This supplement is about transcending religious patriarchy in order to foster integral human development and a healthy mutuality between humans and the human habitat. Some meditations are proposed on the mysteries of the creation, the incarnation, and the redemption. They explore the Christian understanding that all men and women are consubstantial in one and the same human nature, and are consubstantial with Jesus Christ as to his humanity. The meditations are based on a layman's reading of the Sacred Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the Theology of the Body as they pertain to the consubstantial complementarity of man and woman, which transcends the patriarchal binary of mutually exclusive male-female opposites. This understanding of the "complementarity in consubstantial unity" of man and woman applies to all the sacraments, sheds light on the great nuptial mystery of Christ and the Church, and would seem to support the ordination of women to the ministerial priesthood and the episcopate. The meditations are preceded by recent news on patriarchy in religion, society, and human ecology, and are followed by articles and research notes, a summary of points for discernment on the ordination of women, an annotated timeline of religious patriarchy in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and links to relevant literature, substantive research, and the synodal process of discernment currently underway in the Catholic Church..
"Being that we live in a patriarchal world, the standards that define womanhood or how a woman should behave are rooted in misogyny... This is what makes combatting the patriarchy so difficult. Both men and women are active agents in the continuation of this system."
"Patriarchal culture is a social and cultural system where men are considered to have dominance, control and superiority over women in all things... Patriarchal culture is not a problem that only occurs in Indonesia, but is also a global challenge in achieving gender equality..."
"My desperation has led me to research, over the last more than two decades, on consecrated life in general and the ordo virginum in particular and to go to the roots of these problems faced by women. I feel disheartened seeing our vocations being manipulated in different parts of the world by patriarchal, misogynist and sexist elements. I feel the charism of consecrated virgins, being a vocational category currently limited to women, has been domesticated in the church by calling us an "image of the church as the spouse of Christ."
"Why have women's vocations been reduced to abstract categories both theologically and sociologically? I feel deeply hurt whenever I read or hear about clergy appropriating the place of Christ, and women in consecrated life told to be satisfied with imitating Mary, who is herself theologically fashioned according to patriarchal convenience as a "domesticated goddess"."
"Butler notes that “gender” has become a “phantasm,” a “psychosocial phenomenon… a site where intimate fears and anxieties become socially organized to incite political passions.” This phantasm names “a way of organizing the world wrought by the fear of a destruction for which gender is held responsible.” To put this in more religious terms, the movement in opposition to so-called “gender ideology” interprets culturally pervasive assertions around gender as if it were a “demon” needing to be exorcized from public discourse to defend the common good. For Butler, this demon named “gender” obscures other fears and biases."
"The next day Bannon ridiculed the idea that Trump has to “modify” his message to attract college-educated women voters, whom he called “all the Karens,” calling it “a waste of time and money” as “they think Trump personifies the patriarchy.”"
"After a period of relative calm in the sex wars, we are in danger of entering another period of bad temper. But this time, the stakes are even higher."
"As Namibia’s upcoming presidential and National Assembly elections are seeing more female contenders, analysts say the country’s deeply rooted patriarchal mindset may significantly hinder their chances, especially for those running independently."
"It needs to be emphasized that biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated." So, there are two natural biophysical sexes, male and female; and gender is also a natural biopsychological reality that can be distinguished from sex, not just a fiction of gender theory/ideology. Question: Patriarchy is ancient culture, but isn't it also a gender theory/ideology?
"Zarrar Khan’s In Flames utilises horror stylings to explore how oppressive patriarchal violence literally and metaphorically haunts the women of Pakistan."
"Butler argues the only way to fight back against this [anti-gender] ideology is to forge alliances – between those collectively wronged by patriarchy, colonialism and its legacies, white supremacy, capitalism, neoliberalism and climate destruction. In Butler’s eyes, these systems of oppression are all linked."
"Acknowledging and addressing the inherent connections between gender dynamics and ecological health is essential for creating a more sustainable and equitable future for Zimbabwe and its people."
"In the 2024 edition of the Annuario Pontificio, the Vatican’s annual statistical yearbook, 'Patriarch of the West' once again appears in the litany of formal papal dignities listed at the opening."
"Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, Supreme Pontiff, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, Servant of the Servants of God"
Is this a deliberate regression? And if so, is it conducive to making the church more "synodal"?
"The men who buy into patriarchal ideas that the “right kind of woman” can succeed in our patriarchal system if they secure a high-status mate will also call those women hypergamous gold diggers if they get too close to reaching the same wealth, status, or power as men."
"The patriarchy is generally understood to be the system that we live in, where men have authoritative power as they have been deemed superior to women through centuries of social construction. However, as most of us learn about this after we’ve been living through it for years, it is hard for us to conceptualise just how deep the patriarchy runs, and how it impacts us in our day-to-day lives."
Many U.S. Catholics would welcome more change. For example, the survey finds that:
83% of U.S. Catholics want the church to allow the use of contraception.
75% say the church should allow Catholics to take Communion even if they are unmarried and living with a romantic partner.
69% say priests should be allowed to get married.
64% say women should be allowed to become priests.
54% say the church should recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples.
"Gal 5.1 is quoted (alongside Ro 8.19ff) to uphold the Christian calling to work for the liberation of all. But one might have expected Gal 3.26-28 to have been brought into consideration in discussion of issues of gender, given how St Paul relativises sexual differences: "neither male nor female … but all are one in Christ Jesus." That Paul might have been appalled at the conclusions that could be drawn from that statement is neither here nor there."
"One of the most compelling concepts explored in In Flames is this notion that's been normalized of men coming to "save" women form difficult circumstances. In a particularly brilliant use of cinema, this film showcases the real threat and consequences of that being a norm."
"At the core of ecofeminist thought is the belief that there are strong parallels between the subjugation of women and the degradation of the environment. This perspective suggests that patriarchal societies tend to view both women and nature as resources to be exploited for profit and power."
"In summary, we found little support for the idea that psychological sex differences will vanish as societies develop. Policymakers probably cannot rely on that if they hope to achieve equal distributions of men and women in different professions. Instead, it appears that the dominant feature of psychological sex differences is their robustness in the face of social change."
"Regardless of the industry, country, or area of concern, gender data gaps can be ultimately traced back to patriarchal governments and cultures enacting legislation and creating social norms that excluded women."
The apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, on reserving priestly ordination to men alone, was published 22 May 1994. Thirty years later, 64% of American Catholics believe that women should be ordained to the priesthood, and it is reasonable to infer that the worldwide sensus fidelium is going in the same direction except in countries where rigid patriarchal cultures still prevail.
A analysis of the apostolic letter is provided further down in this page. It is an executive order, a gagging order, not a dogma. In religious institutions, like all other human institutions, nothing is 100% pure. Good things are done for the right reason. Good things are done for the wrong reason. Bad things are done with good intention. Bad things are done with bad intention. It is not that the church has been doing something intentionally bad by excluding women from priestly ministry for 2000 years. Rather, the church has been choosing to exclude women from ordination based on patriarchal gender ideology, which is not a matter of faith.
This can be corrected, and should be corrected, by admitting that the church was born in a patriarchal society (as Jesus was) and internalized patriarchal gender ideology as if it were natural law. Even Aquinas failed to refute the Aristotelian misconception about women being "defective males." So it is "simply" a matter of admitting that a defective theology can and must be corrected without in any way changing the Catholic faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. It is simple, but will not be easy because nobody wants to admit mistakes; so, absent a miracle, the priestly (and episcopal) ordination of women will not happen in the Catholic Church until the Vatican has no other choice.
Incarnation
Mother of the Eucharist
Assumption
Ministerial Priesthood
SUMMARY CRITIQUE OF RELIGIOUS PATRIARCHY
Foundation:
Natural Homogeneity and Mutuality of Man and Woman
Human nature is
male and female,
NOT
male or female.
Sex is biophysical, bimodal, male and female. Gender is biopsychological, bimodal, male and female.
Everything in human sexuality is both/and, nothing is either/or.
What matters for
the redemption is
that God assumed
human nature,
not that God
became a male.
Thus, the
exclusively male
priesthood is
religious patriarchy,
cultural legacy
of the Old Law,
not a matter
of faith under
the New Law.
Nota bene:
The dogmatic definition of priestly ordination as a sacrament (Council of Trent) does not mention maleness or masculinity as a requirement for priestly ordination and apostolic succession.
Furthermore, by reinforcing men's desire to subdue women and Mother Nature, a consequence of original sin, religious patriarchy is a grave obstacle to integral human development and an integral ecology.
Appeal:
In Canon 1024 of the Roman Catholic Church, change "male" to "person."
Summary Points for Meditation on the Ordination of Women
Theology of the Body, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Vocations and Sacraments, Patriarchal Gender Ideology
Luis T. Gutierrez Working Draft - 1 November 2023 Solemnity of All Saints
Jesus limited his temporal ministry to patriarchal Israel, and trusted the church to bring the Good News to all nations and all cultures after his resurrection. When Jesus chose twelve men to represent the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel, was he mandating that only males could follow them in apostolic succession? No, that would be a listeralist reading of the gospel texts that is no longer credible because it emanates from the patriarchal culture and the anthropologically false sex/gender binary whereby women are "defective males."
Should we really believe that Jesus, in today's world, would choose 12 men to represent the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel? No, but twenty centuries after the redemption, the patriarchal gender ideology of male headship and sex/gender binary continues to exclude women from sacramental ordination in the Catholic Church. It is time to leave behind the conflation of revealed truth and patriarchal gender ideology; it is time for the hierarchy of the Church to exemplify the consubstantial "unity on diversity" of men and women by ordaining baptized women to the ministerial priesthood.
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is not a dogma of the Catholic faith. It is an admission that we are still prisoners of patriarchal gender ideology and patriarchal theology, but apostolic succession is not dogmatically masculine. By the power of the keys, the church can and should ordain women to the ministerial priesthood. The following points for meditation are based on study of the Theology of the Body and the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
1. Jesus Christ is the Redeemer, God made flesh, not a patriarch.
2. God the Father is a person, but not a male.
3. God the Son is a person, but was not a male before the incarnation.
4. God the Holy Spirit is a person, but not a male.
5. The Trinity is a communion of persons, not a patriarchate.
6. The "Son of Man" is God made flesh, not a patriarch.
7. All men and women are fully consubstantial in one and the same human nature.
8. Bodiliness and sexuality are not simply identical.
9. Being a body-soul is more fundamental for human nature than sexuality.
10. The body is a sacrament of the entire person, but is not the entire person.
11. The priest acts in the person of Christ, not in the masculinity of Christ.
12. All men and women are ontologically homogeneous in their whole being.
13. All men and women are of the same flesh in their somatic structure.
14. The complementarity of man and woman is enabled by their consubstantiality.
15. All men and women are fully consubstantial with Jesus Christ as to his humanity.
16. For the redemption, the masculinity of Jesus is as incidental as the color of his eyes.
17. Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life, not the male of life.
18. The substance of the Eucharist is BODY, not XX or XY chromosomes.
19. The substance of the Eucharist is FLESH, not testosterone.
20. The Church is "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic," but not necessarily patriarchal.
21. Patriarchy is a disordered attachment to the supremacy of masculinity.
22. The Church is a communion of persons, not a patriarchate.
23. The Church is the body of Christ, not a woman with a male head.
24. The Virgin Mary is the "type" of the Church, not a woman with a male head.
25. The Virgin Mary precedes the sacramental economy as Mother of the Eucharist.
26. The Marian dimension of the Church precedes the apostolic dimension.
27. Apostolic succession is contingent on redeemed flesh, not on masculinity.
28. The nuptial mystery of Christ and the Church is not a patriarchal marriage.
29. Canon 1024 is an artificial contraceptive and abortifacient of female priestly vocations.
30. Catechism 1577 reduces the priesthood of the New Law to priesthood of the Old Law.
31. Catechism 1598 declares that ordaining only males is a choice, not a dogma.
32. The exclusively male priesthood makes invisible the "feminine genius" in Christ.
33. The Christian/Catholic/Orthodox faith is not intrinsically (dogmatically) patriarchal.
34. The conflation of patriarchal gender ideology and Christian doctrines is a disgrace.
35. Institutionalized ecclesiastical patriarchy is an abuse against Christ and the Church.
36. It is time to discard the patriarchal scaffolding that obscures the Catholic faith.
37. Male headship is an ancient but entirely artificial cultural custom, not natural law.
38. After the resurrection, nothing requires that apostolic succession be exclusively male.
39. The first "transubstantiation" in history happened in the Blessed Virgin Mary's body.
40. Transubstantiation can happen via women ordained to act in persona Christi.
"What is not assumed is not redeemed." Humanity is male and female, not male or female. For the redemption, and the sacramental economy, what really matters is the body-soul humanity of Jesus, not simply his masculinity; for the New Law, what matters is that the Word became flesh, not that Jesus is male. The Church should stop defending culturally biased doctrines and allow Christ to call women to the priesthood and the episcopate.
After the resurrection, under the New Law, the Church is given full authority to mediate all vocations. By the power of the keys, the Church can ordain women at any time, without waiting for the Lord to return and give permission. It doesn't make sense to say that the Church is not authorized to ordain women.
Note 1: To download the meditation points in several languages,
click here.
Note 2: For a formatted list of the meditation points in several languages,
click here.
Note 3: For an unformatted list of the meditation points in several languages,
click here.
Note 4: To download the meditation points linked to CCC and TOB sections,
click here.
Note 5: For historical context, see this timeline analysis of the ongoing process of doctrinal development, including detailed analyses of the declaration Inter Insigniories (1976) and the apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994).
Religious Patriarchy in the Judeo-Christian Tradition
Annotated Chronology of Key Events
Luis T. Gutierrez Working Draft - 29 April 2024 Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena
The following is a summary of the currently unfolding process of discernment about the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate in the Catholic Church.
Fundamental Question
Should the patriarchal priesthood of the Old Law, restricted to males, still be normative for the sacramental priesthood of the New Law?
Chronology of Key Events
Original sin -- The original "unity in diversity" of man and woman became an impaired communion of domination/subordination -- Cf. Genesis 3:16
Emergence of the patriarchal culture -- starting at least 10,000 years or so, in conjunction with the agricultural revolution, long before biblical times
Patriarchal covenant of the Old Law -- starting 1000 BC or so... primitive, artificial, phallocentric, takes for granted the impaired communion of man and woman, derived from original sin, as "divine law"
Patriarchal culture of classical Greece -- "woman is a defective male" (Aristotle, later "mitigated" but not fundamentally refuted by Aquinas)
Patriarchal culture of the Roman Empire -- Even the language is patriarchal... "virtue" comes from the Latin "vir"
Within the boundaries of the Roman Empire, the early Christian Church eventually coalesced into five patriarchates: Jerusalem, Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch.
Sacramental covenant of the New Law -- The dogmatic definition of priestly ordination as a sacrament (Council of Trent, 1563) does not mention maleness or masculinity as a requirement for apostolic succession
"Scandal" of women priests in the Anglican Communion -- Florence Li Tim-Oi ordained in Hong Kong, 1944
Apostolic Constitution Sacramentum Ordinis about "what is required for validity in conferring of Sacred Orders" -- No mention of a maleness or masculinity requirement for ordination (Pius XII, 1947)
About the rite of ordination: "If it was at one time necessary even for validity by the will and command of the Church, every one knows that the Church has the power to change and abrogate what she herself has established."
Vatican II, Lumen Gentium -- "viri probati" can be ordained as deacons
"Scandal" of women priests in the Episcopal Church USA -- starting 1974 (approved 1976)
New doctrinal rationalization, Inter Insigniores, a literalist interpretation of the 12 male apostles chosen by Jesus under the Old Law to represent the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1976)
After the resurrection and the ascension, the Church elected Matthias to replace Judas, and has since elected all successors to the apostles. Why is it that Matthias was chosen by the Church to be an apostle, and not Mary Magdalene? Because the witness of Mary Magdalene, or any other woman, was considered worthless.
After the resurrection, under the New Law, the Church is given full authority to mediate all vocations. By the power of the keys, the Church can ordain women at any time, without waiting for the Lord to return and give permission. It doesn't make sense to say that the Church is not authorized to ordain women.
New biblical exegesis -- Theology of the Body (TOB) on the sacramentality of the human body, human flesh, male and female -- John Paul II, 1979-1984
About the original unity of man and woman in one and the same human nature: "Bodiliness and sexuality are not simply identical... the fact that man is a "body" belongs more deeply to the structure of the personal subject than the fact that in his somatic constitution he is also male or female... it is a question here of homogeneity of the whole being of both." (TOB 8)
About complementarity in unity: The "complementarity" of man and woman is for natural reciprocity and interpersonal communion, not for artificial separation of social/sacramental roles based on cultural gender stereotypes. The sacramentality of a female human body is equivalent to the sacramentality of a male human body. The obvious implication is that any baptized person, man or woman, can be ordained to act in persona Christi... (TOB 13, 19, 33, 89, 96...)
"It's a long way to Tipperary", John Paul II's visit to the USA, 1981, referring to the ordination of women to the sacramental priesthood
Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1577 (same as Inter Insigniores) and #1598 (under the New Law, the male-only priesthood is a choice made by the Church, not by Christ), John Paul II, 1994
Lamentably, #1577 elevates the pre-Easter choice of the 12 male apostles to a patriarchal post-Easter doctrine (but not a dogma!)
Thankfully, #1598 recognizes that the male-only priesthood is a choice made by the Church (first sentence) and who can make the choice (second sentence)
Again, the choice is made by the Church, not by Christ personally; so what about allowing the Risen Lord to call women, and see what happens?
Canon 1024 is, in effect, an artificial contraceptive (if not an outright abortifacient!) of female vocations to the sacramental priesthood
Pontifical "executive order" to stop further discussion on women priests and bishops ~
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, John Paul II, 1994
The letter is addressed to the bishops, not to the entire Church.
It does not say it is a dogmatic definition, so it is not infallible as either extraordinary teaching (Pope ex cathedra) or ordinary teaching (Pope and bishops together have never taught infallibly that women cannot be ordained to the sacramental priesthood).
It does not explain why a baptized female is not valid matter for the sacrament.
It is entirely written in past and present tense.
It says nothing about what the Church can or cannot do in the future, so it is "definitive" for the past and the present, but cannot possibly be "definitive" for the future, since it says nothing about the future.
Pontifical "fake news" dubiously elevating the male-only priesthood to infallible teaching ~
Responsum ad Propositum Dubium, CDF 1995
It is hard to understand how Ordinatio Sacerdotalis can be made to be infallible, retroactively, by invoking a doctrine (Lumen Gentium, section 25) that was never infallibly proclaimed. It defies logic, plain and simple.
"The door is closed" -- Francis, interview, 2013
The door is provisionally closed but not dogmatically locked.
"The reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ the Spouse who gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a question open to discussion..." -- Francis, Evangelii Gaudium #104, 2013
So women cannot be ordained to the priesthood in order to preserve the analogical image of Christ as sacrificial bridegroom and the Church as bride. Thankfully, the ludicrous argument about the pre-Easter 12 male apostles is not repeated. However, a rigidly patriarchal interpretation of the bridegroom-bride analogy (Ephesians 5:22-33) effectively reduces the mysteriun magnum to a benign patriarchal covenant. In reality, the Christ-Church nuptial covenant is a great mystery; and the Church is metaphorically a woman, but it is more than a woman with a male head. The continued conflation of patriarchal gender ideology with the truth revealed in Christ Jesus is a cultural tragedy that is becoming a doctrinal travesty, a doctrinal cover-up that significantly erodes the credibility of the institutional church, with potentially disgraceful pastoral consequences.
Detour about climate change and integral ecology -- Francis, Laudato Si', 2015
Laudato Si' is a wakeup call on the reality of the ecological crisis. It is the best guidance we have at the intersection of Catholic social doctrine and human ecology. However, patriarchy as a cultural driver of population/consumption growth is not mentioned. Social inequities, capitalist greed, consumerism and the idolatry of technology are thoroughly analyzed, but anthropogenic climate change is overstated and the population growth issue is grossly understated. Population and consumption growth issues can be distinguished, but cannot be separated.
John Paul II was "pointing in that direction" -- Francis, interview, 2016
Confirms that Ordinatio Sacerdotalis was not a dogmatic definition.
Another commission about women deacons -- Francis, meeting, 2016
Ambiguity of historical data precludes resolving the issue based on precedent.
Another remark about "viri probati" -- Francis, interview, 2016
Why only "viri probati"? Why not also "feminae probatae"?
The Church celebrates "Corpus Christi," not "vir Christi"!
Recognition that patriarchy has often been abusive in family and society -- Francis, Amoris Laetitia #54 & #154, 2016
About gender ideologies (#56): "It needs to be emphasized that "biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated." Is this still the patriarchal gender binary? Can a human person be exclusively masculine or exclusively feminine? The body is normally male or female, but personal subjects are always masculine and feminine, because there is a feminine dimension in man and a masculine dimension in woman (Genesis 2). There is a "feminine genius" in Jesus, just as there is a "masculine genius" in Mary. Is the Church still constrained by patriarchal gender ideology?
Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development -- Francis, 2016 (human persons are spirited bodies, "body-souls," not just bodies, thus requiring integral development of the spiritual and corporal, subjective and objective, masculine and feminine dimensions)
The body is a sacrament of the entire person, but is not the entire person. Questions: Why is it then, that only persons with male bodies can be tested for ordination to the sacramental priesthood? Since priests and bishops are ordained to act in the person of Christ, and only males are ordained, how can they make visible the feminine genius in Christ? Why is it that the patriarchal priesthood of the Old Law is still normative for the sacramental priesthood of the New Law? To be a model of integral human development, the hierarchy of the Church needs male-female INTEGRATION.
In a meeting of Voices of Faith, 8 March 2018, many valid concerns were raised about ecclesiastical patriarchy no longer being for the glory of God and the good of souls. Pope Francis was invited, but did not attend. This is where we are at the moment. One wonders how this crucial issue will be handled in the forthcoming Synod of Bishops on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment, scheduled for October 2018.
In an article in L'Osservatore Romano, 29 May 2018, Archbishop Luis Ladaria, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, reiterates the doctrine of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis as "definitive." He adds an argument about the "substance" of the sacrament of order which is incompatible with human "unity in diversity" as in the Theology of the Body. See the following response: The Provisional Character of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis ~ Doubts and Questions Remain.
Synod of Bishops on "Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology" ~ October 2019. The possibility of women deacons is timidly mentioned, and proposed for further study, but the possibility of women priests and women bishops is not even mentioned. However, the possibility of ordaining more married men to the priesthood is strongly proposed. Thus the church seemingly remains frozen in patriarchal gender ideology.
Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia, 2 February 2020. Section 101:
"Jesus Christ appears as the Spouse of the community that celebrates the Eucharist through the figure of a man who presides as a sign of the one Priest." Lamentably, cultural inertia still prevails over reason and discernment. The priestly "figure of a man" can become the priestly "figure of a human" only when patriarchal gender ideology is discarded and the priest becomes a figure of the Word who became flesh, i.e., became a human being in a human body, which is ontologically more fundamental than becoming a man or a woman (cf. Theology of the Body, 8).
Detour about fraternity and social friendship -- Francis, Fratelli Tutti, 2020
"Those who raise walls will end up as slaves within the very walls they have built." (FT 27) The perplexing absence of the gender dimension in Fratelli Tutti is a symptom that the exclusively male priesthood, prescribed in canon 1024 and rooted in the ancient patriarchal gender theory of male headship, is a rigid wall that keeps the church confined in the patriarchal cage.
Official approval of women as lectors and acolytes -- Francis, Spiritus Domini, 15 January 2021
This is another baby step toward the ordination of women. For twenty centuries, we have had only male acolytes. Why not female acolytes? Why only the boys, and not the girls? Patriarchal gender theory is a false ideology, plain and simple. It may take many more years, decades, centuries, but the Spirit of Truth will deliver us from religious patriarchy.
Announcement (12 April 2021) of International Theological Symposium "For a fundamental theology of priesthood," being organized by the Congregation for Bishops.
The announcement refers to "cultural movements that question the place of women in the Church." Isn't patriarchy a culture, and isn't religious patriarchy derived from the patriarchal culture of male hegemony? The program in this website includes a panel on female ministries. "Changes cannot be dictated by cultural pressures, but neither should they exclude the fact that in the issues that prompt change, there is a call to free the faith from encrustations of the past." Stirrings? What about patriarchal encrustations?
Announcement (21 May 2021) of the Synodal Process 2021-2023 under the theme
"For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission."
Will this be a real consultation with all the faithful, including reconsideration of the patriarchal semblance of the church? Will this include discernment about the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate? Will this include listening to the sensus fidelium in all matters of human sexuality?
Announcement (1 June 2021) of canon law revisions pertaining to sex abuse, fraud, and the ordination of women.
Simultaneously toughening church laws on sex abuse, fraud, and the ordination of women, as the Vatican just announced, is indicative of a connection that has yet to be fully clarified. Canon 1024 is a form of sex abuse in the body of Christ, because it prescribes the systematic abortion of female vocations to ordained ministry; and it is a fraud of the sacramental economy, just as slavery was a fraud of the social economy, but male apostolic succession must be protected by threat of excommunication. This is just more disciplinary fine tuning, nothing dogmatic, not even a doctrinal clarification; when it comes to the ordination of women, there seems to be a paralysis in doctrinal development. At a time when Catholic social doctrine has developed with meteoric speed from Rerum Novarum to Laudato Si', this stagnation in patriarchal ecclesiology is very perplexing. Could it be that the hierarchical church doesn't want to admit that it has been doing something wrong for 2000 years?
The elephant in the room is the ordination of women, but they don't want to see it. The program did not include any formal presentation about the ordination of women. It included one round table on "woman and ministry, status questionis." The usual condescending platitudes about women being important members of the church, the common priesthood of the faithful rooted in baptism, etc. Nothing about the personhood of women in Christ. Apparently they are refraining from fabricating more silly rationalizations in defense of the exclusively male priesthood, so now they are proposing some buzzwords, like "clericalism" and "synodality." The official line is that the main problem with the ministerial priesthood is clericalism, not patriarchalism; and the future is synodality, which is expected to somehow cure clericalism while sticking with patriarchalism. Nothing official about the possibility of ordaining women to act in the person of Christ in the foreseeable future. In other words, the Vatican is blinking, but chooses to remain in willful blindness.
Pope Francis on the Marian Principle and the Petrine Principle, November 2022.
In a recent meeting with the staff of America Magazine, Pope Francis was asked about the ordination of women to the ministerial priesthood. He replied with some allegorical rationalizations about the Marian Principle and the Petrine Principle, based on a patriarchal understanding of the Christ-Church analogy in Ephesians 5. In effect, Francis is reducing the Christ-Church mystery to a patriarchal allegory about spousal relations. It is lamentable that the Vatican remains trapped in the simplistic gender binary of patriarchal gender ideology. This is incompatible with Theology of the Body 95b, but Genesis 3:16 has a long tail.
Synod on Synodality, October 2023.
As the 2023 Synod on Synodality ends, religious patriarchy still prevails in church doctrine and church law. Some semblance of discernment has started on the ordination of women, but resistance to change rooted in patriarchal gender ideology still precludes any revision of CIC 1024, CCC 1577, and CCC 1598 in the forseeable future.
Declaration Fiducia Supplicans, Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, 18 December 2023.
A baby step in developing a more adequate theological anthropology, but the patriarchal binary is not transcended as would be required for the priestly ordination of women.
Declaration Dignitas Infinita, Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, 8 April 2024.
Another baby step in developing a more adequate theological anthropology, but the patriarchal binary is not transcended as would be required for the priestly ordination of women.
The list of titles for the Pope now again includes "Patriarch of the West." This title had been dropped in 2006 as being "obsolete." Is this a deliberate regression? And if so, is it conducive to making the church more "synodal"?
Note on the Unique Vocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Blessed Virgin Mary's unique vocation as Mother of God utterly transcends all choices made by the Church for apostolic succession after the resurrection, so it is absurd to assume that women cannot be apostles under the New Law just because Mary was not chosen to be an apostle under the Old Law.
Saint Thérèse (1873-1897)
Summary
Should the patriarchal priesthood of the Old Law, restricted to males, still be normative for the sacramental priesthood of the New Law?
All men and women share one and the same human nature, the same biblical flesh. For the redemption, and the sacramental economy, the masculinity of Jesus is as incidental as the color of his eyes. The sacramental priesthood of the New Law is ministerial, not patriarchal. The exclusively male priesthood conceals the divine feminine in the Incarnate Word. The presence of Mary in the Christian community is not a sacramentally suitable substitute for the presence of Christ in the priest when acting in persona Christi. For this reason, women should be ordained to the priesthood and the episcopate, for the glory of God and the good of souls.
"Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, pray for us."
Patriarchal Gender Ideology and the Reign of God
Luis T. Gutierrez Working Draft - 26 November 2017 Solemnity of Christ the King
QUESTION
When Jesus chose the 12 male apostles to represent the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel, was he prescribing that only males could follow in apostolic succession after Pentecost?
DISCERNMENT
When Jesus chose the 12 male apostles to represent the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel, he was acting within the self-imposed limits of his mission to the people of Israel and was not prescribing that only males could follow in apostolic succession after Pentecost. He gave the Church the power of the keys to make all decisions required to foster the reign of God and the good of souls. Would Jesus, in today's global Church, choose only males to represent the patriarchs of the tribes of Israel?
MEDITATIONS
Patriarchal gender theory (i.e., the artificial sex/gender "binary" and presumption of male "headship") reduces the human person to a sexual object. The conflation of patriarchal gender ideology and revealed truth in our sacramental theology is detrimental to the glory of God and the good of souls, and must be clarified. This is the most critical issue facing the Church today.
The meditations in this website are based on my understanding of St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Across the entire sex/gender spectrum, the essence of human personhood is to be a body-soul unity. Families are already evolving from sole male (father) headship to joint male-female (father-mother) headship. To continue the process narrated in Acts 15, when the Church transitioned out of the patriarchal Jewish culture, now the Church must let go of the simplistic sex/gender binary.
This process of prayerful discernment must continue. The Church is "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic" (and therefore hierarchical) but not essentially patriarchal. None of the sacraments should exclude any human person due to gender identity. All church ministries, ordained and unordained, must be gift-based, not gender-based. The body is a sacrament of the entire person but is not the entire personal subject. When a priest consecrates the bread and wine, he or she is acting in the person of Christ as a divine personal subject, not just as a human being with a male body.
The exclusively male priesthood is an artificial contraceptive (if not an abortifacient!) of female priestly vocations. Ancient religious patriarchy is now becoming an obstacle to grace and a very grave impediment to fostering the reign of God and a sensible evolution toward an integral human ecology.
ANNOTATION
It is noted that CIC 1024 is based on patriarchal gender theory, not divinely revealed dogma. CCC 1577 (not dogmatic) uncritically assumes that Jesus intended patriarchal gender theory to be normative for the sacramental economy after Pentecost. CCC 1598 literally says that the male-only priesthood is a choice (first sentence) and who can make the choice (second sentence). This confirms that the Church is apostolic, and therefore hierarchical, but not necessarily patriarchal.
The door is closed, but not locked. The hiatus prescribed by the apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis should be ended, as it is becoming an obstacle to the new evangelization in a post-patriarchal world. By the power of the keys, the Church does have the authority to ordain women to the ministerial priesthood. Doing so would be in perfect continuity with apostolic tradition dating back to the decision about male circumcision not being required under the New Law (Acts 15:28).
Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genetrix
ADDENDUM: Patriarchal Gender Theory vs. Theology of the Body
The following diagram attempts to portray the difference between patriarchal gender theory and a more adequate theological anthropology:
Patriarchal Gender Theory is based on a simplistic, artificial classification of human beings based on socio-cultural gender roles that emerged *after* original sin.
The Theology of the Body, based on exhaustive exegesis of biblical texts, recognizes that while sex and gender cannot be separated, they can be distinguished (The Original Unity of Man and Woman; cf. Amoris Laetitia # 56) and, by providing a natural model of the structure of the personal subject, also provides a sound anthropological foundation for the new evangelization and fostering the reign of God.
An integral sacramental economy would be more conducive to integral human development and an integral ecology, for the glory of God and the good of humanity.
Consubstantial Complementarity of Man and Woman
Luis T. Gutierrez Working Draft - 21 April 2019 Easter Sunday
Summary
All human beings, men and women, share one and the same human nature. Sexual complementarity does not cancel natural consubstantiality. For all men and women of good will to effectively contribute to integral human development it is indispensable to sanitize human relations, as much as possible, from the inner disposition of rivalry that is generally manifested as domination/submission struggles. The most universal form of rivalry, succinctly summarized in Genesis 3:16, is the "patriarchal gender binary" of male domination and female submission. But the patriarchal culture, ancient as it is, was constructed by human hands and is not natural. The patriarchal era is passing away, as evidenced by families evolving from male headship to joint father-mother headship. This egalitarian complementarity of man and woman in family and society, rooted in their natural consubstantiality, is bound to gradually propagate to all human communities worldwide. Fostering this transition, away from patriarchy and toward the communion foreseen in Galatians 3:28, is crucial for the future of human civilization.
For all men and women of good will to effectively contribute to human development at any level (global, national, local) it is indispensable to sanitize human relations as much as possible from all manner of rivalry, an inner disposition that is triggered by mimetic desire and induces domination/submission struggles. This means going all the way back to the emergence of Homo sapiens; for the Agricultural Revolution, and more recently the Industrial Revolution and the Information Revolution, have but exacerbated symptoms of human misbehavior that are rooted in primitive human culture but are not intrinsic to human nature. The root cause of social and ecological human dysfunction is cultural, and therefore artificial, made by human hands; not natural.
The Book of Genesis provides a mythical account of human origins that sheds light on human nature. Specifically, Genesis 3:16 points to domination/submission as the most universal form of human struggle, one that affects all men and women. All other forms of human misbehavior encapsulate, and make manifest in different ways, this fundamental corruption of human relations. It is significant that rupturing the original communion of man and woman is revealed as the primary and most universal consequence of the fall from original innocence.
At a time when religious intolerance and slave ownership are disappearing (slowly, but surely) from human civilization, gender equality is the new horizon for human development. This step forward, dimly envisioned by successive waves of feminism starting in the late 19th century, and more recently fostered by the 2015 Millennium Development Goals and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, requires a profound cultural transition from the "patriarchal binary" of male domination, and female subordination, to practical recognition, in families and all other human institutions, of the "egalitarian complementarity" of man and woman.
Patriarchal Complementarity
Patriarchal gender ideology is based on the "gender binary" of male/female opposites. It fails to recognize that the only essential difference between man and woman is genital. It segregates men and women in every dimension of human life according to the culture of male domination and female subordination that emerged from original sin (Genesis 3:16).
The patriarchal gender binary is not natural. It is a distortion of natural law and a major obstacle to integral human development. What goes around comes around. The patriarchal binary harms men as much as women. The redemption of humanity, male and female, radically overcomes the patriarchal order of things (Galatians 3:28).
Consubstantial Complementarity
A comprehensive exegesis of biblical texts on man and woman, and their unity in one and the same human nature, was developed by Pope John Paul II in his Theology of the Body (TOB). It provides a solid basis for solving the most pressing issues of human sexuality, both in families and in the Church as the family of God, including the ordination of women to the priesthood in the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The TOB endorses neither radical patriarchy nor radical feminism, and provides a vision of marriage, and gender relations in general, that can be summarized as unity in diversity ("original unity of man and woman"), individuality in community ("communion of persons") and equality in mutuality ("spousal meaning of the body"). The complementarity of man and woman is for reciprocity and mutual enrichment, not mutual exclusion.
It is noteworthy that, in the TOB, the "male or female" descriptor is always used in reference to the human being as a body, while "male and female" is always used in reference to the human being as a person. The human person is a body, but is more than a body (Genesis 2:7). The body is a sacrament of the entire person, but is not the entire person. Furthermore, being a body is more fundamental to the structure of the personal subject than being somatically male or female (TOB 3:2, 8:1, 21:6). In other words, bodiliness and sexuality are not simply identical:
HUMAN BODILINESS & SEXUAL DIFFERENTIATION
"Corporality and sexuality are not completely identified. Although the human body in its normal constitution, bears within it the signs of sex and is by its nature male or female, the fact, however, that man is a "body" belongs to the structure of the personal subject more deeply than the fact that in his somatic constitution he is also male or female. Therefore, the meaning of "original solitude," which can be referred simply to "man," is substantially prior to the meaning of original unity. The latter is based on masculinity and femininity, as if on two different "incarnations," that is, on two ways of "being a body" of the same human being created "in the image of God" (Gn 1:27)."
HUMAN NATURE & CONSUBSTANTIAL HOMOGENEITY
"The woman is made "with the rib" that God-Yahweh had taken from the man. Considering the archaic, metaphorical and figurative way of expressing the thought, we can establish that it is a question here of homogeneity of the whole being of both. This homogeneity concerns above all the body, the somatic structure. It is also confirmed by the man's first words to the woman who has been created: "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (Gn 2:23).(15) Yet the words quoted refer also to the humanity of the male. They must be read in the context of the affirmations made before the creation of the woman, in which, although the "incarnation" of the man does not yet exist, she is defined as "a helper fit for him" (cf. Gn 2:18 and 2:20). In this way, therefore, the woman is created, in a sense, on the basis of the same humanity."
According to this translation, there was a human being in "original solitude" before sexual differentiation. This is the first human being created from the dust (Genesis 2:7) before sexual differentiation provides a "helper" of the other sex (Genesis 2:18-23). This key text is translated a bit differently in the 2006 edition, but includes the original emphasis in italics for a key phrase, and the same key point is made that embodied human nature (in complete body-soul integrity) precedes humans embodied as male or female:
"Bodiliness and sexuality are not simply identical. Although in its normal constitution, the human body carries within itself the signs of sex and is by its nature male or female, the fact that man is a "body" belongs more deeply to the structure of the personal subject than the fact that in his somatic constitution he is also male or female. For this reason, the meaning of "original solitude," which can be referred simply to "man," is substantially prior to the meaning of original unity; the latter is based on masculinity and femininity, which are, as it were, two different "incarnations," that is, two ways in which the same human being, created "in the image of God" (Gen 1:27), "is a body."" The Meaning of Original Unity, Pope John Paul II, 7 November 1979. Source: Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, Pauline Books, 2006, page 157. See also note 12 in page 158.
Furthermore, the somatic homogeneity of man and woman (TOB 8:4) shows that sexual differentiation, while undoubtedly being a gift, is also a limitation of embodied human nature. A man is bodily a man, and a woman is bodily a woman, but they are both equal in human personhood because they are both "body-persons" (i.e., "body-souls"). The entire TOB is a deconstruction of the patriarchal binary:
Having a body is more fundamental than being male or female (TOB 8:1)
Man and Woman are fully homogeneous in their "whole being" (TOB 8:4)
Corporality, not sexuality, is the primordial sacrament (TOB 19:4, 96:6)
Imbalance of male domination/female submission must be corrected (TOB 31:2)
The spousal meaning of the body is not limited to patriarchal analogies (TOB 33:3)
The spousal bond of Christ-Head and Church-Body transcends patriarchy (TOB 91:1)
The language of the body, male and female, is the language of the liturgy (TOB 117:5)
Natural Consubstantiality
From the beginning, the human person, man and woman, was created as a "body-soul" reality that subsumes the "body-gender" reality, which in turn subsumes the "biophysical body" reality, which in turn subsumes many other realities such as biological sex, the five senses, the color of the skin, etc. All men and women are made of the same created dust, the same created flesh, animated by the same kind of created soul. All men and women are naturally consubstantial, with unity in diversity in the image of the Trinity. That the second person of the Trinity became incarnate as a male means that God assumed all the limitations of the human condition ("like us in all things but sin") without in any way ceasing to be a divine person.
This diagram, like all models, is a simplification of reality, but attempts to deconstruct the over simplistic sex/gender binary of the patriarchal culture. Basically, it means that each human being is a body animated by a soul (gray circle). All men and women are fully homogeneous, made of the same dust, of the same substance, of the same flesh; and share one and the same human nature (brown circle). The body of each person is sexually differentiated, and is male *or* female *or* intersex (pink, blue, and purple circles). So, again, the body is a visible sacrament of the entire person, but is not the entire person. The physical body makes visible the invisible metaphysical person, but is not the entire person.
Sex is biophysical. Gender (gradient pink-blue circle) is psychosomatic, a personal synthesis of somatic constitution and cultural conditioning. Sex and gender are constitutive of the human person more deeply that other, more superficial attributes such as skin color, height, and weight; but all men and women are homogeneously constituted of the same flesh in one and the same human nature. The sexual complementarity of man and woman does not limit them to mutually exclusive roles except when they come together to share the gift of love and the gift of life. Modern science (biology, psychology, neurology) has shown ancient cultural stereotypes to be unnatural. In contrast to the patriarchal mindset of male domination and female subordination, a healthy complementarity of man and woman actually requires their joint participation in most human activities and the reconstruction of their interpersonal communion as fully equal partners in the nuclear family, and in the Church as the family of God, including apostolic succession.
Other than genitally, the complementarity of man and woman does not mean mutually exclusive roles. Such mutual exclusion of gender roles is a heritage from radical patriarchy, not divine revelation. All humans are consubstantial in one and the same human nature. Jesus Christ is consubstantial with all humans in his humanity. The Eucharist is the flesh and blood of Christ. Metaphysical "transubstantiation" happens when the priest consecrates the bread and wine, but is really consummated in the flesh when the person who receives the Eucharist becomes "eucharist" in sacrificial service to others.
Cultural Anthropology
Cultural anthropology is the comparative study of human societies and cultures and their development. Cultures develop by imitation, learning, and socialization. There are cultural variations that are local or regional, and lead to ethnical cultures. We are dealing here with primitive cultural development that gradually propagated worldwide but is still artificial (made by human hands) and not intrinsic to the natural law.
In the patriarchal culture, the male or female "incarnations" of human persons are understood as practically constituting two different human natures. In theory, both men and women fully share one and the same human nature but, in practice, the biblical curse of male rule and female submission prevails in most cultures worldwide. This is visibly manifested, via body language, in all dimensions of human relations. The "male gaze" and the "female gaze" are symptomatic of this reality, and not only in cinematography but in families and both social and religious institutions.
Surely, men and women are different. But it is a difference in equality, an equality that is not only a matter of equal dignity but a full equality in embodied personhood, both men and women fundamentally being "body-persons." It is an "egalitarian complementarity" in which differences are for reciprocity and mutual enrichment, not arbitrary exclusion. Humanity is "male and female," not "male or female." This has crucial repercussions for social and ecological justice, as evidenced by the feminization of poverty and the feminization of nature, both tightly coupled to the current ecological crisis.
Humanity and the Human Habitat
"Valuing one's own body in its femininity or masculinity is necessary if I am going to be able to recognize myself in an encounter
with someone who is different. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the
Creator, and find mutual enrichment." Laudato Si' #155
But how can this happen as long as the feminine genius is excluded from roles of responsibility and authority in social and religious institutions? Reconstructing the natural mutuality of man and woman has enormous implications for integral human development and social-ecological justice. There is by now an overwhelming consensus that "human development, if not engendered, is fatally endangered."
Objective evidence confirms that the patriarchal binary is an oversimplification of reality. From reproductive biology we know that, at the instant of conception, the human body is one androgynous, sexually undifferentiated cell (zygote), and subsequent sexual differentiation happens via inactivation of one X chromosome, resulting in a cell with XX (female) or XY (male) chromosomes. From modern psychology we know that there is woman in man (anima) and man in woman (animus), so female and male polarities are invisible partners in every man and every woman during their entire life. Critical analysis of biblical texts reveals a progression from male dominance in the Old Testament to male-female partnership in the New Testament as the intended divine plan for human relations.
Conclusion
As long as the patriarchal binary prevails, subjective human development remains defective, with pervasive repercussions in human relations as well as human-nature relations. There can be no fully integral human development as long as both the objective and subjective dimensions of the body-person are not taken into account. There can be no fully integral ecology as long as humanity behaves as the dominant male and treats nature as a submissive female. There can be no lasting social justice, and there can be no lasting ecological justice, as long as human behavior is driven by the patriarchal mindset.
Gender Communion for Integral Humanism & Integral Ecology
Luis T. Gutierrez Working Draft - 31 May 2019 Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Summary
Jesus Christ - one divine person in divine and human natures
Human nature, male and female, is one and indivisible
Human persons, men and women, are mutually complementary but fully homogeneous
Sexual differentiation is both a gift and a limit of the human condition
Sexual differentiation is an organic limitation, not a vocational limitation
Integral human development entails the mediation and fostering of all vocations
Integral means both objective and subjective and both individual and relational
Patriarchal gender ideology precludes the renewal of human relations
Signs of the times: The end of patriarchy & the ecological crisis
From patriarchy to egalitarian complementarity
The patriarchal binary of male domination and female subordination induces many social aberrations. The following is a good summary of gender relations under the patriarchal system which still prevails in many regions of the world:
The aberration of a gender pyramid derives from original sin (cf. Genesis 3:16) and ensues as patriarchal gender ideology (i.e., male headship and the sex/gender binary). After the Fall, this patriarchal mindset about human sexuality corrupted the original unity of man and woman to the point of recreating God in the image of male humans:
Reconstructing the natural mutuality of man and woman has enormous implications for integral human development and
social-ecological justice. There is by now an overwhelming consensus that "human development, if not engendered, is fatally endangered."
Critical analysis of biblical texts reveal a progression from male dominance in the Old Testament to male-female partnership in the New Testament as the intended divine plan for human relations. In addition,
scientific evidence confirms that the patriarchal binary is an oversimplification of reality:
From reproductive biology we know that, at the instant of conception, the human body is one androgynous, sexually undifferentiated cell (zygote), and subsequent sexual differentiation happens via inactivation of one X chromosome, resulting in a cell with XX (female) or XY (male) chromosomes.
From modern psychology we know that there is woman in man (anima) and man in woman (animus), so female and male polarities are invisible partners in every man and every woman during their entire life.
From neurology we know that "regardless of the cause of observed sex/gender differences in brain and behavior (nature or nurture), human brains cannot be categorized into two distinct classes: male brain/female brain" (Sex beyond the genitalia: The human brain mosaic).
In brief, Genesis 2 reveals, the Theology of the Body explains, and modern science confirms, that the patriarchal gender binary is an artificial ideology and is no longer credible as natural law.
Integral Humanism
Catholic social doctrine recognizes that an adequate theological anthropology is required for social/ecological justice, but shows an ambivalent admixture of natural law and patriarchal ideology:
146. Male and female differentiate two individuals of equal dignity, which does not however reflect a static equality, because the specificity of the female is different from the specificity of the male, and this difference in equality is enriching and indispensable for the harmony of life in society: The condition that will assure the rightful presence of woman in the Church and in society is a more penetrating and accurate consideration of the anthropological foundation for masculinity and femininity with the intent of clarifying woman's personal identity in relation to man, that is, a diversity yet mutual complementarily, not only as it concerns roles to be held and functions to be performed, but also, and more deeply, as it concerns her make-up and meaning as a person .
147. Woman is the complement of man, as man is the complement of woman: man and woman complete each other mutually, not only from a physical and psychological point of view, but also ontologically. It is only because of the duality of male and female that the human being becomes a full reality. It is the unity of the two , or in other words a relational uni-duality , that allows each person to experience the interpersonal and reciprocal relationship as a gift that at the same time is a mission: to this unity of the two' God has entrusted not only the work of procreation and family life, but the creation of history itself . The woman is a helper' for the man, just as the man is a helper' for the woman! : in the encounter of man and woman a unitary conception of the human person is brought about, based not on the logic of self-centredness and self-affirmation, but on that of love and solidarity.
If man and woman complete each other in both Church and society, why is patriarchal male headship still enshrined in the Church hierarchy, given that man and woman are fully homogenous in their "whole being"? The patriarchal ideology of male domination and female submission, which is a consequence of original sin (Genesis 3:16, TOB 31), is an obstacle to integral human development, integral humanism, and integral ecology. The fundamental issue is whether the Church makes decisions based on cultural conditioning or an ever deepening understanding of natural law and the deposit of faith. This is not about what women (or men) want. This is about discerning what Christ wants for the Church in the 21st century, for the glory of God and the good of souls, in light of an adequate theological anthropology.
Conclusion
As long as the patriarchal binary prevails, subjective human development remains defective, with pervasive repercussions in human relations as well as human-nature relations. There can be no fully integral human development as long as both the objective and subjective dimensions of the body-person are not taken into account. There can be no fully integral ecology as long as humanity behaves as the dominant male and treats nature as a submissive female. There can be no lasting social justice, and there can be no lasting ecological justice, as long as human behavior is driven by the patriarchal mindset.
Nuptial Complementarity in the Church Hierarchy
Luis T. Gutierrez Working Draft - 8 December 2015
Summary
In the sacramental churches, every conceivable rationalization is being used to resist the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate. Essentially, a sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace. One of the main obstacles to the ordination of women is the idea that the masculinity of Jesus requires the priest to resemble him as a male. However, this idea is rooted in the patriarchal norm of the father as head of the family and not on divine revelation.
"This is my body." What matters for the sacramental economy, and for the priest to be a visible sign of the acting presence of Christ, is not that Jesus is male but that in him the eternal Word assumed human nature in a human "body," and became "flesh;" thus the proper rite for the sacrament is the imposition of hands made of "flesh" (not "maleness") on a baptized person, male or female. The sacraments are not human rights but free gifts, fruits of the redemption. Ordination is not contingent on holiness or any human trait other than our fundamental human nature as rational animals made of body and soul. All the sacraments are nuptial, and none was instituted by Christ to be gender-exclusive.
It is wrong, and lamentably obfuscates the issue, to hide behind either patriarchal or feminist ideologies to advocate either perpetuating the patriarchal priesthood or discarding the mediation of the Church for apostolic succession. In can be shown, based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Theology of the Body, and careful analysis of other pertinent Church documents (Ecumenical Councils, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis) that there is no such thing as an infallibly defined dogma that the male-only priesthood is a timeless, divine law.
Jesus Christ, a divine Person, is the one and only Priest of the New Law. His priesthood is by no means contingent on the masculinity of Jesus of Nazareth. For the sacramental economy, rooted in the mysteries of the incarnation and the redemption, the masculinity of the historical Jesus is as incidental as the color of his eyes. With regard to Mary of Nazareth, she preceded the sacramental economy by embracing her unique and unrepeatable vocation as Mother of the Redeemer, and she is much more than an ordained priest or bishop.
The Christ-Church mystery is about a communion of persons in the image of the Trinity. The bridegroom-bride analogy, beautiful as it is, does not exhaust the Christ-Church mystery. The choice of the 12 male apostles by Jesus is a particularity of his earthly mission to the people of Israel and should not remain normative. Apostolic succession is not contingent on masculinity. The ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate would be in perfect continuity with apostolic tradition. In light of Humanae Vitae and Evangelium Vitae, it can be argued that the male-only practice is an artificial contraceptive of female priestly vocations, because the Church is "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic" (and therefore hierarchical) but not essentially patriarchal. Now that the patriarchal era is passing away in the domestic church, the hierarchical Church would be enormously enriched by male-female nuptial complementarity.
At the end, some key references are listed (with links to online resources) followed by additional notes for further reflection:
Note 1: On Discernment about Women in Sacramental Ministry
Note 2: On the Mysteries of the Beginning and the End
Note 3: On the Mysteries of the Incarnation and the Redemption
Note 4: On the Nuptial Mystery of Christ and the Church
Note 5: On Religious Patriarchy and Social/Ecological Justice
Note 6: On the Marian Dogmas and the Pilgrim Church
Note 7: On the Encyclicals Humanae Vitae and Evagelium Vitae
Note 8: On Church History & Doctrinal Development
Note 9: On the Global Sense of the Faithful
Acronyms
CCC Catechism of the Catholic Church
CIC Code of Canon Law
TOB Theology of the Body
"I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church." Nicene Creed
"This is the sole Church of Christ, which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic. These four characteristics, inseparably linked with each other, indicate essential features of the Church and her mission. The Church does not possess them of herself; it is Christ who,
through the Holy Spirit, makes his Church one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, and it is he who calls her to realize each of these qualities." CCC # 811 (see also # 812, 857-869)
The Church is "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic," but is it also patriarchal? The thesis developed in this paper is that the answer is a resounding NO, because to be apostolic it is not necessary for the Church to be patriarchal. Likewise, apostolic succession is not contingent on masculinity. Since the male-only priesthood is NOT an essential feature of the Church, it can be reformed to allow the ordination of baptized women.
We need to reconsider the Church as a family and recognize that the patriarchal church hierarchy is becoming an obstacle to evangelization as we enter the transition to a post-patriarchal society. Hierarchy is not the problem. Patriarchy is the problem. According to the dictionary, patriarchy is basically the rule of the father as head of the nuclear family, which extrapolates to all other social and religious institutions. In its radical form, it becomes the culture of male domination and control -- of women by men, of nature by humans.
"This is my body" The priesthood of the New Law is not essentially patriarchal
The exclusively male hierarchy is becoming stale as a symbol of the Christ-Church mystery. Granted that ordination to the priesthood is not a "human right" (for either men or women), Christ should be allowed to call those he wants here and now. Why should we keep the Church frozen in the patriarchal culture Jesus had to deal with during his earthly mission to the people of Israel? Would Jesus, in today's world, select 12 males to represent the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel? If Mary was called to divine motherhood, why is it that baptized women cannot be called to sacramental motherhood?
Theology of the Body
St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body (TOB) may provide a solid basis for solving the most pressing issues of human sexuality, both in families and in the Church as the family of God, including the ordination of women to the priesthood in the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The TOB endorses neither radical patriarchy nor radical feminism, and provides a vision of marriage, and gender relations in general, that can be summarized as unity in diversity ("original unity of man and woman"), individuality in community ("communion of persons") and equality in mutuality ("spousal meaning of the body"). The complementarity of man and woman is for reciprocity and mutual enrichment, not mutual exclusion.
The TOB is not about radical feminism. It is not about radical patriarchy either, past or present. It should be noted that the apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994), which is not a dogmatic definition of revealed truth, is entirely written in past and present tense, and says nothing about what the Church can or cannot do in the future. The term "definitive," as used in this document with regard to the male-only priesthood, therefore applies to the past and the present, not the future, since the document says nothing about the future. Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is a "definitive" but fallible judgment about the infallibility of a doctrine that has never been infallibly defined as a divinely revealed dogma.
Nothing essential (dogmatic) of the Catholic faith would have to change in order to ordain women to the priesthood and the episcopate. There is one (embodied) human nature and having a "body" is more fundamental to the structure of the personal subject than being somatically male or female (TOB 3:2, 8:1, 21:6). In other words, bodiliness and sexuality are not simply identical. This is a key point of that must be taken into account in sacramental theology:
HUMAN BODILINESS & SEXUAL DIFFERENTIATION
"Corporality and sexuality are not completely identified. Although the human body in its normal constitution, bears within it the signs of sex and is by its nature male or female, the fact, however, that man is a "body" belongs to the structure of the personal subject more deeply than the fact that in his somatic constitution he is also male or female. Therefore, the meaning of "original solitude," which can be referred simply to "man," is substantially prior to the meaning of original unity. The latter is based on masculinity and femininity, as if on two different "incarnations," that is, on two ways of "being a body" of the same human being created "in the image of God" (Gn 1:27)."
HUMAN NATURE & SOMATIC HOMOGENEITY
"The woman is made "with the rib" that God-Yahweh had taken from the man. Considering the archaic, metaphorical and figurative way of expressing the thought, we can establish that it is a question here of homogeneity of the whole being of both. This homogeneity concerns above all the body, the somatic structure. It is also confirmed by the man's first words to the woman who has been created: "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (Gn 2:23).(15) Yet the words quoted refer also to the humanity of the male. They must be read in the context of the affirmations made before the creation of the woman, in which, although the "incarnation" of the man does not yet exist, she is defined as "a helper fit for him" (cf. Gn 2:18 and 2:20). In this way, therefore, the woman is created, in a sense, on the basis of the same humanity."
According to this translation, there was a human being in "original solitude" before sexual differentiation. This is the first human being created from the dust (Genesis 2:2) before sexual differentiation provides a "helper" of the other sex (Genesis 2:18-23). This key text is translated a bit differently in the 2006 edition, but includes the original emphasis in italics for a key phrase, and the same key point is made that embodied human nature (in complete body-soul integrity) precedes humans embodied as male or female:
"Bodiliness and sexuality are not simply identical. Although in its normal constitution, the human body carries within itself the signs of sex and is by its nature male or female, the fact that man is a "body" belongs more deeply to the structure of the personal subject than the fact that in his somatic constitution he is also male or female. For this reason, the meaning of "original solitude," which can be referred simply to "man," is substantially prior to the meaning of original unity; the latter is based on masculinity and femininity, which are, as it were, two different "incarnations," that is, two ways in which the same human being, created "in the image of God" (Gen 1:27), "is a body."" The Meaning of Original Unity, Pope John Paul II, 7 November 1979. Source: Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, Pauline Books, 2006, pages 157 (section 8:1) and 160 (section 8:4).
Furthermore, the somatic homogeneity of man and woman (TOB 8:4) shows that sexual differentiation, while undoubtedly being a gift, is also a limitation of embodied human nature. A man is bodily a man, and a woman is bodily a woman, but they are both equally human. It follows, that what matters for the sacramental economy is that we are body-persons, not that we are body-males or body-females. What matters for the sacrament of Holy Orders, and for the priest to be a visible sign of the acting presence of Christ, is not that Jesus is male but that in him the eternal Word assumed a human body, in the "flesh." Our Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the Church because he is a body-Person and our Redeemer, not because he is a body-male; and the Blessed Virgin Mary is the typus (exemplary realization) of the Church because she brought the eternal Word to the world, not because she is a body-female.
The sacramentality of the human body, male and female, is further explained as follows:
"The sacrament or the sacramentality in the more general sense of this term meets with the body and presupposes the theology of the body. According to the generally known meaning, the sacrament is a visible sign. The body also signifies that which is visible. It signifies the visibility of the world and of man. Therefore, in some way, even if in the most general way, the body enters the definition of sacrament, being "a visible sign of an invisible reality," that is, of the spiritual, transcendent, divine reality. In this sign and through this sign God gives himself to man in his transcendent truth and in his love. The sacrament is a sign of grace, and it is an efficacious sign. Not only does the sacrament indicate grace and express it in a visible way, but it also produces it. The sacrament effectively contributes to having grace become part of man, and to realizing and fulfilling in him the work of salvation, the work begun by God from all eternity and fully revealed in Jesus Christ." Body enters into definition of sacrament, Pope John Paul II, 28 July 1982. Source: The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan, Pauline Books, 1997, pages 305-306. See also page 468 in the 2006 edition.
Since all human bodies, male and female, are somatically homogenous (TOB 8:4) and constitute visible signs of an invisible grace (TOB 87:5), it is hard to see why only male human bodies constitute proper "matter" for the sacrament of Holy Orders. The sacramentality of the human body, male and female, transcends the patriarchal binary, so what is needed is to clarify our sacramental theology to separate patriarchal ideology from revealed truth. It is disgraceful to keep viewing the human body through a patriarchal lens.
It is noteworthy that Jesus never identified himself as a patriarch. The Holy Family was a not a patriarchy. The Trinity is not a patriarchy. The spousal, sacramental love of Christ for the Church is not intrinsically patriarchal (as the TOB exegesis of the Ephesians 5 bridegroom-bride analogy clearly shows; see, e.g., TOB 97:2, 102:1), and Jesus Christ is head of the Church because he is a divine Person and our Redeemer in the flesh, not because he is a human male. All the sacraments are nuptial, and none was instituted by Christ to be gender-exclusive.
The fallacy of the traditional (with lower case "t") argument that only males can be ordained to act in persona Christi, because Christ is male, is that in persona Christi refers to a divine Person, not a human person. The second person of the Trinity was not a male before the incarnation. This divine Person became human as a male, but this was part of embracing all the limitations of the human condition ("like us in all things but sin"). Even after the incarnation and the redemption, Jesus Christ is one divine Person in two natures, divine and human. The Christ who transubstantiates the bread and wine into his own body and blood is a divine Person, not a human person. The body is like a sacrament of the whole person, but is not the whole person. This applies for human persons, and even more so for a divine Person. The ordained priest acts in place of a divine Person who became human, not in place of an idolatrous male.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The sacraments are efficacious channels of divine grace ex opere operato, i.e., their efficacy is not dependent on the holiness or any other human quality of the ordained minister. Why should they depend on the minister's gender? To act in persona Christi Capitis means to act in place of a divine Person. Neither men nor women are divine persons. Any baptized human person, male or female, can be ordained to act in persona Christi Capitis. "This is my body." From a sacramental perspective, having a human body is the necessary and sufficient condition for making the acting Christ outwardly visible. From a vocational perspective, all ministries, including ordained ministries, should be mediated by the Church but must be based on vocational discernment and should be gift-based, not gender-based.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church plainly states that the exclusively male priesthood is a choice, not a dogma (CCC 1598). The lesser doctrine that the choice of the 12 male apostles is normative (CCC 1577) is not proposed as a divinely revealed dogma, even though this choice is still prescribed by church law (CIC 1024). The door is closed at the moment, but it is not locked. The Church does have the authority (by the "power of the keys") to ordain women to the priesthood as soon as the Pope, as the successor of Peter, decides that doing so is the will of Christ in today's world, for the glory of God and the good of souls. Such a decision would be in perfect continuity with apostolic tradition (Acts 10:48, 15:28).
See also CCC 811, 865, 889-892, 2035, 2051. To reiterate, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis was not published in the "definitive manner" specified in CCC 892, for any of the following reasons: (1) it is addressed to the bishops and not to the entire Church; (2) it doesn't say it is a dogmatic definition; (3) it was published as an apostolic letter, which is the lowest level of papal teaching; (4) it is entirely written in past and present tense, and says nothing about what the Church can or cannot do in the future; (5) it didn't make clear it is an infallible definition at the time of publication, and a Vatican dicastery subsequently claiming it was doesn't make so. In brief, it is authoritative and requires the assent of acceptance ("religious assent") by Roman Catholics but does not require the assent of faith. This may sound like splitting hairs, but it is the kind of thing that can happen (CCC 937) when the supremacy of the Petrine office is challenged by belligerent demands for change and the Pope decides that the Church is not ready for the change. For some reason, this erudite Pope decided that the fundamentalist argument in CCC 1577 is the best we have at the moment to justify the male-only priesthood, but see also the "more essential" doctrine in CCC 1598. The first sentence simply states that the male-only priesthood is a choice, and says nothing about this choice being a dogma of the faith; but the second sentence makes clear who can make the choice, because the Church is "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic" (CCC 811, 865). The "apostolic" mark is essential, and means that the Church is under the authority of the apostles and their successors; however, "apostolic" does not necessarily mean "male-apostolic."
From cover to cover, the Catechism of the Catholic Church mostly uses "man" to refer to humans, male and female. The words "body" and "flesh" (rather than "male" or "masculine") are invariably used to explain the mysteries of the incarnation and the redemption. The word "patriarchy" is never used, and it is clearly stated (239, 370, 2779) that "God transcends the human distinctions between the sexes" and cannot be reduced to human categories such as "father," "mother," "husband," "wife." Human beings are made in God's image, not the other way around. The eternal Word became "flesh" (John 1:14), the maleness of Jesus being a particularity of God becoming embodied and "like us in all sins but sin." Likewise, the choice of the 12 male apostles by Jesus is a particularity of his earthly mission to the people of Israel and, except for the very unpersuasive "reason" given in 1577, no justification is given for making that choice normative as the Church becomes incarnate in post-patriarchal cultures.
Equality & Difference
Also from cover to cover, the Theology of the Body is focused on human beings, male and female, as images of God that fully share one and the same human nature as "body-persons." The entire book is devoted to show that Trinitarian communion becomes more clearly visible when man and woman, being of the same flesh, live in communion with each other and become "one flesh," either in marriage by sharing the gift of love and the gift of life, or in celibacy by sharing the same gifts spiritually "for the sake of the kingdom." Then the bridegroom-bride analogy really makes sense when referring to the Christ-Church mystery. It has nothing to do with patriarchal conditioning about man being the "head" of woman, or fathers being the "head" of the family, or "husbands" dominating "wives." The nuptial covenant is about subjection to one another in reciprocity, not one-sided domination.
Literalist patriarchal interpretations of the bridegroom-bride analogy in Ephesians 5:21-33 ignore that analogies are about similarities and dissimilarities: Christ is the "head" of the Church because he is a divine body-Person, not because he is a "husband" and the Church is his "wife" as understood in patriarchal cultures. This nuptial meaning of the Christ-Church mystery as a communion of persons, in the image of the Trinity, applies to all the sacraments. The advent of women priests and bishops is required to make the church hierarchy a complete image of Jesus Christ as a divine Person who became incarnate, becomes "one flesh" with the Church, grows as the "whole Christ" (Christus totus), and abides in the Trinity.
In other words, man is a "giver-receiver" and woman is a "receiver-giver." The "complementarity" of man and woman is a matter of emphasis within the unity of one and the same human nature. This is the same human nature that the eternal Word assumed at the Incarnation, and becoming "flesh" as a male ("giver-receiver") and not as a female ("receiver-giver") is part of a divine Person assuming all the limitations of the human condition ("like us in all things but sin"). The real difference is between being a divine Person-Redeemer and being a redeemed human person. This real difference should be taken into account, and always kept in mind, when referring to the Bridegroom-Bride analogy about the mystery of Christ and the Church. When this real difference is noted, the male-only priesthood becomes an absurdity rooted in the patriarchal "binary," not in the deposit of faith. Christ is the "head" of the Church because he is a divine Person and our Redeemer, not because he is a "giver-receiver" rather than a "receiver-giver." We cannot reduce the mysteries of the life of Christ to human categories. What about the anointing in Bethany? In this case, it seems to me that the woman was the "giver-receiver" and Jesus was the "receiver-giver." So, in the sacramental economy, it is absurd to reduce the Christ-Church mystery to the patriarchal "binary."
Marian Dimension
In the sacramental churches, Mary of Nazareth is a basic point of reference for dialogue on the ordination of women. She accepted a *unique* and *unrepeatable* ministerial vocation that makes her much more than a priest or a bishop in the sacramental economy. She was "ordained" directly by the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation, presided when the Eucharist was first celebrated in the flesh (Incarnation, Nativity), stood presiding when the Redemption was consummated at Calvary, and presided when the Church was visibly born (Pentecost).
The Marian dimension of the Church precedes the Petrine (CCC 773). Her collaboration with the divine plan in salvation history and the sacramental economy is entirely *unique and unrepeatable* and continues everywhere in the life of the Church (CCC 973). This is confirmed by the Marian dogmas about her divine motherhood (431 AD), immaculate conception (1854 AD) and assumption body and soul to heaven (1950 AD). She is Mother of God, Mother of the Redeemer, and Mother of the Church (Lumen Gentium, 53). The idea that a woman cannot be a priest, just because Mary was not sacramentally ordained by a bishop, is rooted in patriarchal ideology, not divine revelation. In her body, the entire sacramental economy was engendered!
Vocational Discernment & Human Ecology
The proper "matter" for the sacrament of Holy Orders is "flesh," not "maleness." In other words, the proper "matter" for the sacrament is the laying on of hands on a baptized body-person, male or female. In the sacramental churches, and specifically in the Catholic and Orthodox churches, the ordination of baptized women would be fully consistent with the deposit of faith, and apostolic succession would remain intact. Visceral patriarchy aside, there is no dogmatic obstacle to changing the choice from "baptized males" to "baptized persons." Viscerally conflating patriarchal ideology and revealed truth may be the most pervasive psychological problem in the Catholic and Orthodox churches. In the Anglican Communion, the advent of women priests and bishops has been traumatic for some people. What is the best way to help people overcome visceral patriarchy?
It is not to ordain more married men, as doing so would reinforce the patriarchal mindset even more. It is suggested that qualified, vocation-tested celibate women be ordained first. With so many celibate women (including nuns!) who clearly have the "signs of the priesthood," it is lamentable that they cannot be ordained for cultural reasons that have nothing to do with divine revelation. Ordaining celibate women to the priesthood would be the right response to the "signs of the times" and the most sensible response to the shortage of priests. Furthermore, the ordination of qualified celibate women to the priesthood and the episcopate would be instrumental for integral human development and fostering social and ecological justice. It has been said that "human development, if not engendered, is endangered." Likewise, human ecology without gender balance is endangered. As long as women are excluded from sacramental ministry, can we really say that the church is like a sacrament of Christ's presence in our ecologically deteriorating world?
Gender equality is about human solidarity for the good of humanity. The Catholic Church, with 1.2 billion members, could have a decisive influence for good by exemplifying gender equality in the hierarchy of persons with sacramental power to sanctify, teach, and govern in the person of Christ and in the name of the Church. This is the fundamental option that must be reconsidered (CCC 1598). It should be made clear that this is not about what women (or men) want. It is about discerning what Christ wants for the Church in the 21st century, for the glory of God and the good of souls. It is reasonable to think that Christ wants the Church to do what is good for humanity and the entire community of creation. Would Jesus, in today's world, choose 12 males to represent the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel?
Key Points for Reflection & Dialogue
For continued dialogue about the ordination of women, the essential point of reference is Jesus Christ, a divine Person who became human and is the one and only Priest of the New Law. His becoming human is essential, since "what is not assumed is not redeemed;" but his priesthood is of divine origin and by no means contingent on his masculinity. Mary of Nazareth is also an important point of reference. She was called to an entirely unique and unrepeatable ministerial vocation, and is much more than a sacramentally ordained priest, so the fact that she was never "ordained" is of no consequence for the sacramentality of holy orders. Beyond these two fundamental presuppositions, the following series of key points is suggested to support continuing dialogue about the ordination of women:
1. Based on CIC 1024, CCE 1598, and Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, the exclusively male priesthood is NOT a timeless, divinely revealed dogma of the Catholic faith.
2. Human beings are rational animals composed of body and soul ("body-souls"), i.e., "body" precedes sexual differentiation (TOB 8:1), men and women share one and the same human nature, are somatically homogeneous (TOB 8:4), sexually different but equally human, mutually complementary but not mutually exclusive.
3. What matters for the mysteries of the incarnation and the redemption, and for the entire sacramental economy, is that the eternal Word became human (in the "flesh," in a human "body"), not that Jesus is male (TOB 87:5).
4. The proper "matter" for the Sacrament of Holy Orders is human flesh (i.e., bodily matter), either male or female, because men and women one and the same human nature with complete somatic homogeneity.
5. By analogy with marriage, which is a covenant of mutual submission between husband and wife (TOB 89), the nuptial meaning of the Christ-Church mystery is also one of mutual submission: the Church should submit to Christ, her "bridegroom", who has already submitted to the Church, his "bride" (cf. Matthew 16:19, 18:18).
6. Based on Humanae Vitae and Evangelium Vitae, life is sacred at every point on the path from conception to natural death, and the abundant life in Christ (John 10:10) includes being able to follow one's vocation.
7. CIC 1024 prevents Christ to call women to the ministerial priesthood, and by analogy is an artificial contraceptive of female vocations to sacramental ministry; morally reasonable in a patriarchal culture, but not anymore.
CIC 1024 states:
"A baptized male alone receives sacred ordination validly."
Concluding questions:
According to the Nicene Creed, is the Church essentially patriarchal?
Is it really Christ's choice to call only males in today's Church?
Isn't it time for the Church to allow Christ to call women?
Isn't it time to ordain baptized women to the priesthood?
Proposed clarification of current Catholic doctrine:
The priesthood of the New Law is not intrinsically patriarchal
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, Apostolic Letter of John Paul II to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone, 22 May 1994. Text online at the VATICAN WEBSITE.
Note 1: On Discernment about Women in Sacramental Ministry
The following are some points that may be useful for meditation and discernment in a sacramental context:
The sacraments are what they are by divine institution (CCC 1076ff)
The Church has the authority to choose the ministers of the sacraments (CCC 1598)
The Church chooses only baptized males because Jesus Christ is male and chose only males (CCC 1577)
But Christ is the head of the Church because he is a divine Person and our Redeemer, not because the eternal Word incarnated as a male
And, all baptized persons have redeemed human bodies made of flesh, which is more fundamental for human nature than being male and female (TOB, e.g., 8:1-4)
And, what matters for the mysteries of the incarnation and the redemption, and for the entire sacramental economy, is that the eternal Word became human (in the "flesh," in a human "body"), not that Jesus is male (TOB 87:5)
And, assuming that Christ has common sense, for the evangelization of today's world he would not choose 12 males to represent the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel
Therefore, as soon as the Church decides that Christ still has common sense, the Church will have the authority to choose women as ministers of the sacraments
However, the Church cannot decide that Christ still has common sense as long as she remains attached to a patriarchal mindset, like the apostles were (John 4:27, Mark 16:11, etc.)
Therefore, let's pray and work for the Church to reach the point of deciding that the decision of Acts 15:28, by removing the need for male circumcision, also removed the need to choose only males for the sacrament of Holy Orders
In the Catholic and Orthodox churches, this is a visceral issue that cannot be resolved by reason alone. Prayerful discernment will be required in order to separate divine revelation from deeply entrenched patriarchal ideology. Specifically, it will be helpful to meditate on the Paschal mystery and the Christ-Church mystery, using methods such as the Spiritual Exercises (St. Ignatius Loyola) and the Theology of the Body (St. John Paul II).
Note 2: On the Mysteries of the Beginning and the End
Between the beginning and the end times, human history unfolds over time. Jesus Christ is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. Jesus Christ is the Last Adam, God becoming human to fulfill the promise made to the First Adam, male and female, at the inception of "salvation history" (Genesis 3:15). The mysteries of the life of Christ are the threshold between the Old Law, or the age of patriarchy that started with "original sin" (Genesis 3:16), and the New Law that pertains to the age of the Church as a divine-human communion (John 3:16, 8:32, 17:22) undergoing a process of "divinization" that, starting with Mary of Nazareth, will continue until it is completed at the end of time (Revelation 12:1). These mysteries come to us written in human (patriarchal) language but utterly transcend cultural constraints. This is the framework for a Christian understanding of integral human development and other issues of social and ecological justice. The current ecological crisis is a "sign of the times" and a turning point in the process of outgrowing the age of patriarchy in preparation for a new age of global solidarity and sustainability.
Note 3: On the Mysteries of the Incarnation and the Redemption
The mystery of the incarnation is about God assuming human nature, i.e., the eternal Word becoming "flesh." The mystery of the redemption is about this embodied divine Person's suffering, death, and resurrection. Since the beginning, the human person is flesh body heart soul spirit, much more than just a psychosomatic male or female object. If this applies to all human persons, even more so to Jesus Christ, who is a divine Person. In other words, the body is like a sacrament of the whole person, but is not the whole person. Given the somatic homogeneity of men and women, to be a male is not essential to "naturally" resemble Jesus Christ in his humanity. The human *body* is what indistinctly makes visible the full personhood of both men and women. The human *body* of a baptized person is like a sacrament of Christ's presence, regardless of gender. Any baptized person, male or female, can be tested for vocation to the ministerial priesthood. References: Genesis 2:7, John 1:14, CCC 704, TOB 8:4. See also Pope Francis, General Audience, Vatican, 22 April 2015.
Note 4: On the Nuptial Mystery of Christ and the Church
The nefarious repercussions of conflating patriarchal ideology with biblical revelation are evident in rigid masculinist interpretations of the Bridegroom-Bride analogy. Such interpretations tend to reinforce a mindset of male hegemony that is contrary to the mutual submission that is proper between husband and wife and intrinsic to the mystery of Christ and the Church.
Jesus Christ is head of his body, which is the Church, because he is a divine Person and our Redeemer, not because he is male. In giving the power of the keys to Peter, he also submits himself to the Church even in the present age. The male-only Church hierarchy obscures our vision of the nuptial mystery of Christ as Giver-Receiver and the Church as Receiver-Giver. It obscures the Church as the family of God, a communion of persons in the image of the Trinity. It also serves to exacerbate antiquated patriarchal norms of male hegemony in Christian families. References: Genesis 2:24, Ephesians 5:21-33, CCC 796, TOB 93:6.
Specifically on the Church as a family, it is noteworthy that nuclear families are currently evolving from the traditional patriarchal structure (with the father as head of the family) to joint male-female (father-mother) headship. This is a sign of the times, and hopefully the structure of the Church, while remaining properly hierarchical (i.e., "apostolic") can evolve in the same direction by ordaining women to the diaconate, the priesthood, and the episcopate. If men and women are mutually complementary in the domestic church, and they are homogeneous in their whole being (TOB 8:4), and they are both homogenous with Jesus Christ in his humanity, why should baptized women be excluded from ordination to act in persona Christi capitis and serve in sacramental ministry? Now that the patriarchal era is passing away in the domestic church, the hierarchical Church would be enormously enriched by male-female nuptial complementarity.
Note 5: On Religious Patriarchy and Social/Ecological Justice
The reason that ordaining women to the priesthood and the episcopate is instrumental for social and ecological justice is that patriarchy, as a mindset of male domination in the family, translates to a mindset of human domination of the human habitat. This mindset of domination is further exacerbated by religious patriarchy, whereby God is imaged in exclusively male terminology.
In the sacramental churches, this idolatrous male is manifested by allowing only males to be ordained as ministers of the sacraments, thereby also excluding women from roles of headship in ecclesial communities. Given that there is no dogmatic imperative to perpetuate the conflation of patriarchal ideology and divine revelation, why the vexing refusal to ordain women? Is it "pastoral prudence"? If not dogma or prudence, what else? Untying this knot may be the task of the 3rd millennium of the Christian era, except that the ecological crisis (undoubtedly a "sign of the times") may not grant the churches time to proceed at such a glacial pace.
Catholic social doctrine recognizes that an adequate theological anthropology is required for social/ecological justice, but shows an ambivalent admixture of natural law and patriarchal ideology:
146. Male and female differentiate two individuals of equal dignity, which does not however reflect a static equality, because the specificity of the female is different from the specificity of the male, and this difference in equality is enriching and indispensable for the harmony of life in society: The condition that will assure the rightful presence of woman in the Church and in society is a more penetrating and accurate consideration of the anthropological foundation for masculinity and femininity with the intent of clarifying woman's personal identity in relation to man, that is, a diversity yet mutual complementarily, not only as it concerns roles to be held and functions to be performed, but also, and more deeply, as it concerns her make-up and meaning as a person .
147. Woman is the complement of man, as man is the complement of woman: man and woman complete each other mutually, not only from a physical and psychological point of view, but also ontologically. It is only because of the duality of male and female that the human being becomes a full reality. It is the unity of the two , or in other words a relational uni-duality , that allows each person to experience the interpersonal and reciprocal relationship as a gift that at the same time is a mission: to this unity of the two' God has entrusted not only the work of procreation and family life, but the creation of history itself . The woman is a helper' for the man, just as the man is a helper' for the woman! : in the encounter of man and woman a unitary conception of the human person is brought about, based not on the logic of self-centredness and self-affirmation, but on that of love and solidarity.
If man and woman complete each other in both Church and society, why is patriarchal male headship still enshrined in the Church hierarchy, given that man and woman are fully homogeneous in their "whole being"? The patriarchal ideology of male domination and female submission, which is a consequence of original sin (Genesis 3:16, TOB 31), is an obstacle to integral human development, integral humanism, and integral ecology. The fundamental issue is whether the Church makes decisions based on cultural conditioning or an ever deepening understanding of natural law and the deposit of faith. This is not about what women (or men) want. This is about discerning what Christ wants for the Church in the 21st century, for the glory of God and the good of souls, in light of an adequate theological anthropology.
Would Jesus, in today's globalized world, choose 12 males to represent the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel? After 6000 years or so, patriarchy is an era that is passing away. Neoliberal capitalism is the economic manifestation of patriarchy, communism being nothing but capitalism turned inside out; both are based on domination of the weak by the strong, i.e., domination of the female by the male, domination of nature by humans. The exclusively male priesthood is the ecclesiastical manifestation of patriarchy. To the extent that "respect for creation" is for the glory of God and the common good of humanity, it is hard to envision that the Church should remain patriarchal much longer.
FIRST PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION St. Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, 23
"Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. The other things on the face of the earth are created for man to help him in attaining the end for which he is created.
"Hence, man is to make use of them in as far as they help him in the attainment of his end, and he must rid himself of them in as far as they prove a hindrance to him.
"Therefore, we must make ourselves indifferent to all created things, as far as we are allowed free choice and are not under any prohibition. Consequently, as far as we are concerned, we should not prefer health to sickness, riches to poverty, honor to dishonor, a long life to a short life. The same holds for all other things.
"Our one desire and choice should be what is more conducive to the end for which we are created."
Canon 1024 is clearly a prohibition to ordain women. It is a prohibition that must be accepted until it is lifted by legitimate Church authority. But is this a dogmatic prohibition or a culturally conditioned compromise rooted in original sin (Genesis 3:16) and 6000 years of patriarchal domination/subordination ideologies? Is this prohibition helpful or a hindrance for integral human development? Is it conducive to social and ecological justice? Is it really based on divine revelation or just an inordinate attachment to patriarchal norms that are passing away? More specifically:
Is our Lord's choice of 12 male apostles a divine "prohibition" to ordain women or a pre-Easter choice contingent on his earthly mission to the people of Israel?
Would Jesus, in today's globalized world ravaged by patriarchal ideologies, choose 12 males to represent the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel?
Granted that what is "best" can be the enemy of what is "good," what is it that is *most* conducive to the glory of God, and the good of souls, in the 21st century of the Christian era?
Actually, the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate is "simply" a matter of extending the apostolic decision to discontinue the Old Law practice of male circumcision (Acts 15:28) to the sacrament of Holy Orders under the New Law. It may not be easy because for many it is still a visceral issue, but it is radically simple: CCC 1577 notwithstanding, CCC 1598 clearly states that choosing only males as ministers of the sacraments is an option, not a dogma. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will enable the Church to overcome her inordinate attachment to patriarchal norms that no longer serve the cause of God's reign. Reference: CIC 1024, CCC 1577, CCC 1598, SE 23 (Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius Loyola, 23)
Note 6: On the Marian Dogmas and the Pilgrim Church
The Marian dimension of the Church precedes the Petrine dimension (CCC 773). Mary is Mother of God and Mother of the Church. At the Annunciation, she accepted a *unique and unrepeatable* ministerial vocation that makes her much more than a priest or a bishop in the sacramental economy. The ministerial vocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is crucial for the women's ordination issue. She was "ordained" directly by the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation, presided when the Eucharist was first celebrated in the flesh (Incarnation, Nativity), stood presiding when the Redemption was consummated at Calvary, presided when the Church was visibly born (Pentecost). Her collaboration with the divine plan in salvation history and the sacramental economy is entirely *unique and unrepeatable* and continues everywhere in the life of the Church (CCC 973). This is confirmed by the Marian dogmas about her divine motherhood (431 AD), immaculate conception (1854 AD) and assumption body and soul to heaven (1950 AD). She is Mother of God, Mother of the Redeemer, and Mother of the Church (Lumen Gentium, 53). The idea that a woman cannot be a priest, just because Mary was not sacramentally ordained by a bishop, is rooted in patriarchal ideology, not divine revelation. In her body, the entire sacramental economy was engendered!
Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us
Note 7: On the Encyclicals Humanae Vitae and Evagelium Vitae
The encyclical Humanae Vitae explains the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death, and explains why the conjugal act should be open (as conscience dictates) to procreation. The encyclical Evagelium Vitae further expands this teaching and makes clear that each point along the path that goes from conception to natural death should be open (as conscience dictates) to the *abundant life* that Christ personifies and brings about (John 10:10). Discerning the *vocation* of each baptized person is a crucial point on this path and requires the mediation of the Church, but should not be impeded by obstacles made by human hands.
Once it is recognized that the choice of the 12 male apostles was contingent on Jesus's earthly mission to the people of Israel, it behooves the collective conscience of the Church, albeit subject to apostolic authority, to remove any canonical obstacle (i.e., Canon 1024) that is, in fact, an artificial contraceptive to female vocations to the ministerial priesthood. Christ has submitted to the Church (Matthew 16:19, 18:18) and the Church must submit to Christ (as conscience dictates) by allowing him to call women to the priesthood if and when he chooses. Would Jesus, in today's global Church, still choose 12 males to represent the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel?
Note 8: On Church History & Doctrinal Development
A summary of doctrinal development on the ministerial priesthood is as follows:
33 AD - During his public ministry (i.e., *before* his passion and resurrection) Jesus selected 12 male apostles to be his witnesses and, symbolically, represent the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel.
325 AD - Nicean Creed. The Church is defined as "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic," but no masculinity requirement is specified for the Church to be "apostolic."
1563 AD - Council of Trent. Ordination to the ministerial priesthood is defined as one of the seven sacraments, but no masculinity requirement for ordination and/or apostolic succession is mentioned.
1976 AD - CDF, Inter Insigniores formulates a patriarchal rationalization of the male-only priesthood.
1994 AD - The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 1577) and the apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis elevate Inter Insigniores to provisional doctrine (albeit not "more essential" doctrine as in CCC 1598).
Since 1994, enforced hiatus in official (public) discussion of the issue by bishops, with much divisive confusion about whether or not the male-only priesthood is a dogma of the Catholic faith.
Note 9: On the Global Sense of the Faithful
According to current data, a global consensus (among Roman Catholics) on female priests and bishops has not yet been reached. However, the traditional "patriarchal" consensus is gradually eroding in proportion to cultural evolution away from patriarchy. See the Univision Global Survey of Roman Catholics, published February 2014.
The Pope decides, but the Pope cannot decide in isolation from the entire Church (sensus fidelium, securus iudicat orbis terrarum).
Recent Books and Other Resources Relevant to the Ordination of Women
Fr. Luke Hansen, SJ, congratulates the Women s Ordination Conference for 45 years
of keeping the dream alive! Fr. Luke shares a summary of his thesis from the Pontifical
Gregorian University in Rome, where he took up the question of the authority of Pope
John Paul II s apostolic letter, Ordinatio sacerdotalis, published in 1994.
Source: Ordain Women ~ Luke Hansen SJ, 28 November 2020
SYNODALITY
Discernment on Religious Patriarchy and
Prayers for the Ordination of Women
April 2024
Let us pray for discernment of Christ's will on the priestly ordination of women
during the 2023-2024 synodal process.
Saint Thérèse
