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Natural law not subject to the whims of man
Last month 345 delegates from
27 countries attended the first international Women's
Ordination Worldwide (WOW) conference in Dublin, Ireland.
Among the speakers, the most famous (or infamous) was Sister
Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun and notorious heretic who
is a regular at dissident conferences, including Cardinal
Mahoney's annual Religious Education Conference.
Not bothered by a pesky vow
of obedience, Sr. Joan (known to some as "Pope Joan") and
several other nuns attended the conference despite being
instructed not to do so. The Vatican ordered Chittister's
prioress, Sister Christine Vladimiroff in Erie, Pa, to
prohibit her from speaking at the conference. Vladimiroff
decided not to take the "Vatican's advice". Sr. Joan told
the conference that the Benedictines had been around 1,500
years and "We're not going to let a little letter from Rome
upset us." After the conference, to the surprise of no one,
the Vatican announced it would not impose sanctions on Sr.
Joan and the other attendees.
Pope John Paul II and the
ordination of women
In 1994 Pope John Paul
declared the Church had no authority to ordain women as
priests and that this was a binding article of faith for all
Catholics (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis):
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.
A further Vatican document in
1998 said those who persisted in discussing the matter were
excommunicating themselves. But, as can be seen with
liturgical abuses and anti-Catholic Theologians, policies
without teeth do little good. And while heretics and
dissidents rush to outdo each other with new and vile ways
of blaspheming the Mystical Body of Christ, most of those
receiving Vatican sanctions and punishment are those who
dare question their recent actions.
The Church has no
authority to appoint women as priests
It has been the constant
teaching of the Church that ordination of women is against
natural law. Priesthood is no more accessible to a woman
than motherhood is to a man. In the old testament, men were
exclusively chosen by God to offer sacrifices and when
Christ selected twelve apostles, He chose all men. The
argument is sometimes put forward that Christ chose male
disciples because he lived in a male-dominated society.
Although the observation of the times may be accurate,
Christ repeatedly demonstrated his lack of regard for
cultural norms. He certainly showed little hesitation
associating with lepers, adulterers and Samaritans, as well
as cleansing the temple of merchants and revoking the
practice of divorce. God did not become man to conform to
the popular opinions of the time. He commanded the current
and future world conform to His law.
Since the time of the
apostles, the Church has always maintained a male
priesthood. St. Irenaeus and Tertullian of the early Church,
both condemned heretical sects that attempted to admit women
to priestly orders. Far from its current accusations of
"sexism" and "repression of women", the Church was
appointing women as abbesses and superiors at a time when
women couldn't own property. Additionally, many women
throughout history have been honored as saints, including
St. Catherine of Sienna who was extremely respected (and
feared) by the popes of her day. In fact, the Blessed
Virgin, the holiest mortal ever to walk the earth (besides
Christ who was both God and man) was a woman. Although she
is universally venerated as the queen of all angels and
saints, even Mary was not selected by Christ to perform
priestly duties. Instead were chosen twelve men of
apparently questionable character who committed acts of
denial and betrayal.
Unlike Anglicanism (which has
freed itself from God's authority when convenient),
Catholicism can never pervert the divine institution of
priesthood with the ordination of women. Allowing nuns and
dissident theologians to "discuss" such a matter as if it's
a legitimate theological exercise is only going to continue
the Church down its current course of self-destruction.
Peter W. Miller
Seattle, WA
8/3/2001
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