Pope Benedict has again decided that women priests are not allowed in the Roman Catholic Church, that male priests must not marry (except for those who came en masse or separately from other religions because of decisions in their own churches with which they disagreed).
The Pope is patently wrong on both counts. It is an injustice to 50% of Roman Catholics to exclude them from priesthood, the highest spiritual rank, power and honour in the Church's gift. It is also an injustice to demand compulsory celibacy from men on whom this same spiritual rank and power is conferred. It is folly to make these two decisions in the name of the founder of Christianity.
The reasons given were usually about the fact that all the apostles were male, not female. No mention that some of them were married, including the first Pope, Pope Peter. Also "there were no women at the last supper". Really? The men did all the washing up?
But Benedict's reasons have more to do with obedience to him.
Pope John Paul II (not to be confused with the smiling Pope John Paul I who was probably murdered in the Vatican) and Pope Benedict have stood like tigers against the ministry of women or relaxing the law of compulsory clerical celibacy.
They have not been as fiercely adamant about cleaning up the corruption that has pervaded the Vatican.
The Pope is patently wrong on both counts. It is an injustice to 50% of Roman Catholics to exclude them from priesthood, the highest spiritual rank, power and honour in the Church's gift. It is also an injustice to demand compulsory celibacy from men on whom this same spiritual rank and power is conferred. It is folly to make these two decisions in the name of the founder of Christianity.
The reasons given were usually about the fact that all the apostles were male, not female. No mention that some of them were married, including the first Pope, Pope Peter. Also "there were no women at the last supper". Really? The men did all the washing up?
But Benedict's reasons have more to do with obedience to him.
Pope John Paul II (not to be confused with the smiling Pope John Paul I who was probably murdered in the Vatican) and Pope Benedict have stood like tigers against the ministry of women or relaxing the law of compulsory clerical celibacy.
They have not been as fiercely adamant about cleaning up the corruption that has pervaded the Vatican.
1 comment:
If any secular organization required that its employees be celibate and male, it would be swiftly and justly eaten alive by lawyers. I see no reason why the church should be exempt from this modern reality.
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