Female Priesthood a Dishonour to Women

Feminism as a political theory has introduced a variety of interesting themes into political analysis. Indeed, a lot of valuable analytical methodologies would not be possible without Feminist political theory.

But somewhere along the way, as a cultural phenomenon, Feminism has become a twin edged sword. On the one hand, it asserts upholding the dignity of women, a laudable goal. On the other hand, unfortunately, the most strident form of feminism in our postmodern culture has sought tirelessly to uphold that dignity by making - and by that I mean almost forcing- women mimic men. This comes from, as Pia De Solenni argued during her April 27 conference at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, a confused notion of power and authority. According to what is an essentially Liberal argument, particular roles, rather than being seen as part of a complementarity of roles within a social organism, are seen as avenues of privilege that in reality, all individuals should be entitled to access. Dignity, seen in this light, is dependent on the acquisition of what is misconstrued to be a position of power, and anything else, even if that fits like a glove, is seen as second-rate.

We in the Church find a shining example of this phenomenon in the ongoing debate about women priests. Rather than see the role of the priesthood as acting as an incarnation of Christ in soul and body, it is seen as a site of official authority and power. Denial of this "position" to women, thus, is seen as a form of sexual discrimination.

According to de Solenni, this line of argument ignores the complementarity of roles within the Church in accordance to the masculine and feminine natures of humanity, which are not incidental and thus insignificant, but rather the core of human identity. The loss of the image of the Church as a truly social reality - a corpus verum in William Cavanaugh's parlance - and instead the misconceptualisation of the Church as merely an institution with individuals scurrying around working their own salvation or political careers, has contributed greatly to this malaise, which de Solenni argues is underpinned by an "overemphasis of the masculine". Talking about ordaining women into the priesthood, thus, is taking on board the feminism of fashion, and forcing a masculine paradigm onto women, thereby undermining the dignity that is due to women qua women.

"No doubt," continues de Solenni, "women need a voice in the Church, but it must be an authentic voice and not their voice made to sound like a man's."

But critique of the feminist line is one thing. Positing an alternative model is another. In this, de Solenni argues that the history of the Church is comprised of a litany of the "active participation of women". Most significantly, "It was the consent, understanding and devotion of a woman that brought the Church to us," and the fact that the Virgin Mary was not chosen by her son to be a priest "indicates that the sacrament does not discriminate on the basis of dignity or merit".