http://www.loyolamaroon.com/theologians-call-for-reform-of-priesthood-1.2464442

I have been a Catholic all my life. Both of my parents are Catholic and my dad even has three uncles who are priests. I love my religion and the Catholic community but I have always struggled with a few of the rules that are implemented in the Church. The Catholic church is not accepting of homosexuality, priests are not allowed to marry, and women are not allowed to be priests. When I was younger these rules seemed to just be things that everyone accepted. But when I got older and I started to question why they were the rules, I could never find an answer that satisfied me. For example, people find quotes in the bible that condemn homosexuality but there are also a lot of other laws in the bible that no one follows. And priests were actually allowed to be married up until the first millennium; issues of property rights and corruption led Pope Gregory VII to require all priests to be celibate (1). Finally, the issue that I will focus on most is that women are not allowed to be priests mainly because Jesus only chose men as his apostles so therefore only men can carry on the duty of the apostles (2). This article brings up these issues because last week University Theologians in Germany made an appeal to the Catholic church to change the rules on these three issues. I believe that women should be allowed to be ordained as priests because the reasoning behind why women are not priests now is not convincing without a doubt. In addition to this, women are clearly able to perform the duty of priest and the Catholic church is in need of more priests so allowing women to be ordained would help solve that problem.

Women and men are not treated equally in the Catholic church when it comes to vocational choices. Men are allowed to become priests which means that they take on a leadership role, make decisions in the parish, and guide a parish. They can also choose to become a monk or friar which is more closely related to a nun but with different responsibilities and so forth. Women are only allowed to become nuns, a vocation that has the stereotype of submission, self-denial, reclusiveness, and generosity. (There is also the image of the strict school teacher nun who will pull your ear and slap your wrist with a ruler: not appealing either.) I honestly don’t know very much about the life of a sister but I can recognize that they do very important work: teaching in catholic schools, working in hospitals, and caring for the poor(3). They really know what it means to work for social justice. I think a lot of women do not want to become nuns today because women have reached a certain level of independence and a desire to be successful and be a leader. Becoming a nun seems like a way to go back to a simpler time when women had not choices and were that pillar of moral esteem in society. The main job of a priest is to say Mass, perform marriages, funerals, and other sacrament ceremonies, and visit the sick. There is clearly nothing in those duties that a woman could not do. There are actually a small group of women who were ordained as priests secretly and they serve as priests openly. However, the priest who ordained them was excommunicated from the church for doing so (4).

The explanation the church gives as to why women cannot be ordained as priests is as follows:
1. Christ only chose men as his Apostles.
2. Priests have always been men since the appointing of the Apostles.
3. The church does not consider herself authorized to ordain women.
4. Christ did not choose men only because of sociological or cultural motives (although the Vatican document I found gives no more support to that.)
5. The Blessed Virgin Mary was not a priest. But this does not mean that women were considered of lesser dignity nor can it be construed as discrimination against them (5).

The Catholic church is currently in a very bad positions when it comes to its staff of priests. The average age of a working priest in the U.S. is very high (I couldn’t find the exact number but it is around 70 I believe) and fewer and fewer young men are joining the seminary. In addition, the Catholic population is growing at about the same rate as the general population growth. The lack of priests has forced many retired priests to continue working and many parishes do not have a permanent priest; instead, priests travel around to serve multiple parishes. With the added issue of the sex scandal in the past years that has made the Catholic priesthood look very bad, I don’t see these trends getting any better just by praying about it. Something needs to change to make more men want to become priests or open up the job to the women who want the job.
The Catholic church is led by all men. From the top to the bottom, men make the decisions. That is how it has always been and I think in some way, that’s how the men want it to stay. The bishops and cardinals who run the church are not married and have never had women in power positions so I’m sure they wouldn’t exactly feel comfortable if all of a sudden women were allowed to do the same jobs that men do in the church. But as Johnson wrote, patriarchy hurts men and women (6). Its not that the men are making decisions to actively put down women and make them inferior. But they institution set up does that by limiting the role of women in the church. It seems like the Pope and other priests who set forth the church doctrines are hiding behind scripture and ancient traditions and going along with what has been done for thousands of years instead of doing what makes the most sense at this point in time.

This brings me to the main article I chose for this newsflash. This article explains that last week 143 University Theologians in Germany made an appeal for the Catholic Church to allow priests to abandon the vow of celibacy, to allow women to be ordained as priests, and accept gay couples into the church. When I found this article I was so shocked that it came from quite a large group of university theologians and it addressed more than one very controversial issue. I know that it is just an appeal for changes but at least this is a step in the right direction. I appreciate that people of some power are stepping up and taking a risk to say what I think a lot of other people have been thinking lately. I hope that in my lifetime I can see at least one of these changes take place, if not all three of them.

1. http://www.uscatholic.org/glad-you-asked/2009/08/why-are-priests-celibate

2. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_22051994_ordinatio-sacerdotalis_en.html

3. http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-02-09 Catholic_nuns_08_ ST_ N.htm

4. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/22/AR2010012202919.html

5. http://www.vatican.va

6. Johnson, Patriarchy, the System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us.