It takes a lot to shock me in the theological world. I am ordained for thirty years. I cannot say I have heard it all but I know enough theology so there is little you are going to tell me that will leave me speechless. This does not mean that it does not happen just that it does not happen much. However, just the other day, I was shocked.
I was on Medium where I am also a writer. Paul Walker is a retired Anglican priest who also writes on the website. He noted the rise of woman priests in his tradition. He also wrote that when his church authorized ordaining woman, the Baptists affirmed that women cannot be ministers.
This, obviously, did not shock me, after all woman cannot be priests in Catholicism my faith. However, what did surprise me was Paul Walker's next paragraphs:
In 1984, as the Church of England inched towards ordaining women, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution against women’s ordination.
The resolution stated we must exclude women from ordained ministry to “preserve a submission that God requires because the man was first in creation and the woman was first in the Edenic fall.”
Ok, you might say, what is so shocking? Catholics tend to believe in evolution but we also believe in original sin, so don’t we agree with the Baptists?
No, we do not.
Catholic women’s role not related to Eve’s Fall
The reason why women are not ordained in the Catholic Church is because we follow the tradition that Jesus established by only picking men to be his apostles and they only choose men to be priests.
Catholics, however, have a strong devotion to Mary, Jesus’ mother whom we believe to be sinless. Baptists do not. They consider Mary a sinner just like everyone else but Jesus.
Catholics look upon Mary as the reverse of Eve and in fact, Mary couldn’t have sinned because she was fully obedient to the Father to reverse Eve’s disobedience. Jesus was likewise obedient to the Father to reverse Adam’s disobedience.
This means we have a totally different way of looking at the role of women in the Catholic Church than in others. According to Paul Walker, women must not be ordained in the Baptist faith because of Eve, this is not the cause of the difference of roles of men and women in the Catholic faith.
In Catholicism, women are not ordained because they are the visionaries who encourage who drive the spiritual vision in service to Christ. They are like the producers on a newscast. The anchor tells the news, the producers in the control room run the newscast.
Latin American experience
I always bring up my experience in the Latino community to explain this. In Latin America and other continents, women lead the community more than the priest. Usually, there is a shortage of priests who bring the sacraments to the people but often your catechists and your community leaders are women. This is especially true in what are called recintos which are villages that priests visit weekly or monthly. The lay leaders work with the priest and guide the community in sacramental preparation and more. So in the absence of the priest it is the lay catechist, usually a woman who leads the community.
Further, the woman and the man best work together in serving the community. The woman guides the community in many ways and even advocates for it to the priest. The priest serves the community in other ways especially the sacramental.
In what I consider the best scenario, in past parishes, when I was called out to do last rites, I would call a woman who worked with me, maybe a nun, maybe a community nurse, and she would go with me and together we would minister to the sick and dying. It was not just me but together we would seek to serve in Christ’s name. The woman may be more pastoral than I am and I will focus more on the sacraments. Together we minister to a sick or dying person in Christ.
Many will tell you that the woman is called to be submissive to the man. Many Catholics will teach this, they are wrong. The woman and the man must work together in service to the parish and the community. Each one uses his or her gifts to make sure the people are well served.
This is also why, I do not believe women should be ordained. It is not an oppression thing or a submission thing, it is a ministry issue. It is the lay woman and even the lay man woman who guides the community and it is the priest who brings the sacraments. When we focus all leadership on the ordained, we silence the rest. When we expand leadership we remain open to the work of all.
Together all work to bring about a holy witness. The woman who feels, therefore, that not being ordained is an insult does not understand. It is the woman who gives the Church the vision for service to the community. It is the wise priest who sees the spirit at work and listens. The foolish one trusts only in his own wisdom as fools tend to do.
Jesus never ordained any woman including his mother because he recognized in them a powerful role that ordination would supplant.
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