Mary and the priesthood of all believers

• All the baptised, including women, share in Christ’s common priesthood.
• Luke’s Gospel presents Mary as a ‘new priest’ in Christ.
• Tradition confirms that the common priesthood of the faithful in Mary implies openness to the full ministerial priesthood.
• We need new liberating images of Mary, and of the priesthood.

All the baptised, including women, share in Christ’s common priesthood

All the faithful share in Christ's priesthood.

Christ the Lord, High Priest taken from among people (cf. Heb 5,1-5), "made a kingdom and priests to God his Father" (Rev 1,6; cf. 5,9-10). The baptized, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood.

Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, no 10.

Christ abolished the Old Testament priesthood based on the sacrality (=presumed holiness) of times, places, cultic objects, priestly descent. Christ instituted a priesthood in whose basic dignity all the baptised share. Christ’s new ‘priesthood’ extends to all believers.

The fact that all the faithful share in this common priesthood of Christ carries, as a necessary implication, that they can, through the sacrament of Holy Orders, also share in Christ's ministerial priesthood. This applies to both men and women, since both equally share in Christ's priesthood through baptism.

Luke’s Gospel presents Mary as a ‘new priest’ in Christ

Capability to receive the ministerial priesthood lies implicit in the general priesthood of the faithful. The principle applies in a special way to Mary. And although Mary never performed the eucharistic ministry, as Rome stresses repeatedly, Mary possessed to an eminent degree that integration with Christ's common priesthood which would have made her a natural ministerial priest.

This is brought out especially in St. Luke's Gospel. Luke emphasizes the role of women in the Early Church. He obviously envisages an active role for women in the apostolate. In this context Luke presents Mary as an example of a ‘new priest’ in Christ.

Tradition confirms that the common priesthood of the faithful in Mary implies openness to the full ministerial priesthood

Tradition has regarded Mary as a full priest, including the graces and powers implied in the ministerial priesthood. When confronted with the Church’s ban on women priests, Tradition formulated the solution that Mary possessed the full ministerial priesthood ‘equivalently and eminently’.

I interpret this Tradition as confirming what we have stated above, namely that the common priesthood of the faithful of necessity implies openness to Holy Orders, for both men and women.

We need new liberating images of Mary, and of the priesthood

A great obstacle to our understanding both our Christian ‘priesthood’ and Mary’s exemplary role in it, lies in deep-seated cultural fears. This is brought out very well by Tina Beattie in Mary the Virgin Priest?

Traditional depictions of Mary emphasise her submissive obedience. They are heirs to Augustine's argument that if the purest woman in the world was obedient to a husband of lesser virtue, then the quality of a woman's subordination was the index of her chastity. We need truer images of Mary as Kim Power shows in Re-imagining Mary at Christmas.

Overview of documents in this section

Tradition Mary - why a priest? Theologians and writers Picture gallery Mary and Holy Orders Mary as sacrificial priest Mary, the model of priests

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Read the books that complement our website:

The Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church. Unmasking a Cuckoo's Egg Tradition This book by John Wijngaards, published by Darton, Longman & Todd (UK), Continuum (USA), Media House (India), as well as in Italy, France, Holland and Japan, is a classic on the topic. More information here. Reviews

Women Deacons in the Early Church. Historical Texts and Contemporary Debates Another classic by John Wijngaards published by Canterbury Press (UK), Crossroad (USA), and Berne (Netherlands). More information here. Reviews

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