http://ncronline.org/blogs/peace-pulpit/fifteenth-sunday-ordinary-time
In his homily on NCR Online, (fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time) Bishop Tom Gumbleton cites the alarming data that a large number of RC churches in the United States are being closed because of shortage of priests.
Bishop Gumbleton then goes on to raise the question of women's vocation to priestly ministry: "And there are those who are calling for it, but then they're pushed away like Amos was pushed away, silenced. You can't speak about that as a possibility, not to speak about ordaining married men or about women." Yet, I am confident that God is taken an initiative and we who are the church have to begin to listen to that and to respond to it and try to make sure our leaders respond to it. "
I give thanks for the courage of Bishop Tom Gumbleton who speaks out about women's call to priestly ministry. In an ecclesiastical desert, Bishop Gumbleton is a lone courageous, prophetic voice in the U.S. hierarchy, unafraid of speaking truth to power.
Sexism is based on the view that women are inferior to men and is always sinful. And as former president Jimmy Carter reminds us in a recent article, "Losing my religion for equality" "This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women's equal rights across the world for centuries."
In other words, the Roman Catholic Church cannot continue to discriminate against women, and blame God for it. Those days are over and the time for the full equality of women is now here.
Bridget Mary Meehan
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