What's Going On With Women Priests?

According to the National Catholic Reporter 6 women have been ordained as Roman Catholic Priests this year by duly consecrated bishops. Additionally, a total of 32 female priests have been ordained in the past two years. These numbers represent female priests in the United States, but do not include significant numbers of women priests ordained in several other countries.

What is going on here? Can this be a significant movement, or are we looking at a meaningless gesture of a fringe group of dissidents whose actions will be forgotten in short order? Only time, of course, will tell. But while we are waiting for time to tell us, what are we to make of this women priest movement in the Roman Catholic Church?

The Bishops of the dioceses in which these ordinations have taken place have condemned them. The Vatican says that all associatied with these events are automatically excommunicated. The ordinations are said to be invalid. They are certainly illicit. No one can question that they go against current church regulations. The ordinations are only invalid, however, if one accepts the premise that it has been ordained by God that women are by reason of biology incapable of being ordained priests. The female Bishop who ordained these women was consecrated, as far as we know, by a male Roman Catholic Bishop who was in good standing in the Church at the time. Just as the question of the validity of Anglican Orders was debated in the Church for many years, the validity of these ordinations will be a subject of much scholarly discussion for years to come. It can't be decided by a fiat from Rome.

I am actually surprised to see women's ordination rise to the level of a key issue in Church reform circles. I would have imagined married priests, birth control, or some other such issue as being the key question that would spark a major movement. Clearly I underestimated the passion and determination of women, particularly women in the Church. I would not be surprised if the Vatican too may be grossly underestimating the power of women in this regard. A look at the history of women, especially in this country, on the isue of the right to vote, the right to compete for jobs with men in every area tells us that once women decide they intend to have a seat at the table, they will not stop until it occurs. The Vatican may discover it can only resist the onslaught of women for so long.

It's really hard to argue against the right of women to hold positions of authority in the Church, as the Anglicans found out. The scriptural evidence is inconclusive, and can in no way legitimately be used to rule out women priests no matter what Rome might say. The role of women in the Church has been such a dominant one that the notion that the 'old boys network' can continue to call the shots indefinitely is unlikely. Nuns have of course run schools and hospitals, and have had growing influence in the operation of parishes. Lay women have been the mainstay of support in terms of attendance, participation, devotion, and doing everything from cleaning to providing leadership in many parish activities. I don't believe women are going to continue to allow themselves to be second class citizens in the Church for much longer.

I recommend reading the homily of Fr. Roy Bourgeois which can be found in the National Catholic Reporter. Fr. Bourgeois is a Maryknoll priest who concelebrated the ordination Mass and gave the homily in support of the woman being ordained. I believe something is brewing in the Catholic Church today. Clearly as in most organizations change seldom comes from the top down. The Second Vatican Council was a major exception to that rule, and God bless Pope John the XXIII for his actions. The courageous women who are making a statement with their ordinations could represent a blossoming of the work of the Holy Spirit from below. It is a long overdue development. Come Holy Spirit.