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Ten Reasons Why Men Should Not Be Ordained to the Ministry
10. A man’s place is in the army.
9. The pastoral duties of men who have children might distract them from the responsibility of being a parent.
8. The physique of men indicates that they are more suited to such tasks as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be “unnatural” for them to do ministerial tasks.
7. Man was created before woman, obviously as a prototype. Thus, the man represents an experiment rather than the crowning achievement of creation.
6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. Their conduct at football and basketball games demonstrates this.
5. Some men are handsome, and this will distract women worshipers.
4. Pastors need to nurture their congregations. But this is not a traditional male role. Throughout history, women have been recognized as not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more fervently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.
3. Men are prone to violence. No really masculine man wants to settle disputes except by fighting about them. Thus they would be poor role models as well as dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.
2. The New Testament tells us that Jesus was betrayed by a man. This man's lack of faith reminds us of the subordinated position that all men should take.
1. Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep sidewalks, repair the church roof, and perhaps even lead the music at church on Father’s Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the church.
h/t to Serving Bread
Haha! Thanks for posting this.
ReplyDeleteI was confused and upset after last week's decree from the Vatican regarding excommunication..."Both the one who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order, incur an excommunication latae sententiae,"
I'm still not sure why the CDF felt this was necessary. Is the cause for women's ordination growing? Is Rome worried and felt that they should come down hard? Seems that way to me.
Give me Jesus!
Anne
This was funny! (sad?) I am curious...what does H/T mean? I notice you have used it a number of times. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteGood question!
ReplyDeleteH/T is blogger shorthand for Hat Tip and is used to give a "tip of the hat" to another blog which is the source of something in the blog at hand. Thus, a tip of ConcordPastor's hat to Serving Bread, the source of the Ten Reasons Men Should Not Be Ordained.
I was thinking H/T meant: Heartfelt thanks. :-) Thanks for enlightening me!
ReplyDeleteAWESOME!!! Laughing my butt off (says a Youth Minister who is not considered clergy by her own church and yet is considered clergy by everyone else in town)
ReplyDeleteSo glad that you're laughing! :-)
ReplyDeleteThose ten reasons don't solve many problems but they do give a moment of comic relief in addition to another perspective on tired arguments that hold little persuasion.
Another perspective, from another priest:
ReplyDeletehttp://saints.sqpn.com/stj18011.htm
The link in the previous comment (http://saints.sqpn.com/stj18011.htm)
ReplyDeleteleads to a lengthy quote from St. John Vianney. While this quote might perfectly reveal Vianney's piety and spirituality it does not succeed as well in giving us the Church's theology of a priest's ministry. Just for starters, one might wonder about the absence of any mention of the Holy Spirit's role in how Christ becomes sacramentally present in the bread (and cup) of the Eucharist.
Thanks for the explanation of H/T. It brings to mind "A tip of the Hatlo Hat," though I can't remember what that was. I think it used to be in the funny papers.
ReplyDeleteI remember "A Tip of the Hatlo Hat," too!
ReplyDeleteIt was a cartoon titled, "They'll Do It Every Time."
More info here:
http://www.toonopedia.com/theydoit.htm
Thanks, for the Hatlo info. I went to the website. It all came back to me, including the spinoff Little Iodine! You are a great blog reference librarian!
ReplyDeleteAh, yes. This must be in response to the Vatican's recent pronouncement. I am reminded of a truth we knew back when I was active with the Boston Women's Ordination Conference... every time the hierarchy speaks out about the ordination of women, the percent of RCs on the ground favoring women's ordination grows. It's like once the reasons are listed they're so patently silly that any thinking person starts scratching their head.
ReplyDeleteI still remember vividly John McDargh during a (non-BWOC) gathering on the first floor of a brownstone building near NU saying, "It's important that they BE like Jesus, not that they PEE like Jesus!"
Concordpastor: I know you review and approve comments before they appear. Do you have any thoughts to add to the comment made by "piskie"?
ReplyDeleteWhen comments are submitted they come to me first in email form, offering me the options: "publish" or "reject."
ReplyDeleteOver the past 11 months of writing this blog I have rejected fewer than a dozen comments: those containing viral-suspicious links; those containing negative comments aimed at other commentors; recently, those who submit lengthy comments (pages long!) which appear to be portions of unpublished manuscripts.
My publishing a comment does not necessarily mean that I agree with it. If fact, I disagree wholly or partially with many thoughts I publish in the comboxes. Perhaps I have disagreed with comments of Anonymous (just above) but I have no way of knowing that because so many people comment under "Anonymous."
Clearly, Piskie disagrees with the Roman Catholic Church on the question of ordaining women. The publication of her comment here does not indicate my agreement or disagreement with her opinion on the subject.
I doubt that anyone who reads this blog does not know the RCC stand on this question. Those who read with some regularity know Piskie's background and the ministerial path she's pursuing because she has been open enough to share that here.
The post on which Piskie commented was published at my initiative. While having no misunderstanding of Church teaching on the ordination of women, I believe that most of the items in the list of ten reasons not to ordain men do punch signficant holes in arguments often advanced against the ordination of women. The Church's opposition to ordaining women does not rest on those grounds but rather on its teaching that it was not the mind of Jesus to ordain women and that for a priest to be an "alter Christus" he must image Christ even in his gender.
In retrospect, perhaps the comment deserving of response on my part is Anne's (first comment at the top here) since she asks a good question. I believe the CDF came down on hard on this because casual readers of the daily press might indeed have the impression that the ordinations in question were done in the normal course of events by sitting Catholic bishops. I believe Rome wants there to be no confusion about the validity of such ordinations in light of Church teaching. Thus, the strong statements -- and the excommunication is the final exclamation point on the whole affair. Frankly, the CDF did exactly what one might expect the CDF to do - nothing more and nothing less.
It might be of interest to note that of the 13 comments here, 6, about half, are addressed to the question of the meaning of the blog shorthand: H/T!
Concordpastor,
ReplyDeleteThank you for clarifying the Church's reasoning in the matter of ordination. I'm sure most readers understand the position; I doubt if most understand the theological basis of that position, or the logic of John Paul's II definitive ruling on male-only ordination.
I am an occasional reader of the blog and am not familiar with Piskie's path. Her statements, published without clarification, led to confusion in my mind.
Perhaps more context is needed in the com box. And more back and forth on the issues raised. (The Youth Minister's comment above, for example -- how should youth ministers be characterized?)
I read the blog because it is my parish blog.