The rule-governed approach to life promoted by Archbishop Pell is far removed from such an adult critical consciousness. The interplay of diversity from lived experience, theology and teaching is disallowed. The people of God are given less of a say, not more. As their role is underplayed in an attempt to shore up priestly status, which church leaders fear is foundering, women slip even further backwards in acceptance. The scandal of women's exclusion from so many domains of church life is confronted visually every time there is a procession of priests into a church or cathedral.
History is littered with such justifications.
Even if these are isolated examples, they are shocking in their detail of forced sex, forced abortion and death. It behoves church leaders to ask themselves whether the culture of inequality they have created between the sexes contributes to such crimes of abuse. The richness of women's lived experience is a gift lost to the church while the present inequalities are maintained and while no woman has a role in major leadership and decision-making. I treat this obligation seriously. Dr Marie R. Joyce is the national spokeswoman for the Ordination of Catholic Women.