The ordination of women as Catholic priests will come one day

[susannah]

The ordination of women as priests in the Catholic Church will come one day. Already you can see the yearnings of women to be taken seriously in their sense of pastoral calling, to serve as female priests, to express voice that is not filtered by exclusively male primacy, and the pressures that build up on the male-dominated hierarchy. Just observe

Comments

[redstar826]

and to think I was worried that my post might start a brawl ;)

It certainly would help some with the recruitment issues the Church seems to be having. I know of churches that don't even have their own priest, but are instead sharing a priest with another parish. Well, that and the whole pesky celibacy business

[muraven]

Would it, though? The Episcopal Church has allowed for women ministers for decades, are they any better off than we are? Perhaps they don't have a minister shortage, but if so it's only because their membership is declining to the point where there's barely anybody left to minister to. Many of the denominations that are growing (Mormons, evangelicals, etc) take even more hard-line positions on theological issues, including giving women positions of power, than those of the Catholic Church. Perhaps we shouldn't be following the example of the mainstream Protestant denominations that are imploding.

[redstar826]

Many of the denominations that are growing (Mormons, evangelicals, etc) take even more hard-line positions on theological issues

of course, they are also the most aggressive at trying to win new converts. The presence of women pastors or lack thereof may just be a coincidence. Correlation doesnt = causation

[muraven]

Indeed, correlation doesn't imply causation. However, changing the rules on women clergy at the very least hasn't helped them in the vocations department (at least as far as I'm aware). There are many potential ends that one could argue from an amoral position would justify completely abandoning 2,000 years of Tradition about the nature of ordination, maintaining the status quo isn't one of them.

[ewans_gal_4ever]

This.

[becoming_rachel]

Actually, the stats are pretty good. These are just American stats: (I'm Canadian, but most people here seem to be American

[redstar826]

I had been hearing from Catholics I know that they are concerned about numbers of new priests compared to the number of priests who are retiring, and that many of the newcomers to the priest hood are already middle aged as opposed to younger men. My dad has been in the same Parish his whole life. He said they had 3 or 4 priests when he was young. Now they have 1, sometimes 2 for brief periods. He says even 8 am Mass is pretty full and they've expanded their buildings in recent years, so I dont think there has been a recent drop off in attendance.

That is what my comment was based on.