What we do does not define who we are. A functional reduction of the sexes to roles within a power structure is not the identity or purpose of the Church.
So-called feminist Catholics betray either a lack of faith or an alien agenda when they attack the church with demeaning and insulting terms such as “mysognist”.
The statement from the Catholic Women’s Council sounds nothing more than a plug for abortion:
“Women are still denied basic equality in the Church, given to us by God in Baptism (Gal. 3:28), because Canon Law forbids the ordination of women on the basis of their sex, thereby keeping them out of all decision making in the Church even when it comes to making decision about women’s sexuality.”
There is absolutely nothing in Church teaching in matters of faith and morals that is demeaning to women. Rather the opposite: it uplifts women.
CWC is responding negatively to a women’s day conference organized by the Australian ambassador to the Holy See at which it appears Vatican Curial officials, men, are speaking.
It is a lie to say men and women are not “equal” because men only are priests or that the power of the priesthood for saving souls through the sacraments is somehow lacking in any way until women also are able to do it. The which is impossible.
Catholics in the true sense of that word define the Church’s identity as the Body of Christ, in which Christ the God-Man speaks and all of us human beings of faith, men and women, humbly listen to Him together.
Chantal Goetz, of the seemingly misnamed organization Voices of Faith, commented on the current proposed speaker list for the event from a perspective outside of faithfulness:
“.. this kind of format, where mainly men speak and women listen, is seen as an insult to many Catholic women.”
That’s the “format” of the Church, for Christ the God man speaks and all of us, men and women, listen to Him together. Priests, in the person of Christ, have a role of service within that structure so that the voice of Christ can be heard within the Mass, for example, in the preaching or the homily and seen and received through the confection of the Eucharist.
How can women who believe that only women can speak to women possibly be Catholics? In the Church the God-Man speaks to all of us, Jesus Christ in Whom we are to place all our trust, He whom we must love with all our hearts.
If that kind of “format” is unacceptable to a person then he or she needs to change his or her mind before they can be authentically Catholic, in the integral sense of the Faith, without which one cannot be Catholic.
Women also speak for Christ in many ways: in their vocations, in the many roles of service as wives and mothers, religious and celibate consecrated women. They do not have to speak in the Mass, although in many places they already do so in violation of liturgical norms, in order to be equal to men in the sense of dignity as God’s image or as members of the Body of Christ.
Women can always do something that men can never do and that is to conceive in their wombs and bear a child. It was never God‘s plan to make man and woman exactly the same in every aspect.
So-called feminist Catholics who use a calculus of power to view the priesthood and then demand that they be given the priesthood or otherwise they won’t have power are beating a pagan drum and repeating a trope from the world of unbelief.
Sister Deirdre Byrne, who served as an Army officer doctor, surgeon and then became a religious woman and religious superior, can be said to be “powerful” but only because she is a woman of service, selflessly seeking to further the Body of Christ by furthering the physical and spiritual welfare of others.
If any woman could be said to be powerful, it is Sister Dede, who imitates the Blessed Virgin Mary, the most powerful woman in history who never became a priest.
Although I don’t advise doing so, the whole bitter screed can be read here: https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/13866/women-object-to-lack-of-women-at-women-s-day-event
In photo: Sr Dede Byrne speaking at Sacred Heart Catholic Church to hundreds of Catholics on February 19th, 2021.
