Church teaching on women
One of my favorite young theologians, Pia de Solenni, had a nice piece in the Washington Post on Sunday about the Church's teaching on women. (Katie, you should check this out, since you e-mailed me a few weeks back asking about precisely this issue.) You can go here to read the whole thing. And don't forget BugMeNot if you need a login for the WaPost site. Hat tip to The Corner for the link to the article. Here's a snip:
Before I went to Rome to do my doctoral work in theology in the mid-1990s, I was inclined to believe, like many American women, that the Catholic Church's teaching on women was a bit skewed, if not flawed. At times, it seemed to me that there was no unique place for women in the church. In fact, they seemed subordinated to men in almost every way, beyond their ineligibility for ordination.
Yet over the course of six years of study at pontifical universities and a short time working at the Vatican, I found that I was actually more respected as a woman there than I have been in most other environments. I was taken seriously and challenged as a thinker in a way that I haven't been almost anywhere else. Given the preconceptions that most Americans have, I know how surprising this can sound. But I've wished more people could be aware of it as I've watched, listened to and debated the reactions to the new pope, Benedict XVI.
Almost universally described in news reports as a "conservative" and a "hardliner," an "enforcer" and a strict dogmatist, he's already being dismissed in so-called "progressive" or "reformist" circles as a pontiff who will be bad for women in the church. But as his predecessor, John Paul II, taught us, for Catholics, life isn't about being conservative or liberal. It's about being Catholic.
Read the whole thing. It's a very good piece, as is almost anything de Solenni writes. She's definitely one to keep an eye on.
posted by LC @ 11:39 AM
3 Comments:
I can't remember who it was that said it, but someone was being interviewed on public radio was talking about when she was meeting with JPII, like a bunch of women, and he jumped out of his chair duirng one conversation (this was a while ago) and he said, "Papa Feminista!" And everyone stared at him like they couldn't beleive what they were hearing so he said it again.
That must have been remarkable!
But yeah, the pia stuff is great stuff. she is awesome
I have never read any ctiticism of her, though, One of her arguments is about how the fight for women priesthood means that priesthood is the ultimate goal, and devalues teh laity. I wonder if that has ruffled any of the very traditional, clerical-elevating types, you know?
I dunno, if the Radtrads of the blogsphere are any indication, they only revere and elevate clerical types who agree with them. The rest are all aspotates and heretics, Holy Orders be darned. :)
Anytime I meet someone who asks me why the Church won't ordain women, I always respond by saying, "First tell me how you understand what priesthood is, and we can go from there." There are generally about 5 or 6 different kinds of misconceptions you have to clear up before people can follow the Church's arguments: the nature of priesthood (power vs. service, job vs. vocation), the meaning of sexual differences, the role of the laity, the issue of the constituative elements of a Sacrament, the meaning of vocation and how it is discerned. The misunderstanding can be on some of these levels or all of them, but you have to get them all straight before it becomes clear why women's ordination isn't an option -- and for me the arguments really did become crystal clear at that point.
Pia is onto something important with the point she makes, because a huge part of the problem is that too many people view priesthood only in terms of power -- like to have a "real" place in the Church, you have to be ordained. That flies in the face of Vatican II, of course, where one of the major, major themes was the Universal Call to Holiness and the unique role of the laity.
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