Boycott the Basket Unitil They Ordain Women

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About six or seven years ago I entered famous Judson Church in New York City to attend the ordination of a Roman Catholic woman priest. The event, which took place in a large sanctuary, was well-attended. As I entered, however, I noticed, that some people were being directed, upon entering, to a cordoned-off seating area to the right of (facing it) the altar. Curious, I inquired. It was an area reserved for those who wanted (needed) to be sure they weren’t photographed. I later spoke with a Catholic priest friend about the ordination Mass. He was quite interested. “I’d like to go to one, but I’d have had to wear my Groucho Marx (mustache and glasses) disguise.”A majority of Catholics, clerics among them, are in favor of ordaining women. Many nuns in the United States worship in communities led by women priests. A priest who rapes a child can remain a priest for decades, but a Catholic priest who publicly supports the ordination of women can lose his frock almost immediately. A priest who supports the ordination of a woman commits a far more grievous offense, in the eyes of the the institutional hierarchy of the Catholic Church than a child rapist does, because the latter is not a heresy and does not challenge any fundamental teaching.

When, in 2012, the CDF (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, once called the Office of the Inquisition) dispatched a team to conduct an “apostolic visitation” of convents, many nuns thought they ere looking for women’s ordination …”cells.” (My word.) The report following the probe cited such grave offenses as practicing Yoga and studying Reiki. It may be that the hierarchy’s jittery fervor to police progressive-minded Catholic women is the best indicator of how healthy of the Roman Catholic women’s ordination movement truly is.

I do not expect the Vatican to ordain a woman any time soon, but Catholicism is in big trouble in the United States (where I live). COVID led many Catholics to realize they might not need Sunday Mass as they once knew it. An avalanche of clergy sex abuses is just up ahead in the United States. I believe we will see more and more Catholics who thought they never would, seek out worship communities led by women priests as the schisms hit and patriarchy withers.

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Why doesn’t the Vatican ordain women?

The short answer: A. money, B. misogyny.

Read “Boycott the Basket Until They Ordain Women” in its entirety on Indie Theology.