Interview in Spanish with Christina Moreira ARCWP

 https://youtu.be/cl8-AZ0vh50?si=7oIXYLkYPiHk_dJ7

Catholic Church must re-examine teaching on women’s ordination says Irish theologian Sarah Mac Donald , The Tablet

The Church of England has moved forward on women’s ordination with a woman chosen as Archbishop of Canterbury for the first time.

Alamy

The Church’s claim to have no authority to ordain women as priests has been likened to the “tardy” Christian response to the “scandal of slavery” by Irish theologian Fr Gerry O’Hanlon SJ.

The author and member of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice described the core arguments for the exclusion of women from the priesthood as “unpersuasive”.

He was speaking as a woman, Bishop of London Sarah Mullally, was chosen as Archbishop of Canterbury for the first time.

O’Hanlon said it was time the Church “stopped beating about the bush and undertook a fair and open re-examination of current teaching”.

The Jesuit urged the hundreds of delegates, including bishops, who are due to attend the pre-synodal assembly of the Irish Synodal Pathway in Kilkenny later this month to request the Vatican to revisit the question of the ordination of women.

The preparatory document for the Irish pre-synodal assembly, Baptised and Sent, shows that the role of women, including ordination, is still a lively and contested topic, he noted.

Speaking at the launch of Soline Humbert’s memoir A Divine Calling about her vocation to priesthood, he said if God were truly behind this exclusion and this could be convincingly shown, then many would accept it. But “failing a persuasive explanation, one must suspect bias”.

Highlighting how the Pontifical Biblical Commission in the 1970s found that there was no Scriptural warranty for the Church’s position on excluding women from ordained ministry, he noted that theologian Karl Rahner, in the late 1970s, argued that the burden of proof should be with the Church to show this. “This burden has not been discharged,” Fr O’Hanlon said.

Describing himself as “disturbed, ashamed even” that it is taking so long to address the issue of female ordained ministry, he highlighted an article on the permanent diaconate in The Tablet last year by Cardinal Walter Kasper.

In it the German prelate wrote, “There are good reasons that make it theologically possible and pastorally sensible to open the permanent diaconate to women…each local church would be free to decide whether to make use of this possibility or not.”

Fr O’Hanlon said, “Let’s grasp this nettle and act from the gospel refrain: do not be afraid.”

Synod study groups on ‘controversial’ issues release interim reports by Cindy Wooden - Catholic News Service

Synod members, along with Pope Francis, attend the morning session in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican Oct. 15, 2024. Credit: CNS photo/Lola Gomez

My response: Looks like more “kicking can down the road” on women deacons. 

“On the question of the possible ordination of women to the diaconate, the report said that materials from the synod and contributions received more recently have been forwarded to the commission Pope Francis had set up in 2020 to continue studying the issue and which he “revived” during the Synod of Bishops on synodality.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The study groups Pope Francis had established to provide an in-depth reflection on controversial, complex or “emerging” questions raised during the Synod of Bishops on synodality have published interim reports.

The groups were asked to look at questions including the formation of priests, the selection of bishops, women’s leadership in the church and ministry to LGBTQ Catholics.

The late pope had asked the groups to complete their work by June 2025, but Pope Leo XIV extended the deadlines to the end of the year.

However, Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the synod, said Nov. 17 that the work of some groups—“given the richness and complexity of most of the topics entrusted to them—has required more time than originally anticipated.”

“Some groups are now nearing completion of their work, while others will continue in the months ahead,” he said.

The reports, the cardinal said, also include the initial work of a study group on “the liturgy in a synodal perspective,” which began working in late July.

The interim reports published Nov. 17 vary in their depth and detail, with some groups listing their members and providing concrete proposals and with others giving only a vague description of the methodology they were using.

The study group on priestly formation, which was focused ways to ensure future priests are educated in synodality—listening, discernment and shared responsibility with laypeople—said its members concluded that “a complete overhaul” of the Vatican and national guidelines for priestly formation “does not currently seem appropriate” because the guidelines are so recent.

But the group identified “a series of needs,” which it said “cannot be ignored.” These included: “the need to deepen the identity of ordained ministry in relational terms”; “joint formation moments involving laypeople, consecrated persons, ordained ministers and seminarians”; greater participation of women and families in formation; and a focus on missionary outreach.

One of the shortest reports was from the group convened by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to look at “the participation of women in the life and leadership of the church.”

The group’s final report, it said, would include: “Significant female figures in the history of the church; personal accounts from women currently engaged in church leadership; personal accounts from women serving within the Roman Curia”; the nature and exercise of authority in the church; “critical tensions regarding clericalism and male chauvinism”; and “the contribution of Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV concerning the role of women in the church.”

On the question of the possible ordination of women to the diaconate, the report said that materials from the synod and contributions received more recently have been forwarded to the commission Pope Francis had set up in 2020 to continue studying the issue and which he “revived” during the Synod of Bishops on Synodality.

The study groups on the ministry of the bishop and on the role of nuncios and other papal representatives had a joint meeting to discuss a topic they both were looking at: the choice of bishops, the report said.

The group looking at bishops said its first focus was “the selection of candidates to the episcopacy in the perspective of a synodal and missionary church, highlighting the participation of the bishops of the territory and of the entire people of God in the process coordinated by the apostolic nunciature.”

The work was aided by the fact that Pope Francis gave then-Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, “the faculty to examine the confidential Instructions sent to Pontifical Representatives concerning the procedure for episcopal appointments.” The report gave no further details, however.

The group said its conclusions would include “the need to promote an understanding of the process of selecting candidates to the episcopacy as a spiritual journey, characterized at every stage by the search for the will of God for his church.”

Members of the group, it said, are not hoping just to get more people involved in the process of identifying potential bishops, “which could unduly slow down episcopal appointments, but rather to pursue qualitative improvement, for instance by ensuring balanced participation of clergy and laity, of men and women, and by valuing the role of participatory bodies within the local church.”

Commonly referred to as “Study Group Nine,” another group was focused on “Theological criteria and synodal methodologies for shared discernment of controversial doctrinal, pastoral and ethical issues,” including ministry to LGBTQ Catholics.

The final report of the synod in October 2024 had called for reflection on “the relationship between love and truth and the repercussions that it has on many controversial issues.”

The study group’s mandate also included a note from Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation “Amoris Laetitia” that “not all discussions of doctrinal, moral or pastoral issues need to be settled by interventions of the magisterium. Unity of teaching and practice is certainly necessary in the Church, but this does not preclude various ways of interpreting some aspects of that teaching or drawing certain consequences from it.”

The two quotations, the report said, risk suggesting that love and truth as well as moral teaching and pastoral practice are separate issues but in the church’s view they always intersect.

The final report, it said, would deal with three main topics: “homosexuality; conflicts and the nonviolent practice of the Gospel; and violence against women in situations of armed conflict.”

“For these cases, a concise presentation will be offered of the positions upheld by tradition and the magisterium, the new questions that have recently emerged, concluding with some questions to be addressed in the discernment process, mentioning the principal references drawn from Scripture and anthropology, including contributions from the scientific disciplines,” it said.

River of Jordon by Peter Yarrow

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVWd7nPjJH8

Article by Brian McLaren on Dealing with Biases-Center for Action and Contemplation- Richard Rohr’s Meditations

 

We may live in the same country, the same city, or even under the same roof, but we live in different realities.

—Brian McLaren, Learning How to See 

CAC faculty member Brian McLaren is concerned about the cost of our increasingly limited ability to see beyond our religious or political points of view.  

Over the last decade, I have felt increasingly alarmed about the vitriol, distrust, and destructive miscommunication that are tearing people apart everywhere I turn … in nations, in religious communities, in businesses, in non-profit organizations, in friendships, even in families. 

On social media, name-calling, misinformation, and propaganda squeeze out intelligent, honest, respectful conversation. In the mass media, accusations of “fake news” fly in all directions, leaving people wondering who to trust. In the world of religion, shallow, mean-spirited, or profit-hungry preachers draw huge crowds week after week, and they consistently appeal, not to the better angels of human nature, but to our unspoken fears and unacknowledged prejudices.  

In the world of politics, uninformed, dishonest, and manipulative candidates keep winning elections, telling people not what they need to hear, but what they want to hear. Because of our polarization and paralysis, major problems are going unresolved, which intensifies frustration on all sides, and leaves (literally) billions of us vulnerable to populist demagogues. 

The social fabric seems to be stretching so tight that it might rip apart. That scares me. “What’s going on here?” I keep asking myself….  

Philosopher George Lakoff challenges the mistaken idea that arose during the Enlightenment that it is possible to see issues clearly, based entirely on reason:  

Enlightenment reason says everybody reasons the same way…. Enlightenment reason says that all you need to do is get the facts, and everybody will reason to the right conclusion, since everybody has the same reason. No. If they have different worldviews, they’ll reason to different conclusions. Enlightenment reason does not recognize different worldviews. Enlightenment reason doesn’t admit framing. It doesn’t admit metaphorical thought. It doesn’t admit the way people really work. [1] 

McLaren describes how bias results when our worldviews become solidified:  

Here’s the simple truth I began to see as I observed the decline in reasonableness, monitored the rise in dysfunctional and even dangerous discourse, and reviewed the academic literature: 

People can’t see what they can’t see. 

We all, yes, even me—and more shockingly, even you, have a whole set of assumptions and limitations, prejudices and preferences, likes, dislikes and triggers, fears and conflicts of interest, blind spots and obsessions that keep us from seeing what we could and would see if we didn’t have them. 

We are almost always unconscious of these internal obstacles to seeing and understanding, which makes it even harder for us to address them. We are, you might say, blind to what blinds us. The name for these unconscious internal obstacles is bias. 

Bias makes us resist and reject messages we should accept and accept messages we should resist and reject. In short … we can’t see what we can’t see because our biases get in the way. 

References:  
[1] George Lakoff, in Patt Morrison, “Linguist George Lakoff on what Democrats don’t understand—and Republicans do—about how voters think,” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 28, 2018. Accessed October 1, 2025. 

Brian McLaren, Why Don’t They Get It? Overcoming Bias in Others (and Yourself), rev. ed. (Self-published, 2019, 2024), 4–5, 9–10, e-book. 

Image credit and inspiration: Bud Helisson, untitled (detail), 2021, photo, Brazil, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. The lenses symbolize how our inherent biases—like favoring what confirms what we already believe or seeing only those like ourselves—can cloud our vision, reminding us that true clarity comes from looking again and being willing to see differently. 

Article: Ireland/Limerick priest says Catholic Church must open priesthood to women

 

Mary Theresa and I traveled to Ireland to share the good news about the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.

Fr. Roy Donovan referred several women to us.

Annie Watson ARCWP and Anne Latour ARCWP 

The Irish clergy could face collapse if retirement rules hold.

The future of the Catholic Church's clergy in Ireland could be in jeopardy, with one Limerick priest claiming that every diocese would collapse if all priests retired at the current age of 75.

The warning came from Father Roy Donovan, a spokesperson for the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) and parish priest in Caherconlish and St. Lawrence's in Limerick, following the ACP's recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Athlone. 

According to Father Donovan, the Irish clergy is becoming increasingly "top-heavy at the age level", with older priests finding themselves taking on more work and covering multiple parishes.

Speaking on Live 95's In the County, he said, "As we get older, we should have less work to do, and instead it's the very opposite. We're taking on more work, more parishes. We had a meeting for over 60s. In the group that I was in, most of the guys were over 75, and they were saying we can't stop now, the people need us, we've got to keep going, there'll be no one there to replace us."

This has resulted in priests in their 80s facing increased, demanding workloads, sometimes even being "more or less forced to keep going," even as their health declines.

Father Donovan characterised the current situation as a "crisis that has been in the making for 50 years" and a "man-made problem." 

He pointed to the significant loss of personnel since the 1970s and 80s as evidence of the Church hierarchy's failure to adapt and listen.

The core issue, according to the ACP, lies in the extremely narrow pool from which sacramental leaders can be chosen.

"The pool from which priests are coming from at the moment, you could say, is 0.0001%. You can’t be married, you can’t be a woman, so that excludes almost 99.99% of the people."

"Action should have come decades ago and opened up this pool to women and to married people and to ex-priests... We priests belong to the most exclusive club in Ireland. Every other organisation in Ireland have women and men as equals. We're the last ones, and we're still stubborn and refuse."

The ACP are calling for a shift toward person-centred decision-making regarding changes and transfers, rather than an administration-centred approach.

Father Donovan said that the entire structure and teaching of the Catholic Church requires major reform, especially at the highest levels, to reflect modern developments and move past centuries of gender inequality.