Dear Cardinal Sean
O’Malley:
In what has already become an infamous “60
Minutes” interview, you stated
to Norah O’Donnell: “If I were founding a
church, I’d love to have women priests. But Christ founded it, and what he has
given us is something different.”
As women born well after Vatican II, we are
constantly asked: “Why would any young, educated woman choose to stay in a
Church that purposefully denies her equality?” We stay because we believe that
Jesus did give us “something different.” Jesus gave us the Gospel message of
equality and social justice, where all people are made in God’s image and
welcomed at the table.
Unfortunately, the Catholic hierarchy has
given the Church only misguided, theologically dubious doctrines that have been
refuted time and time again. You may not have founded our faith, but in today’s
Church you do have a voice, authority, and a vote, which is something denied to
women.
Thanks to the work of historians and
theologians, including the Vatican’s own Pontifical Biblical Commission in 1976
that concluded there is no theological basis to exclude women from the
priesthood, we believe that Jesus did not ordain anyone, male or female, but
actively sought out the companionship, conversation, and witness of women.
In all four gospels, Mary Magdalene was the
primary witness to the central event of Christianity — Christ’s resurrection.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus called on Mary Magdalene — a woman — to preach the good
news of his resurrection to the other disciples. The Scriptures also mention
eight women who led small house churches, including Phoebe, Priscilla, and
Prisca. And, not least of all, Mary of Nazareth, who answered her vocational
call from God and first brought Jesus, body and flesh, into our world.
Cardinal Sean, please stop making Jesus your
partner in gender discrimination. As Catholics, we believe “every type of
discrimination … based on sex … is to be overcome and eradicated as contrary to
God’s intent” (Vatican II,
Gaudium et Spes, #29). By perpetuating a system that excludes women
from sacramental ministry, and denies women their baptismal equality, the
Catholic Church implicitly gives permission to the rest of the world to oppress
and dominate women.
As you mentioned in your interview, women do
have important roles within the Church: the majority of lay ministers and church
administrators are women. However, until the vocations of women are not just
valued in our Church, but recognized and empowered at every level, as equals to
men, the hierarchy will remain of place of painful discrimination.
We implore you to stop endorsing the tragic
message that the Roman Catholic Church, the world’s largest organized faith
community, chooses to oppress women because it’s what Jesus wanted.
Furthermore, we would welcome a personal meeting with you in order to have a
conversation about women’s ordination, and the true poverty of a Church that
excludes the theology, leadership, and vocations of half its members.
Faithfully,
Erin Saiz Hanna and Kate McElwee
Co-directors of the Women’s Ordination Conference
Erin Saiz Hanna and Kate McElwee
Co-directors of the Women’s Ordination Conference
Founded in 1975, the Women’s Ordination Conference is the
oldest and largest national organization that is working to ordain women as
priests, deacons, and bishops into an inclusive and accountable Roman Catholic
Church. Erin resides in the Greater Boston area; Kate lives in Rome.
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