Oct 4, 2005
A few months ago, during the election of Pope Benedict XVI, I came across a disturbing political cartoon in a local newspaper. The sketch depicted the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica with a tall smoke stack standing atop. Smoke emerged from the stack and spelled out “No Women Need Apply.”
This cartoonist wasn’t the first to question the Church about the all-male priesthood, and he probably won’t be the last because the media, along with many Catholics, don’t understand the nature of priesthood, itself. The priesthood is an office entrusted by Christ to His Apostles for teaching, sanctifying, governing, and fathering the faithful. Fatherhood is essential to the priestly vocation.
Unfortunately, there is a tendency to view the Church as a large corporation operated by men seeking to oppress women. In fact, I recently attended a catechesis seminar where a young man addressed a European Cardinal with the question, “Your Eminence, don’t you think the Church is limiting women from climbing the hierarchal ladder by not allowing their ordination to the priesthood?” The allusion to this Catholic corporate ladder is dangerous and misleading. Moreover, this secular train of thought is exactly where society struggles to understand the role of women in the Church without female priesthood.
The Church is not a corporation, but rather a divinely inspired family. In understanding this concept, it is helpful to look at basic family dynamics. Within my own family, my father doesn’t feel discriminated against because he isn’t my mother. Actually, he is quite aware and relieved that he cannot biologically act as my mother! Similarly, my mother doesn’t feel robbed of some right to be my father. They share mutual understanding that each has their own role in service to one another and in raising their family. Also engrained within their understanding is the knowledge that they share equal dignity as persons.