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

[becoming_rachel]

I agree with you in many ways.
My mother, who is a very strong woman, once explained it to me like this. "If you had a quarter, and two dimes and a nickel, they would both equal 25 cents, right? But they are also different. Equal, but different".
That was one of the most sound explanations I could think of.
That's pretty much exactly how Catholics see it. (At least, how I was taught..), that while we need to respond to the changing times, we should not bend and sway with the times, but remember that our faith and our teachings remain timeless. The teachings of our Faith do not change. Nor should they. Truth remains the same.
Catholics also hold women in very high esteem. Women have a very great role within the Church, and can take on many roles: religious life, lay reader, Minister of the Eucharist, teacher, leadership in organizations, etc. Women can work outside the home and/or be mothers. Women can be single or married. The Virgin Mary, whom we honour greatly, and many of our greatest saints are women. We consider the Church to be female. (Traditionally, the Church is referred to as"Mother Church").
I think the problem is that society tends to devalue women in the very notion that they are empowering us (being a woman myself) by saying that we should want to be like men and to do exactly what men do, and if we want to do "traditional" female things, then we are buying into sexism. It's a complicated thing.

[vesper_evensong]

I love that explanation your mother gave you! I will try to remember that - great teaching tool.

Thank you for the information about how the Catholic church views women and what they can do. That was actually helpful to me. I don't always know what it's like to understand these views from within another church's culture and perspectives.

I tend to think you're right about society being more to blame for the estrangement of women sometimes. Because my calling in life was motherhood.. a very traditional female role, I have never fought against that. I have been happily female in all aspects and never wanted to be a man. In my marriage I am equal to my husband, and both of us see it from that view point. In my church there are things that only women do as well as things only men do. Perhaps it is those who feel driven to leadership (not to say I'm not) that feel the pull towards things on the man's scale more. I'm not entirely sure.