Friday, March 9, 2007
Sister Sara Butler Now Against Womens' Ordination


This is an excerpt from The Journal News. Above all, Catholics cannot believe that women should be ordained because it is not possible (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis).
Polls generally show that 50 percent to 60 percent of Roman Catholics in the United States believe that women should be eligible for the priesthood.

Sister Sara Butler understands this impulse - because she once felt the same way. In 1978, she headed a task force of the Catholic Theological Society of America that came out in support of female priests.

But as she continued her work as an increasingly prominent theologian, her thinking began to change. Now, in a new book - "The Catholic Priesthood and Women: A Guide to the Teaching of the Church" - she attempts to explain the underpinnings of the all-male priesthood to doubters and skeptics who think the way she used to.

"The tradition is traced to the will of Christ, not to decisions made by the church," Butler said last night at St. Joseph's Seminary, where she has taught for four years.

The church's teachings must be better explained, she said, because many Catholics see the all-male priesthood as a symbol of patriarchal power and sexism, and many more who stay silent are probably befuddled.

"Their confidence in the church's teaching authority has been badly eroded," she said.

Several hundred priests, nuns, seminarians and lay visitors greeted Butler with sustained applause, a measure of their respect for her and their approval of the church's position.

Critics of the all-male priesthood were in short supply.

2 comment(s):

del_button March 10, 2007 at 4:19 PM
Anonymous said...

I totally agree with all-male priesthood. I'm a young, female UK Catholic, well travelled, well educated - liberal education. Just the sort of stereoptype who lazy theologians assume will dissent from this view. All I know is that there are plenty of examples in Scripture where we are exhorted to pray for our leaders. St Paul invites his hearers to pray for him, for example. How many critics of priests pray for them regularly, decline from criticism and actively aim to support and help them? It's easy to slate leadership. Let's be different and support and encourage those who are trying to guide us on the path of salvation. I know I am thankful for these men who give their lives so that I can receive the priceless riches of the sacraments, such as mass and reconciliation, just for starters!

del_button May 27, 2010 at 4:55 PM
Anonymous said...

Had our Lord made priestly ordination open to women, what better "priest" could there ever have been than his own mother Mary? Mary had a role in salvation history. Being ordained was not it. Does this lessen her importance? Not in the least!

Post a Comment



Copyright Notice: Unless otherwise stated, all items are copyrighted under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. If you quote from this blog, cite a link to the post on this blog in your article.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links on this blog are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate, for instance, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made by those who click on the Amazon affiliate links included on this website. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”