The Community is the Celebrant of Eucharist/ Peter Did NOT Serve as Bishop of Rome/ "Keys" Given to Community/Not Just Peter or Pope/Reform of Clericalism and Renewal in Roman Catholic Church

Gary Wills, in his book, What Jesus Meant (p.p.69-70) writes “Nowhere is it indicated there was an official presider at the Christian meal (agape), much less that consecrating the bread and wine was a task delegated to persons of a certain rank. It is a mark of the gospels’ fidelity to the followers’ original status that not one of them mentions a Christian priest or priesthood. When the term “priesthood” finally occurs, in the pseudo-Petrine letters, it refers to the whole Christian community (1 Peter 2.5, 2.9) and the “Peter” of this letter refers to himself not as a priest but as a “fellow elder” to the other elders… “(p.69-70)

Gary Macy in The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination, concludes that women performed priestly functions as leaders of house churches in the early church. He concludes that women were ordained during the first twelve hundred years of the church’s history. In the Catacomb of St. Priscilla in Rome, there is a fresco of a woman breaking the Bread in an early Eucharistic Celebration.

In Christ there is no Jew or Greek, slave or citizen, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus. Gal. 3:28

1. There were no priests in the first centuries of Christianity. Peter, Paul, and the other apostles were not priests or bishops. Women were apostles Junia (Romans 16:7), and Mary of Magdala, to whom the Risen Christ appeared  and sent on mission to proclaim the core belief of Christianity, the Resurrection.

2. The Catholic scholar Raymond Brown wrote, “Peter never served as the bishop or local administrator of any church. Antioch and Rome included.” St Ignatius of Antioch wrote that there were no bishops in his lifetime and none in Rome until the second century. The Twelve were an eschatological symbol that the Twelve would preside over the reunion of the Twelve Tribes of Israel at the end of time.

3. How about Jesus’ words to Peter: “ You are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church.” The earliest interpretation of this passage is that Jesus is speaking to all the disciples, the whole community. Mt. 18:18 “In truth I tell you hymin (plural) that whatever you bind on earth, heaven will keep bound, whatever you unbind on earth, heaven will keep unbound.” “St. Augustine concluded that Peter is just ”a representative of the church” and it was the community that had the power to include or exclude members in the early gatherings.” (Gary Wills, What Jesus Meant, p. 81.) Bishop Gumbleton wrote: “So it wasn’t Peter and now the pope that has the full authority and power within the church. It is the whole community, the church. That’s what Jesus said to his disciples and that was the earliest interpretation of this passage... We have to remember that when Jesus first began to preach and to teach, he was gathering a community of disciples. Jesus never developed a church. All this developed over time, so it's changeable. It seems to me and to many in our church today that we need to change. "  (homily given  by Bishop Tom Gumbleton at St. Hilary Parish, Detrot, Michigan) See also Bishop Geoffrey Robinson's book, Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholc Church, Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus.)


4. Apostolic Succession does not go back to Peter and there is no unbroken line of succession. Three popes claimed to be pope at one time and Council of Constance appointed a different/new pope in 1417. The history of the papacy is triple x rated – popes waged wars, granted indulgences for killing infidels (Crusades), Benedict X: papacy bought and sold for money, Gregory1, “When a woman has given birth she should abstain from entering a church for thirty-three days if she had a boy, sixty-six if she had a girl.” Pope Gelasius wrote “Nevertheless we have heard to our annoyance that divine affairs have come to such a low state that women are encouraged to officiate at the sacred altars and to take part in all matters imputed to the offices of the male sex to which they do not belong.” (Gelasus Letter to the Bishops of Lucania, 494) Sources: Rome has Spoken by Maureen Fiedler and Linda Rabben, and Gary Wills, What Jesus Meant

5. I agree with Gary Wills’ insightful commentary on the negative impact of clericalism in the Catholic Church: “Exclusion returned with the reinstitution of a “Christian priesthood, along with revived holiness codes- consecrated altars and consecrated men and “consecrating fingers,” with the extrusion of the laity (especially women) from altars from secret conclaves, from decision making from control of the believers’ money. The “rood screen” separating clergy from laity was a great barrier in the Middle Ages and it survived for a long time in the “communion railing”. Women returned to the unclean status give them by menstruation under Jewish (and other) law, were not allowed inside the sanctuary of a church- even the altar cloths had to be carried out to the nuns who washed them. For these groups, Jesus cleansed the Temple in vain.” (Gary Wills, What Jesus Meant, p. 85-84.)

6. The Roman Catholic Women Priests’ Movement offers a renewed priestly ministry in a community of equals that is rooted in Jesus’ example of inclusive embrace of all especially those on the margins. We offer a paradigm shift that women are equal images of God, and therefore worthy to preside at the altar. We offer a new model of partnership in an empowered community of equals that is non-clerical or hierarchical. On a deep, spiritual, mystical level we are beginning a healing process of centuries-old misogyny in which spiritual power was invested exclusively in men. We are moving the church toward partnership in a Christ-centered, Spirit empowered community of equals. For some like the Catholic hierarchy women priests are a revolution. For millions of people the time has come for a holy shakeup that will bring new life, creativity and justice to the church and beyond.

7. Additional resources: http://www.arcwp.org ,
www.marymotherofjesus.org

Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
sofiabmm@aol.com