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Thursday, October 03, 2013

Reform

Yesterday I had a post about the pope's latest interview and the reforms that are being talked about - I wondered if some of the issues I thought important would ever be addressed. But I deleted the post because, with all the optimism and good will Francis has brought to the church, I didn't want to be a buzzkill.

Today, though, I saw a story that made me feel quite bitter about the whole thing ...

Lehmann rules out women priests

Women's ordination would split the Church, Cardinal Karl Lehmann of Mainz has warned.

Asked in an interview with the German Catholic Church's official internet portal katholisch.de when he thought the Church would allow women to become priests, Cardinal Lehmann said that, although he personally could imagine it happening, as a Catholic theologian he did not see how the Church could change the teaching of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

But he said women's ordination must not be made a yardstick of women's standing in the Church. "I wish we could have been definitive on the ordination of women as permanent deacons. The discussion over the last 20 or 30 years has been too slow for my taste ... Meanwhile we must open all the other important positions there are in the Church for women."

Asked to evaluate the first six months of Pope Francis's papacy, Cardinal Lehmann said Francis had made a strong start but it was worth remembering that as regards spiritual renewal, theological world vision and analysis of the Church's place in the world, Pope Benedict XVI "did a great deal which will have a lasting place in the future Church."

Pope Francis's "impulses and charismatic impacts" must now lead to renewal, he stressed.


I just have to comment ...

Women's ordination would split the Church

Really? Given that a majority of Catholics want women to be allowed to be priests, why would this be so?

as a Catholic theologian he did not see how the Church could change the teaching of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

This is a joke - Francis has already contradicted B16 on a number of issues, and nothing either past pope has said about women's ordination has been said 'infallibly'.

But he said women's ordination must not be made a yardstick of women's standing in the Church .... ... Meanwhile we must open all the other important positions there are in the Church for women."

A man tells women what they cannot consider a yardstick of their standing in the church. I can't speak for all women but I'm pretty sure that nothing but women's ordination will satisfy most of them.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Richard said...

My guess: within 10 years.

8:52 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

Hi Richard,

Why do you think that? I keep dreading another B16 type of pope in the future - eek!

10:36 PM  
Anonymous Richard said...

Admittedly my sample size is small, but so many of the individuals (mostly women) that actually run our parish and a surprising number of priests and deacons I have encountered over the relatively short time I've been Catholic have voiced that view, i.e. that there should be no bar to women holding the priesthood. I remember when the Mormon Church finally agreed to allow black men to hold the priesthood, it seemed to happen very quickly. They realized that world around them had changed to the point where they could no longer remain a tenable organization without making that change. I believe the same will be true of the Catholic Church and I expect to be around to say "I told you so":)

11:10 AM  
Blogger crystal said...

Yes, that makes sense. But Francis seems to be pretty entrenched in the 'women are from some alien planet and need to be studied' group. I think the guys running the church are convinced they can remain with impunity the only western european institution that won't give women equal opportunities.

2:50 PM  

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