could or ever did by living her simple life. Mary, the greatest human being to ever live, spent most of her life doing nothing more glamorous than supporting her husband, running her household and caring for her son, who also happened to be the Son of God. How can anyone say that the one Church which recognizes this can in any way be unfair to women?
         Ironically, it is in fact the Protestant churches, most of which ordain women today, which were founded by men who really were prejudiced against women, in fact seemed to be downright hateful toward them at times. The father of all Protestants, Martin Luther, said that, "women were made either to be wives or prostitutes", that what we see as a woman, "is only a devil in the shape of a woman" and that, "No gown worse becomes a woman than the desire to be wise." John Calvin claimed that woman was created in the image of God to a lesser degree than man was and it was John Knox, the Scottish father of Presbyterianism who wrote the book "First Blast against the Monstrous Regiment of Women" which attacked the ability of women to rule, mostly because he was surrounded at the time by nations ruled by Catholic queens. Can we honestly say that belief systems founded by such men can produce a truly healthy view of women even if they do allow them to act as "priests" in their churches? Consider also the case of the Anglican Church, which ordains women and yet was founded by a man like King Henry VIII who treated women like total garbage. Strange how it is these churches which now ordain women, claiming all the while to be so superior to Catholics in their treatment of women.
         The truth of course is that it is the Catholic Church which always has, and still today, has truly understood and taught the proper roles of both men and women in the Church and society. The Church has taught correctly that men and women are each different, unique and have roles in life which only they can fill, but each of which are just as essential as the other. It would be truly terrifying to think where the Church would be without having the services of devout lay women and women religious who, despite not being priestess, performed vital duties for God and mankind throughout history. These women who are obsessed with female ordinations can, of course, do what they wish. No one will stop them, but claiming to be Catholic while doing so is only dishonest, and we can only be saddened, both by their attacks on the Church, but also by the danger their actions are placing their souls in by such an arrogant and selfish attitude, one that is as much an attack on their fellow women as it is on the Church herself, which incidentally, has always been referred to as a woman as well.
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