Scholar: Ordaining Women Is Disrespectful
ROME, MAY 4, 2007 (Zenit.org)
Dr. Pia de Solenni is a graduate of the Class of '93.
Those who want to ordain women to the priesthood manifest a failure
to recognize the dignity of women, said an expert in moral theology
and women's issues.
Pia de Solenni asserted this during her April 27 conference at
the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
De Solenni won the Pontifical Prize of the Academies in 2001, receiving
an award from John Paul II for her doctoral thesis on St. Thomas
Aquinas.
At the conference, de Solenni used St. Thomas' arguments to analyze
the issue of the ordination of women to the priesthood in light
of the natural complementarity between the sexes.
St. Thomas taught that woman was not created from man's head in
order to rule over him, nor from his foot to be ruled by him, but
from his side in order to rule with him, she explained.
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis
The 1994 Vatican document "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis" concentrates
on three basic points, de Solenni explained: "Christ, in ordaining
only men, acted freely without constraints by cultural norms; nonadmission
to the priesthood is not a sign of lesser dignity; the Church does
not have the faculty to ordain women."
De Solenni illustrated the first point saying that many claim Christ
ordained only men because of the cultural norms of his day. Since
the role of women has changed, some say the Church should also adapt
and allow women to be ordained to the priesthood, she said.
De Solenni contended, however, that the Gospels show how Christ
often broke with the cultural norms of his day: In fact, it was
to the Samaritan woman at the well that he revealed himself clearly
as the Messiah -- to her as to no other, she said.
Equal dignity
"Ordinatio Sacerdotalis" points out that the non-admission
of women to the priesthood does not signify a lesser dignity. The
entire history of the Church, said de Solenni, "witnesses to
the presence and active participation of women."
"It was the consent, understanding and devotion of a woman
that brought the Church to us," and the fact that the Virgin
Mary was not chosen by her son to be a priest "indicates that
the sacrament does not discriminate on the basis of dignity or merit,"
de Solenni explained.
De Solenni reiterated a point from "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis"
which says the question of women's vocations should not be confined
to ordination.
"Woman will never be the bridegroom, in any form. The temptation
to force upon women a masculine paradigm arises from our confused
notions of power and authority which, in turn, devalue her vocation
as a bride, clearly illustrated by Mary," de Solenni said.
Ordaining a woman, she said, "would be, in essence, to show
complete disregard for the reality she is as a woman, as a bride."
Masculine vs. feminine
De Solenni asserted: "The promotion of ordaining women to
the priesthood is a sign of misunderstanding and even disrespect
for the dignity of woman."
The fact that "the significance of the feminine identity is
so largely misunderstood or even disregarded, indicates that our
very notion of Church is in peril, has lost personality. She has
become an 'it,' a mere institution, rather than a living being,"
de Solenni added.
The discussion of ordaining women to the priesthood has been a
sort of "overemphasis of the masculine," she said.
"No doubt," continued de Solenni, "women need a
voice in the Church, but it must be an authentic voice and not their
voice made to sound like a man's."
Women, she stated, have a unique role in the Church and in society
and that role should not be forced into masculine paradigms. "To
do so," she said, "runs the risk of losing what is truly
feminine -- not the femininity of fashion, but the varied femininity
of women saints, whose personalities and strengths span just as
far as those of men saints … if not more."
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