The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church
Unmasking a Cuckoo’s Egg Tradition

by John Wijngaards

Darton, Longman & Todd, London 2001, ISBN 0-232-52420-3. 204 pages, £ 10.95.
Also published by Continuum International Publishing, New York.

Table of Contents

Part I: Setting the Scene

1. The Discovery
2. Papal Teaching on Slavery
3. A Time for Speaking
4. The Focus of this Book

Part II: Claim and Counter-claim

5. The Mismatch in Vision
6. The Assessment of Believers
7. Naming the Culprit

Part III: Cross-examining the Evidence

8. The Arguments Found in 'Tradition
9. Not Created in God's Image?
10. Not Allowed to Teach?
11. Carrying the Burden of Eve's Sin?
12. Deliberately Left Out by Jesus Christ?
13. Not Human Enough to Represent Christ?
14. Not Man Enough to Represent the ‘Groom’?
15. Verdict on the Presumed 'Tradition' 122

Part IV: Picking Up the Pieces

16. Genuine Tradition
17. Nine Centuries of Women Deacons
18. The Reality of Women Deacons
19. The Devotion to Mary as Priest
20. Women with a Priestly Vocation
21. Unmasking the Intruder
22. The Way Forward

Appendix: Sources of Official Texts
Notes

• The ‘Cuckoo's Egg’ Hypothesis
• How to Order
• Reviews