Women are now the Catholic Church’s last hope. Independent.ie

 

Pope Francis: ‘Every time a woman comes in to do a job in the Vatican, things get better’ | America Magazine

https://www.independent.ie/opinion/editorial/women-are-now-the-catholic-churchs-last-hope-42121677.html

The church should accept there is simply no good argument to keep women out of the priesthood. It is nearly 50 years now since the Pontifical Biblical Commission concluded there was no scriptural basis to blocking women’s ordination, and more than 50 years since Vatican II declared “every type of discrimination … based on sex” should be “eradicated as contrary to God’s intent”.

Pope Francis has begun a dialogue around ordaining women as deacons, but the gears of change grind slowly in the church, and even that would be a long way from full priesthood. Beginning a consultation now is like ordering more blood tests when the patient is already receiving the last rites. With just 64 seminarians currently studying for the priesthood nationwide, the church may be long dead before that process is completed.

An organisation which sacrificed its integrity over the handling of endemic child sex abuse in the ranks simply has no moral authority to keep the doors barred against women any longer. It may well be beyond women’s power to save the Catholic church from itself either, but they are its last hope.