Jesus Christ wants women in the priesthood. Proclaim it!
SEVEN STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE WOMEN’S ORDINATION, no 7
Jesus Christ revealed to us that God is Love. He came to restore full human dignity by offering all of us, both men and women, to become children of God. He established a new realm on earth: the Kingdom of God in which the overriding values of mercy and justice would rule supreme. He called on all of us to proclaim the Good News that this new era had begun. Last not least, he wanted and wants all citizens of that new ‘realm of love’ to be able to share fully in his own prophetic, royal and priestly roles. All this implies that, in our time when patriarchal prejudices are being unmasked, Christ wants women as much as men to be able to minister as priests.
Rome maintains that the exclusion of women from holy orders is based on an irrevocable decision by Jesus himself. But is this really true? Yes, all the twelve apostles were men, but did Christ intend to exclude women for all time to come? He certainly did not!
How can we know what Christ wanted?
When someone is still alive, it is easy. We can ask him or her to explain what precisely he or she has in mind. After a person has died it becomes much more difficult. Sometimes we can determine their mind by uncovering explicit or implicit decisions in the person’s own life. At times we only have pointers. Let me illustrate the problem and possibilities in a fictitious human example.
Imagine Marcel Dubois being a wealthy French merchant living in Marseille. Through contacts in the French colonies he got to know about leprosy. Being a philanthropist he decided, let us say, in 1876 to establish the Marcel Dubois Leprosy Fund. Marcel invested millions of his own money in the fund. He laid down that the income of the fund should specifically be used to provide medical support to lepers. After he died, administering the fund was delegated to a board of trustees.
In the course of time the trustees faced problems. They were asked to support a political campaign to make the eradication of leprosy a top priority in Sri Lanka. They turned the request down because the founder had explicitly rejected any political involvement.
Also, it was discovered that apart from the provision of medical aid, there was a need to offer psychological care to family members of lepers. The question was raised: can the Marcel Dubois Leprosy Fund finance such care given the fact that the founder had allocated the money for medical purposes? The trustees examined the question at length. They found that Marcel, while still alive, had given a grant from the fund to a mother who was looking after her leprous child. They came to the conclusion that in giving this, Marcel himself had already implicitly decided the validity of grants for psychological care in the context of leprosy.
Through a better understanding of how the infection can be prevented, leprosy was beginning to be eradicated worldwide. The leprosy fund was building up a surplus. The question that arose was: could the fund support medical relief for other diseases, let us say AIDS? The trustees found no implicit decisions on this in Marcel Dubois’ actions, but they discovered pointers that seemed to indicate his consent.
How does this apply to the question of determining ‘the mind of Jesus’ on the ordination of women? Like in the fictitious example discussed above we should explore a number of questions:
· Did Jesus at any time explicitly rule out women’s taking part in the ordained ministries? I prove that the answer is a categorical NO.
· Are there pointers in his life that show Jesus would have been open to women ministering as priests? I give abundant evidence in the book of Jesus’ extraordinary respect for, and openness to, women.
· Did Jesus take implicit decisions that show he wanted women to be included in the ministry? Yes, he did. He established a rite of initiation, the sacrament of baptism, that is the same for men and for women. And women were there at the Last Supper when he commissioned all his disciples including women: “Do this in memory of me!”
· Last not least, can we determine Christ’s mind for the Church today, what he wants in our own time? Yes, we can.
Christ’s Spirit in us makes known what Christ wants
Jesus was not just a human founder. He poured his own Spirit into us. He promised that in future eras to come that Spirit would reveal his mind to us.
“I still have many things to say to you
but they would be too much for you now.
When the Spirit of Truth comes
she will lead you to the fulness of truth,
since she will not be speaking as from herself
but will say only what she has learnt [from me].
She will explain to you
things that lie in the future.” (John 16,12-14)
So what can we learn from Christ’s Spirit in the Church about women’s ministries?
To begin with, during the first thousand years of its existence, the Church did impart the sacramental diaconate to women. And the diaconate is one of the three sacred ministries which the Council of Trent declared to be the one sacrament of Holy Orders which also include the priesthood and the episcopacy. In other words: if they could be ordained deacons, they can also be ordained priests. Holy Orders are not reserved to men alone.
Then, throughout the centuries theologians, church leaders and the ordinary faithful venerated Mary as Priest. They believed that Mary had full part in Jesus’ priesthood. And since Mary too is a woman, the implicitly affirmed that also women can be priests.
Last not least, in our own time, with all the ancient social prejudices against women having been exposed, the vast majority of educated Catholics all over the world are convinced women too can and should be ordained priests. It manifests their ‘sense of faith’. It is the Spirit of Christ speaking – a voice that may not be ignored.
The conclusion is clear: Christ wants women too to have access to all three Holy Orders. If so, this is the central truth we should proclaim when promoting women’s ordination. He is the founder of Christianity. He established the realities that underlie Christian worship. He appointed the spiritual leaders, whom we now call ‘priests’. He wants both men and women to be among them.
John Wijngaards
SEVEN STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE WOMEN’S ORDINATION
- Recognise that the SOURCE for women’s openness to ordination lies not in emancipation but in baptism.
- Understand Rome’s arguments for its ban on women priests and know how to refute them.
- Be familiar with the theological reasons for ordaining women.
- Create opportunities to educate people for change.
- Make women visible in church.
- Support integrity in the Church and voices of protest.
- Jesus Christs wants also women in the priesthood, not just men. Proclaim it!