The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church: Unmasking a Cuckoo’s Egg Tradition, John Wijngaards London: Darton, Longman and Todd.
by Pat Pinsent
Dr Pat Pinsent is Senior Research Fellow of the National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature (UK). Her books include: The Power of the Page: Children’s Books and their readers (ed.) (1993) and Children’s Literature and the Politics of Equality, and, most recently Pop Fictions (1999) (ed.), and The Proceedings of the 1998 IBBY Conference. Network is a quarterly publication of Catholic Women’s Network in the UK.
The central contention in this scholarly and well-documented book is that the tradition that women cannot be ordained has crept into Catholic ‘orthodoxy’ in a way analogous to that of the cuckoo’s egg: implanted among genuinely scriptural traditions about the role of women, but itself originating from the practices of secular Roman law, it has supplanted ‘truly Christian initiatives of women’s ministries’ (p.175).
Wijngaards proves his thesis in a manner which is very convincing to those not already prejudiced against women’s ordination. On the one hand he displays how scripture has been misapplied to ‘prove’ things very far from the mind of the original writer, and on the other he reveals the genuine traditions which have been forgotten, such as the existence of women deacons during nearly half of the life of the Christian church.
A key section is that in which he looks at the ‘five key arguments’ put forward by people who claim that ‘tradition’ is against women’s ordination. Some of these arguments, such as the claim that women are not created in the image of God (believed by St Thomas Aquinas), or that women carry the burden of Eve’s sin, were regarded as vital by a number of medieval theologians but are rejected by the church today. Others, such as women not being allowed to teach in church or not having been included among the apostolic twelve, are still held as valid by Rome, but often seem to be derived from a misreading of scripture or a misinterpretation of its implications.
Wijngaards suggests that the argument against ordination which rests on the symbolic relationship between Christ and the church, as bridegroom and bride, is one which was unknown until the twentieth century. This argument is based on ‘congruence’: because God made a covenant in which he [sic] was the bridegroom and Israel the bride, Christ had to become human as a man, and ‘Jesus wanted this symbolism to continue by insisting that only male priests [italics Wijngaards’] represent him at the Eucharist’ (p.113). Wijngaards describes this as ‘symbolism run amok’, quoting Pope John Paul II’s favourite theologian, von Balthasar, who explicitly relates Christ’s gift of the eucharist to the male role in sexual intercourse.
Wijngaards presents several arguments in favour of women’s ordination. As well as the neglected tradition of women in the diaconate, he cites, without necessarily seeking a return to it, the traditional devotion to Mary as Priest, and the strong de facto case made by the increasing number of women who are convinced that they have a genuine priestly vocation. Discounting the hackneyed statement that such vocations can only be regarded as authentic when they have been accepted as such by the church, he parallels the experience of such women to that of Cornelius which led Peter to the conclusion that Gentiles had a right to baptism because God had called them (Acts 10):
From time immemorial, priestly vocations have been ascribed to God. In spite of… their human origins and human growth, vocations are inspired by the Holy Spirit, we are told. It is God who calls. . . How may that same pull of God be ignored when God speaks in the spiritual awareness of women? (p.167).
As he adds, ‘Does authentication by the Church imply the right to ignore true vocations?’
An important section for those of us, whatever our views on the actual question of ordination, who feel that we have not only a right but also an obligation to continue to discuss the subject, is that in which Wijngaards deals with the problem posed by the recent declaration that forbids any disagreement with the Holy Father on this subject, because the teaching is based on ‘the infallible universal magisterium – that is, the collective teaching exercised by the international body of bishops’ (p.17). He shows that the ban lacks nearly all of the conditions necessary for such infallible teaching: it has not resulted from collegial action; the bishops have not been free to express their own considered opinion; they have not listened to the ‘sensus fidelium’; they have shown no sign of wishing to impose the teaching on the world church. As Nicholas Lash asserts:
Neither the Pope nor Cardinal Ratzinger can make a teaching to be founded on the written Word of God’ simply by asserting that it is so founded. . . The attempt to use the doctrine of infallibility … as a blunt instrument to prevent the opening of a question in the Catholic mind, is a scandalous abuse of power. (quoted by Wijngaards, p.179)
I would recommend this book both to those who are already committed to women’s ordination – it will furnish them with clear and well-supported arguments – and to those who are as yet unconvinced. Each chapter is followed by mention of specific readings on the Women Priests Website, and the notes supply copious references to a very wide range of texts.
Pat Pinsent
www.womenpriests.org
www.catholic-womens-ordination.org.uk
Further information on the book: