The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church: unmasking a cuckoo’s egg tradition, John Wijngaards Darton, Longman & Todd, Pp. 204. Price Euro 13.90.
by BERNADETTE TOAL, Milltown Institute, Dublin.
This book is a fairly rare ‘bird’, not because of its reference to cuckoos but because it is an easy-to-read book on theology and the history of theological ideas within the Church. Furthermore, in addition to the usual footnotes, it is very up-to-date in presenting its evidence. Reference made to texts, books or theologians, is augmented by John Wijngaards’s website address (htpp.//www.womenpriests.org) given at the end of each chapter so that readers with access to a computer may check out the original documents for themselves. The references are extensive and include findings of the Councils; texts of Roman Catholic documents referring to the ordination of women (Inter Insigniores, Ordinato Sacerdotalis); original texts from Aquinas, Bernard Häring and Mary McAleese President of Ireland (1997-2011) to name but a few. Following up a reference by consulting the writings of modern theologians would present no difficulty, perhaps, to those with access to a good library. But being able to consult – and print out – the text from John Duns Scotus’s (1266-1308), commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, on the question of ‘Whether the female sex or youthful age should impede the taking of Orders’ – in the original Latin, if one wishes – is quite amazing.
The book reads like a detective story – a ‘who dunnit’. When, where, by what means and by whom, was it decided that women could not represent Christ in the priestly ministry? The evidence to support John Wijngaards’s passionately held belief that women should be admitted to Holy Orders in the Roman Catholic Church, is carefully presented and utterly convincing. He acknowledges and fully understands, that many women who feel called to priesthood, do not want to accept ordination to the present, clerical, celibate, hierarchical priesthood. For them the ordination of women should be part of a much wider reform of Church structures with the emphasis on Vatican II’s more communitarian model of ministry. However, although he admits to sharing their view, his focus in this book is to present a case against the traditional arguments, seriously and critically examining them on their own terms. A method which is probably the only one which will be taken seriously by Church authorities.
He claims not to be a feminist, which he defines as not being able to speak from the experience of a woman – a limited idea of feminism perhaps – but rather a professional Catholic, male theologian, from a Catholic family that remained Catholic through four centuries of persecution whose only concern is speaking the truth out of loyalty to the Christian message and to the Church.
The cuckoos egg tradition of the title is a reference to two things: the Greek philosophy of Aristotle, which had an enormous impact on the theology of St Thomas Aquinas, among others, in medieval times and Roman Civil Law which was the prevailing judicial milieu at the beginning of the early Church. Wijngaards identifies these two things as cuckoo’s eggs because, he says, the ideas they expounded, especially about the inferiority of women, were planted or absorbed into Roman Catholic theology and nourished by it, even though these ideas were not based either on the creation story found in the Hebrew Scriptures – God made man and woman in his own likeness – or on the message Jesus preached in the gospels. Like the cuckoo fledgling bird which takes the place of the genuine offspring, these ideas have so grown and developed over the years, they appear to be authentic.
To understand the prohibition on women found in 1 Timothy, which forbids them to teach or to have authority, one must look at the context in which it was written. Paul, reacting to a local problem the Christian community was having with Gnostic preachers, places a temporary injunction on the women, Wijngaards demonstrates that it is clear from the text that it was a restriction meant for the circumstances of the time and not a universal norm to be imposed forever. All the evidence suggests, in fact, that in some places in the early Church, women were ordained deacons.
The arguments against women acting in persona Christi which rest on their having female bodies instead of male is almost funny and one would like to treat it with the incredulity it deserves but these matters are taken very seriously by those who argue against the ordination of women. Scotus even argued that women could not be ordained because of their hair! A woman having to be shaved and given a tonsure would be to ‘her ignominy, and not to her glory’. I guarantee the reader will not be able to read the section on ‘Symbolism Run Amok’ without being a little shocked.
Wijngaards also points out that when the priest says the Eucharistic Prayer, he is always speaking in the third person. The prayer is a narrative, it tells the story of what Jesus did the night he was betrayed. The words of Christ are quoted by the priest but at no time does the prayer become a drama. The priest says these words, acting on behalf of the Church in remembrance of what Jesus did. The maleness of Jesus just isn’t relevant. The Church recognises that women can act in the person of Christ at other times – emergency baptism for example, or in the celebration of marriage in which the couple are the ordinary ministers of the sacrament. The conclusion that there is no sustainable argument in scripture or tradition against the ordination of women is the incontrovertible conclusion of this book. But I think the old adage still holds. For those who believe in their hearts, no evidence is necessary and for those who don’t believe, no evidence is possible.
Bernadette Toal
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