http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/synod-system-stacks-deck-against-women
...I still have not figured out why there are three women and ten men delegates when there seem to be more members of women’s congregations in the world than of men’s. But of course there is no logic to sexism. The matter has nothing to do with democratic representation. It simply has to do with power. Women are excluded. This is what proponents of women’s ordination are talking about since only ordination confers jurisdiction. Women want to make decisions commensurate with the responsibility we take on. Period.
My own view is that clericalizing women, especially women who are members of religious congregations, would be a big mistake. Such a move would simply shore up a system that is rigged against the vast majority of the community — in the case of this Synod, those who live the very family issues under discussion. So adding a few women clerics is no solution. But there is something so profoundly unfair about rigging a meeting like this, having three women religious and 17 married couples listening and commenting around the edges while male clerics make decisions, that it rankles the soul. Much as I think ordination as currently conceived is flawed for everyone, if it takes ordination for women to have decision making power, so be it.[Mary E. Hunt is a feminist theologian who is co-founder and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) in Silver Spring, Md.]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/catholic-woman-hope-their-voices-will-be-heard-during-vaticans-synod-on-the-family_561432afe4b0f91bb3b7165e
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Women don’t have a vote at the meeting of 270 Catholic bishops on family issues that began this week, but they hope their voices will be heard.
Divorce, cohabitation and gay relationships are just some of the issues up for discussion at the Vatican synod, which continues through Oct. 24. It follows a questionnaire consultation with Catholic groups after a meeting on family issues a year ago.
Some critics say that more women should have been included in the process. Only bishops can vote at a synod, but about 30 women have been invited as auditors.
“I think we should really start looking seriously at the possibility of ordaining women deacons,” he told CNS he had told the synod. He also said he had recommended the synod “clearly state that you cannot justify the domination of men over women — certainly not violence — through biblical interpretation,” particularly what he called incorrect interpretations of Scripture that women should be submissive to their husbands."
http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/4407/Theologians-at-USF-Santa-Clara-Undermine-Church-Teaching.aspx
But Macy reportedly claimed at the women’s ordination conference that the reason there is a lack of evidence of women priests in the early Church is that, “quite frankly, priests just were not that important for the first millennium of Christianity,” according to the heterodox National Catholic Reporter. Instead, Macy reportedly argued, ordination in the early Church was not necessarily tied to liturgy, and ordinary people—including women—could celebrate the Mass for the Church’s first 1,100 years.
He concluded, according to the Reporter:
So one can see that communities who now choose their own leaders, and whose leaders lead the liturgy because they are their leaders, are actually following an ancient custom of the [C]hurch. In a time when new leaders are emerging, particularly from communities that don’t have ordained leaders, we should consider seriously the models that the first thousand years of Christianity present to us.
- See more at: http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/4407/Theologians-at-USF-Santa-Clara-Undermine-Church-Teaching.aspx#sthash.vQW7oIpQ.dpuf
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