In case you missed it, click here to learn about the first post in the Book of Revelations series, which details how I designed the cover and gives the backstory of this piece. Preliminary Research To figure out the issue, I started researching the role of women in terms of the Catholic faith. A few good books were:
As you can tell, this subject has inspired many others to research and write about it. I am trying to explain in this relatively condensed blog post what countless others have tackled in 100+ page books. I'm barely touching on the wealth of knowledge in this arena. If you're interested, I highly recommend you take a deep dive into it. If you are looking for an easy read on why women can't be priests, I'll suggest the Women and the Priesthood book by Hildebrand and Kreeft. It is less than 90 pages and gives quick summaries of all the important points. I'll list two here:
People who see the Catholic Church as a patriarchy equate the priesthood with the the highest level of authority. Since priests are the ones offering the sacraments and, in terms of the Pope, the one interpreting and instituting Church laws, people see them as the sole power holders. However, that's an erroneous way to look at it. As Kreeft mentioned above, the life of a priest is a life of servitude. His sole job is to approach the downbeat, the broken, and the heartless in order to give hope and life. There is no power to be lorded over others. All things are done out of love and for another's benefit. This sentiment is echoed on page 11 of Man and Women: A Divine Invention as Hildebrand talks about the effects of sin on Adam: "All too often, he turned his God-given authority into an abuse of power for his own selfish aims by totally ignoring the fact that to be given authority means to serve those who are confided to the care of whomever is given such responsibility" (emphasis not added). This idea that to lead is synonymous with to serve inspired a silkscreen print which can be seen here. As servants, priests/bishops/the Pope have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders. If they abuse their vocation by knowingly leading others astray, or putting their needs first, or a myriad of other reasons, they will have even more to answer for. As a play on the oft-repeated Shakespeare quote, "Uneasy is the head that wears a crown [of servitude]." Authority - Two Viewpoints Another part to understand is the difference in how secular vs religious circles define authority. As Scott Hahn writes in his forward to Monica Migliorino Miller's The Authority of Women in the Catholic Church, "Secular authority often manifests itself through power. God expresses authority - not through quantitative force - but through life-giving force." Miller reiterates on page 13:
Symbolism of the Genders Here is some deep theology which is crucial to know to understand the big picture: men represent Christ while women represent the Church. Not lowercase 'church,' as one of those dated, 1960s-looking-buildings-which-used-to-be-a-gym-but-has-now-been-converted-into-a-place-of-worship, but the entire Roman Catholic Church as an institution. These distinctions between men and women and what each symbolizes are the crux of the issue. If these aspects aren't understood, then the priesthood being reserved to men won't make sense. And these differences are a good thing! Even during Creation, you would think that all things should be created, not inspired by God, but exactly in God's image with absolutely no changes at all. However, even "God called something 'good' that was differentiated from Himself (Gen 1)" pg 28 AoWitCC Miller. Now, you might have thought the deep, theological statement above was the end of it but I actually need to flesh it out: men represent Christ, aka the Head of the Church, while women represent the Church, aka the Body. At first glance, it might seem like 'the Head' would have absolute dominion over 'the Body' but that's not the case. The word 'head' can be defined scripturally as the 'source' or 'beginning' just as Christ became the source of the Church when He sacrificed His life for her. pg 62 AoWitCC Miller. Even deeper theology: the relationship between Christ and the Church is described like a marriage. I'll go into more detail on this point in the next post in this series, so for sake of space, I won't belabor it here. It's just a very, very important point to know that the relationship is like a marriage, and many passages from the Bible that refer to a marriage between husband and wife, can also be used to describe the relationship between Christ and the Church. Here's a snazzy little table to help you keep track of what I've written so far: Christ | Church Head of the Church | Body of Christ Husband | Wife Man | Woman Interdependent Nature of Christ and the Church So far, all of this has been written to illustrate the point that men and women are different, have different roles, and their relationship to each other in marriage mirrors the relationship between Christ and the Church. This marriage symbolism starts in Genesis with Adam and Eve. It is stated in chapter 2 verse 18 that, after God looked at Adam, He said: "It is not good that the man should be alone." God furthers the thought by saying in the next verse, "I will make a helper suited to him" (NAB). Adam's isolation is "not good." Companionship is central to the human condition and God recognizes this fact. Miller has some interesting thoughts on this:
Eve, in the fullness of her role, helps Adam to fulfill his role and this mirrors how the Church helps Christ to fulfill his role. "The authority of women in the Church rests on this fact: the Church, in a true sense, is the completion of Christ as Eve is the completion of Adam." pg 137 AoWitCC Miller. Some may have issues with the idea that the Church fulfills Christ, as if He was lacking in some way. We tend to think that needing something implies an inadequacy or helplessness. pg 138 However, if you look at the Trinity, there is submission and dependency present. "The Father, the First Person of the Trinity would not be Father were it not for the Second Person, and the Second Person, different from the First and different from the Holy Spirit, cannot occupy their place." pg 20 AoWitCC Miller "Christ is also subordinate, as the Gospels affirm many times, because Christ does only what the Father tells Him (see for example Jn 5:19, 30; 14:10)." pg 20 At the beginning of His Passion, in the garden of Gethsemane, Christ cries out "Not my will, but yours be done" (Lk 22:42). pg. 20 This all boils down to the fact that "the exercise of true authority is done in relation." pg 20 AoWitCC Miller
Action, Not Passiveness This duty that women are called to requires that they must be action orientated in their vocation, whatever it ends up looking like. For example, "A wife is not only there to serve her spouse. A wife's vocation means she has the authority to call her spouse to serve her and their children in his vocation as husband and father." pg 118 AoWitCC Miller. This is similar to how St. Catherine of Siena used her power with words to bring the Pope back to Rome- after the papacy been moved to Avignon, France for close to 70 years. There was a huge amount of dissention between the French king, the cardinals, and the Pope yet she didn't hesitate to dive into the thick of it. She traveled to Avignon to chastise Pope Gregory for not having the courage to stay true to his calling. Eventually, he agreed to return to Rome but months later, after she had left, he faltered. She then wrote letters to encourage him yet again. With her help, he decided to stand firm and return to Rome. Her "God-given vocation was to mediate between Christ and the pope, and between the pope and the faithful." pg 170 AoWitCC Miller. I'm not going to even attempt to summarize the following paragraph that goes into more detail about the symbolism contained in St. Catherine's actions. It's too good to not read in its entirety:
Fulfillment in Every Vocation Woman reveal this personification of the Church no matter their vocation or career. "At various times the Church is 'a virgin, married, and a widow.' [Saint] Ambrose teaches that all women who occupy these various states of life 'have an example to imitate,' namely the Church who possesses these feminine realities in relation to Christ." pg 158 AoWitCC Miller Edith Stein aka St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross also affirmed this idea when she wrote, "Each woman who lives in the light of eternity can fulfill her vocation, no matter if it is in marriage, in a religious order, or in a worldly profession." I love that. Regardless if they were CEOs of a Fortune 500 company or rarely saw the light of day outside of their home where they homeschooled 10 children or were cloistered nuns who had taken vows of silence or were both a Supreme Court Justice and a mom, they at all times were symbols of the Church. This quote resonated with me so that's what I decided the rebuttal would be. Final Thoughts Women cry out that it is unfair that men are allowed into the priesthood but, if so, why not also cry out that it is unfair that Mary was chosen above all other women to be created without original sin? That it was unfair that Jesus performed His first miracle (at the Wedding in Cana) at His mother's urging? That it was unfair that He met with that one particular Samaritan woman at the well and not another woman? That it was unfair that He rose Lazarus from the grave but not every other person who had died during His ministry? That it was unfair that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene first after He rose from the dead? That it was unfair that Peter was chosen to be the head of the Church yet he was the one who denied Christ three separate times? Where there appears aspects of our faith that do not make sense, it is helpful to meditate on God's words in Job chapter 38, verses 4-5, "Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its size? Surely you know? Who stretched out the measuring line for it?" God's ways are not our own. As His creation, who are we to cast judgment? Next StepsPlease click here to view the next blog post, which details how I designed and created the first two pages of the book.
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