From: kasab@luther.che.wisc.edu (Haig Kasab)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.catholic
Subject: Re: Church of England & women priests
Date: 18 Nov 92 00:14:00 GMT
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Madison
Originator: kasab@luther.che.wisc.edu

In article <...> stabosz@chopin.udel.edu (Rae Stabosz) writes:
>I'd like to follow up on this by asking a few questions, sincerely, to
>those who believe that God _is_ calling women to the priesthood.  [...]
>
>1) What radical signs do you see, signs "of the times", to persuade you
>that in this century God is making the divine Will known in ways that
>were not so in other centuries?  

    From what I can see, there has been a large change in the roles of
women and men in the world, which is, after all, God's main arena.  How can
one deterine whether an action occurs because of divine will or not?  How do
we know that God has not been working in the world?  How do we know that we
haven't had it wrong all this time?  Thus, it may not be that God's will has
changed, but that we Christians are finally heeding it.

>2) Has there been a new consciousness about the status of women which
>is powerful enough to be the beginning of a new interpretation of God's
>revelation in Jesus, an interpretation which suggests that only in
>this century has it become clear that Jesus meant for the priesthood
>to be for both men and women?  What signs are there of this new
>consciousness?  How would the Church, having the power [...] to
>change its mind about this point, be brought to the understanding that
>this is God's will?  

    This is actually several questions in one, and I will try to deal
with them fairly.  I think that the United States has been at the
forefront of changing the consciousness about the status of women, but
much of the Christian world is not so different.  So, in this sense,
there have been changes in status that indicate that the situation should
be openly discussed in the Church.  The signs are there in society, in
people, in the Church.  

   Now, the sticky part is the last question:  given that many people in and
out of the Church feel that there has been enough change to merit a
different view on the ordination of women, what can be done to enlighten the
Church that this is God's will?  I am not sure--the Church is, after all,
led by men, and they as tempted by sin as we.  It is, then, possible that
the Church is not properly receiving God's message in our time because of
the frailties of the recipients.  I am not sure that anything more than time
and a slow changing of attitudes will affect the Church's stands, though.

>3) Is the male-only priesthood a "big deal" or not?  I'm asking
>this because it seems like we all want to have it both ways.  

    I think the answer to this depends on how hard you have struggled to
support the ordination of women into the priesthood.  One point of view
would be that the ordination of women is not that big a deal, so why does
the Church have this hangup in this area?  Another would be that the
ordination of women is a very big deal, and it is imperative that the
Church see that this really is God's plan for the Church.

    The main reason that the Church WON'T ordain women as priests has to
do with our old friend Sacred Tradition, as inspired by Scripture and the
deep thoughts of earlier theologians.  The current leadership does feel
that ordaining women would be "wrong," or not in God's plan.  Many
Catholics feel otherwise.  It's hard to know who is right, especially
since Pope John Paul II has decreed that this topic shall not be discussed.
Personally, I feel that women would be able to competently fulfill the
duties of the priesthood, and I think that the Church is selling itself
short to deny women of this opportunity.

-- 
  Haig Kasab                             Arpanet: kasab@cae.wisc.edu
"Even the Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose"  
        _The Merchant of Venice_ I,iii,99
      The NSF and UW--Madison don't speak for me, nor I for them.