"How It All Started" - Catholic Women Priests Part 1 by Diana Milesko

           Like organizations everywhere, the Catholic Church began with a passion, energy and devotion to a cause--to spread God’s Gospel of love. And like organizations everywhere, it got long in the tooth. As it aged, it became more interested in holding onto what it had than in promoting the goal upon which it was founded in the first place. That is why the Catholic Church needs to be reformed. We stay vital because of our capacity for renewal.  If the Catholic Church does not regenerate itself, it will calcify and die. The Catholic Church must abandon misogynist attitudes it adopted centuries ago to maintain power; it must follow the teaching of Jesus to love one another and see the sacred in our everyday lives; it must accept women priests as it has in the past. The Church’s mission must be reclaimed.  And women priests will help.

            In contrast to past cultures, women today are educated, independent and make significant contributions to humankind in all fields. Furthermore, we live in a world of instantaneous communication. We can get information we used to go to college for, on the internet in two minutes. This, along with research and education, reveal the true history of Catholic Women Priests. The assumption that women were always excluded from the priesthood is not historically accurate. This is based on at least three foundations:

1 -- Women and men are called equal by God and Jesus as revealed in the Old and New Testaments

2 -- Archaeological evidence confirms women have been priests, (presbyters) bishops, prophets,  and abbesses in the early Church

3 -- Catholic Church misogyny has nothing to do with the question of “who” can serve God at the Church altar.  It has everything to do with the fear and cupidity of clerics who strove for absolute authority

JESUS CONFRONTED THE GREEK AND ROMAN CULTURE

            The Bible, written over 3,000 years ago (1450-465 BCE) in a time spanning 1,000 years by over 40 different authors, unveils a Middle Eastern culture with radically different views of women and men than today’s world. Women were considered inferior; could not be educated; go alone in public; or talk with strangers. Yet the Bible affirms the equality of women and men. Genesis 1:27: "...in the image of God, God created him; male and female God created them." Jesus confirmed this equality by defying centuries of laws and consistently treating women and men as equal in God’s love. A few examples:

-- He ignored ritual impurity laws and talked with women: Mark 5:25-34.

-- He talked to foreign women: John 4:7 and Matt. 15:22-28.  

-- He taught women: Luke 10:38-42.

-- He treated women as equal to men when he cured a woman and called her a “Daughter of Abraham,” implying equal status with “Son of Abraham,” which respectfully referred to a Jew: Luke 13:16: 5       

-- He embraced women in his inner circle: Luke 8:1-3: 12

-- He appeared first to women after his resurrection: Matt 28:9-10 (4)

            The teachings of Jesus were “radically egalitarian in their day and constituted a social revolution that likely provoked his crucifixion.” [Karen Jo Torjesen. When Women Were Priests.] Only later, as Christianity became more bureaucratic and muscular, did the Church begin to marginalize the role of its women priests.