Women Priests - Sometimes you have to rewrite the rules

Many of Christianity's problems arise from the fact that it is patriarchal, hierarchical and juridical.

While those attributes are descriptive of Roman Catholicism, many other Christian sects share them to some degree.

In Roman Catholic Christianity, males rule the roost; the established hierarchy, unopposed, runs the machinery; and church law defines what is required, allowed, and demanded of adherents. It is not possible for a group of Catholic lay people or clergy to gather together, discuss issues, and make decisions, unless those decisions are approved by the male hierarchy and are in line with the laws laid down by male hierarchs or their predecessors.

To become a member of the Roman Church or to remain a member in good standing of the Roman Church, you must agree to accept the structure of the institution and to obey the laws of the institution and to affirm your faith in all of the religious precepts of the institution.

Other, more democratic church organizations, would seem to allow more freedom, but that may be illusory. For example, if a group of lay people and clergy from the Southern Baptist Convention gathered together to discuss the issue of abortion and concluded that the state has no innate authority to deprive women of the right to an abortion, it is likely that the group would be asked to modify their views so they are more in line with Southern Baptist teaching or find another church home.

In recent years, an increasing number of Christian churches have decided that women are real people and should have all the rights and privileges of other people (e.g. males) in their organizational structure. Women now serve as pastors and priests and bishops in several Protestant church organizations. The wall of male hierarchical authority has been breached - not universally, of course, but sufficiently so there will be no turning back.


It is very difficult for Christian churches, of whatever persuasion, to make fundamental changes in either belief or structure. That in spite of the fact that the Christian creedal formulations and basic ecclesiastical ideas were in process over a period of many years and during those years there were literally hundreds of Christian groups who held a variety of beliefs about Jesus and about God.

As the so-called orthodox gained power, however, and as a church institution began to take shape, Christians increasingly were defined, not so much by their actions, but by their beliefs. "Orthodoxy" gained the upper hand, and other views were declared heretical.

Orthodoxy insisted that to be accepted into the Christian community you had to confess that Jesus Christ had been crucified (to save you from your sins), buried and raised from the dead by his Father God, etc. The specifics varied from place to place, and time to time, but the expectation remained the same - you were a Christian if you believed certain doctrines about the heavingly redeermer, Jesus Christ.

Gradually, the Jewish Jesus (Yeshua) of the Synoptic Gospels, who lived for the Torah, was forgotten and disappeared from view, replaced by Jesus Christ, a mythical heavenly redeemer.

Paul and his followers proclaimed that the old Covenant between Yahweh and the Jewish people had been abrogated and that God, the father of the Lord Jesus Christ, had established a new covenant for all people (not just Jews); one which demanded faith, not obedience; belief, not works. This new covenant proclaimed that God the Father (a much different god than the Yahweh of the old Covenant) offered salvation, i.e., eternal life (which the old Yahweh never offered) to those who professed that God the father killed his son on a cross as a sacrifice for sin, (Yahweh, of course, abhorred child sacrifice!) then resurrected the son, and in the final act took the son up into heaven to rule with him forever and ever.


Obviously, I'm making a number of points here. The one I want to stress, though, is that Christianity, by stressing the importance of faith, or belief, soon established specific matters of faith and specific items of belief as fundamental to the new religion. And before long, they were set in stone, no longer to be denied or modified.

One of those beliefs was the dogma still held today by the Roman Church that only males are qualified to be priests and bishops. The qualification is a matter of genitalia. The rationale goes like this: Jesus was a male and had a penis. All of his disciples were male and had penises. Priests and bishops for 2,000 years have been males with penises. Ergo, God hath ordained that only males (with their penises) can attach to the holier than thou class of clergy within the domain of the Roman organization.

[Please note that this rationale ignores the evidence that in many places during the first years of the church's existence, women did play important and significant roles within the church. Paul calls women his "co-workers," and one of them he refers to as a deaconness, and another an apostle. In the very early years, Christians met in homes owned by women which likely signifies they held some position within the group. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene describes a Christian community in which Mary Magdalene is regarded as a disciple, a leader and a teacher. By way of a negative reference, Tertullian, an early church father in Africa, became very upset at a woman he called "that viper," because she baptized. He said "These heretical women, how audacious they are. I mean they, they teach, they baptize, they preach, they do all kinds of things they shouldn't do. It's horrible, in short." By the 2nd century, however, at least in more orthodox circles, women were ostracized from leadership positions, probably because they were much too threatening to good order, e.g., male domination and power.]


Authority, ultimately, yields to power, the power of those under the authority. Authority is a gift, which means it can be rescinded. Authority can be coerced or extorted, of course, but that is not real authority. Real authority derives from the power of the giver. I have known sports coaches who were aghast when their players revolted and refused the coaches' instruction. The players took back or rescinded the authority they had given the coach. The coach could coerce that authority by threats and intimidation, but even if he won, he lost, for he regained not authority, but power, and was all the more hated for it.

Sometimes you will hear people speak of the authority of an "office" or a position. The person occupying the Oval Office has a certain authority by virtue of her office as president. That is true only to a point. If a president abuses or misuses her authority, the people rescind her authority and, divorced from the office, she loses her authority. The people no longer respect her, or obey her, or heed her instructions.

In the Roman Catholic Church power resides with the clergy, in particular the bishops, and preeminently, the bishop of Rome.

Many millions of the Catholic faithful grant to their clerical leaders, authority. These faithful will listen to the hierarchy and will believe the hierarchy as if their word was the word of god itself, and they will obey the hierarchy. The faithful thus transmit authority to the bishops and by so doing validate their power.

However, this arrangement is becoming more and more unsatisfactory as millions of other Catholics have withdrawn the authority they had given their clerics and that effectively relieves the clerics of their power. When the priests and bishops pronounce abortion to be a mortal sin, they shrug. When the priests and bishops claim that the use of condoms is wrong, they roll their eyes and go about their business. When the priests and bishops insist that clergy must be unmarried, they walk on, unbelieving. They may have deep affection for the Roman Catholic Church but have concluded that the patriarchal, hierarchical, juridical structure has failed and is no longer valid (if it ever was) for the times in which we live.


Meet the women of the Roman Catholic Church who have taken back the authority and thus the power they once gave to the bishops to determine who is eligible to attain the priesthood. Meet the women who, realizing the bishops were more about abuse of power than the sharing of the gospel, retracted their grant of authority to the hierarchy which shifted the power in new and different direction.

Before we go further, we must note the consequences of such actions. The bishops, perhaps not realizing they no longer have authority or power, may very well issue threats of excommunication and eternal damnation in an attempt to bring these women back in line. They may very well damn all those who assist these women or receive the sacraments from their hands.

In fact, the bishops have already done so. But it's too late. Their authority has no teeth.

The women are the women of The Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement. It began in 2002, on a boat in the Danube River, when seven women were ordained as Roman Catholic priests. Since then, it has grown steadily. Fifty people, including six men, have been ordained, 37 from the United States. Another 100 or so have signed up for the formal "pre-ordination" training.

Here is the mission statement of the North American contingent: "Roman Catholic Womenpriests is an international initiative within the Roman Catholic Church. The mission of Roman Catholic Womenpriests North America is to spiritually prepare, ordain and support women and men from all states of life, who are theologically qualified, who are committed to an inclusive model of church, and who are called by the Holy Spirit and their communities to minister within the Roman Catholic Church."

Last November 11, Patricia Fresen, one of the four bishops of the movement, ordained two women at a synagogue in St. Louis. Fresen was for 45 years a Dominican nun, and a former seminary professor in South Africa. She expresses surprise at the numbers of interested people. "We have a lot of new applicants," she said. "I now have five assistant program coordinators, and we can barely keep up. It has amazed me."

Many of the women involved have long histories of service within the church, serving in parishes, archdiocesan offices, health care organizations or educational institutions. Most of them are older and have felt for a long time they were called to the ministry. As the years have passed, they've concluded that the patriarchal, hierarchical, juridical model of the church is not going to change, so they have acted, giving themselves authority and empowering themselves to do what they believe is most representative of Christianity.

One particular incident provides insight into the kinds of religious communities women priests might create. About seven years ago, the Spiritus Christi Catholic community in Rochester, New York ordained a woman, Mary Ramerman. Spiritus Christi not only supports priestly roles for women, but celebrates gay unions and offers Holy Communion to non-Catholics, which is a juridical issue (i.e., Church law forbids non-Catholics received Holy Communion in Catholic Churches.) Generally, the Women Priest Movement also discourages titles for priests and bishops and requires no vow of obedience!


Church "authorities," failing to realize they were bereft of power as their authority had been rescinded, formally excommunicated the seven women ordained on the Danube River. The decree was signed by none other than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now better known as Pope Benedict XVI.

The Vatican has not responded to more recent ordinations, but Archbishop Raymond L. Burke in St. Louis formally warned two women planning to be ordained which meant that if they went ahead with their plans they could be cast out of the church. [Update: He has since carried out that threat.]

No matter, for his authority and power are compromised: As Gerry Rauch, a resident of St. Louis said when told of Burke's threat, "Burke is a paper tiger."

Opposition to the WomenPriests is expected from the hierarchy as well as many of the laity. Yet the women report that they have received support from many male priests and that three bishops in good standing have ordained women bishops. Bishop Fresen notes that her own ordination "was duly documented and notarized, with a record of those present, along with copies of the three bishops' apostolic successions (with her name at the end) signed and sealed in a bank vault whose location ... is known only to a few."

While women priests cannot serve in most Catholic churches, many see themselves as serving "people on the margins." Fresen notes these are those many Catholics who, according to church law are barred from receiving the sacraments: those who have divorced and remarried without obtaining an annulment by the church; gays and lesbians living with partners; those who have had an abortion or supported abortion rights; couples who use contraceptives in open defiance of the church's ban.

Whether this movement continues to grow and develop is still to be determined. What it does indicate clearly, however, is that the patriarchal, hierarchical, and juridical model, if not under siege, is certainly under review. It may signify a breakthrough whereby more and more people will grant themselves the authority and power to rewrite the rules so they can better represent the faith they serve and the institution through which they serve.

In many ways, the Roman Catholic Church is dying: the sex-abuse scandals have rocked it to its foundations; fewer and fewer men are committing to the priesthood; and a growing number of the faithful are refusing to heed the authority or the dictates of the hierarchy.

There is a popular phrase that says "rules are made to be broken." I'm not sure that's true, but I don't believe that rules are necessarily sacrosanct, especially rules that were established eons ago in another time and another place.

Common sense seems to dictate that periodically we need to revisit our past in light of our present and our future, and realizing that the rules were written by people just like us, we take it upon ourselves to rewrite the rules!

[Thanks to the National Catholic Reporter for some of the information contained in this essay.]

For additional information go to: http://www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org/