Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful. Ordinatio Sacerdotalis
Are women priests awesome? That's what we've been lead to believe, anything else is simply discriminatory and "weird." Here's Rosie Harper, a UK priestess, arguing in favor of women bishops.
“I would like to take a moment to look at this from the outside in.
“I would like to name the sheer weirdness of a community arguing about discrimination in the 21st century – people out there don’t care enough to be angry but they do dismiss us as weird.
“If we are serious about our mission, and I know this is a very basic point, we really do have to stop being weird.”
Right on, Rosie. If the church is going to get down with mission and fill those achingly empty pews, it'd better get serious about not being weird and consecrate some women. Anything less is an obvious, discriminatory injustice, so much so that society won't take the church seriously.
Leaving aside the knotty issue of the church's interaction with secularist culture, let's focus on discrimination, which is at the heart of the argument. It runs like this: Discrimination is clearly wrong, and not ordaining women as priests and bishops is discrimination, so not ordaining women is wrong.
And wrong in a big way because, now that we've reached the 21st century, we're really clear about, you know, injustice. So stop being a weird bastion of intolerant discrimination, church, and maybe you'll get some converts.
Sounds good, right? Stop being an evil discriminator, weirdo. But not so fast, Rosie & Co.
The first bishops and priests were all men, women weren't allowed to fulfill that office, which makes the apostolic setup wrong. In fact it makes it sinful according to Rosie's logic, because it excludes women, which is an obvious evil. And what weirdo put such a clearly oppressive, wicked, intolerant and unjust system in place?
That would be Jesus. And if Christ was so blind to such a clear-cut evil, what does that make him? Hardly God. After all, God doesn't sin, but that's exactly what Rosie et al. implicitly accuse Jesus of doing, of setting up a system of ministry that was heinously wrong.
"If you love me you will keep my commandments," says Jesus. We have to wonder at the quality of the first in the hearts of people who play so fast and loose with the second.
Regardless, ordaining women will apparently make the church less weird and get it on mission. Perhaps that's why the Episcopal Church, and the Church of England have been losing members ever since they tried the experiment.
Or to put it another way, why should disbelievers go to church to have their lack of faith reflected back to them?
Make of this what you will,
LSP
