We might well ask here if there was not some confusion between the priesthood
properly speaking, which conforms a man to Christ, the one and only Priest, the
Bridegroom of the Church (cf. Pastores dabo vobis, nn. 12, 16), and the
various forms which ministry took on in the ancient Church: prophecy, catechesis
(didascalia), pastorate, diaconate. The ecclesial communities which
accept the ordination of women to the ministry do not recognize a ministerial
priesthood and they thus ordain to a ministerial function rather
than to a priestly state. For the Catholic Church, the priest is in the Church
and for the Church as a sacramental representation of Christ, the one high
Priest of the new and eternal covenant: he is a living and transparent image of
Christ the Priest. He is a derivation, a specific participation and an extension
of Christ himself (Pastores dabo vobis, n. 12). For this reason, it is
natural that as a "sacrament" of Christ the Priest, the Catholic priest should
correspond precisely with Christ himself, in his nature as man.
It should
come as no surprise that non-Catholic ecclesial communities that do not have
this sacramental conception of the priesthood accept the idea of ordaining women
to the ministries of the word and of Church leadership which do not imply a
sacramental configuration to Christ in his whole person. This merely emphasizes
the difference existing between the Catholic sacramental priesthood and
non-Catholic ecclesial ministry.
One could speculate about ministries
that would correspond to the nature and the charisms of woman and which could be
of great service to the Church. One can say that there are two ministerial
profiles in the Church: the apostolic and Petrine one, which stands at the
origin of the sacramental priesthood of the presbyterate and the episcopate, and
the Marian one of spiritual maternity, of contemplation and intercession (cf.
Address of John Paul II to the Roman Curia, 22 Dec. 1987). It is to this Marian
profile of the Church that we should look to discover in depth the role of woman
in the Church and her possible ministry. "This link between the two profiles of
the Church, the Marian and the Petrine, is therefore profound and complementary.
This is so even though the Marian profile is anterior not only in the design of
God but also in time, as well as being supreme and pre-eminent, richer in
personal and communitarian implications for individual ecclesial vocations"
(Address to the Roman Curia, 22 Dec. 1987 n. 2; L'Osservatore Romano
English edition, 11 Jan. 1988, p. 6).
Catholic Tradition is rich in
all these forms of woman's ministry and the Holy Spirit could reveal others for
the needs of our time.
How many nuns and women religious have exercised
this ministry of spiritual motherhood, contemplation and intercession! How many
communities, how many secular institutes, how many movements today are
discovering this ministry of woman, religious and lay, which, without being the
sacramental priesthood, serves Christ and today's Church in the Marian line of
ministry.
It is absolutely necessary to preserve and develop in the Church, which is a
mother, the characteristic of femininity which is of her essence. To confer the
ministerial priesthood on women would contradict their proper nature and the
specific gifts which they possess. "By virtue of this consecration brought about
by the outpouring of the Spirit in the sacrament of Holy Orders, the spiritual
life of the priest is marked, moulded and characterized by the way of thinking
and acting proper to Jesus Christ, Head and Shepherd of the Church, and which
are summed up in his pastoral charity" (Pastores dabo vobis, n. 21). It
is clear that the ministerial priesthood as it has been conceived for centuries
does not conform to the proper nature of woman.
It is in the Marian
nature of the Church, as Virgin, Bride and Mother, that the source of women's
vocations and ministries in service to the Church should be sought.
It is
rather striking to see how the ecclesial communities which are more orientated
toward the pastoral consecration of women are those which have no experience, or
only very limited experience, of the monastic or religious life. On the
contrary, for the Catholic Church the monastic and religious life is an immense
field in which the feminine ministries serving the Church flourish. Today the
communities of modern foundation, the secular institutes, the spiritual
movements at the heart of the Church are offering new possibilities for
vocations and ministries in the Church to women, whether they are single or
mothers of families.
In the light of the Marian nature of the Church as
spiritual Mother, vocations and ministries proper to women can be identified in
great numbers in the Church. The ministry of woman is characterized by spiritual
motherhood: gifts of acceptance, spiritual discernment, counselling, etc. The
contemplative life and the spiritual combat of intercession are also among the
specific gifts of the Christian woman who can be led to exercise a true ministry
of leadership in the heart of the Church. Could not the catechetical ministry be
further improved, and even the ministry of preaching on the part of women, not
to mention teaching theology?
The coming Synod on religious life will
have an immense field for reflecting on how to develop all the potential of
women's ministry in the Church as a complement to the ministerial priesthood of
presbyters.
Text from
L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition
in English
24 March 1993
Scanning and formatting courtesy of
The
Newman Center at Caltech