The crumbling of the institutional Church prejudice against
women
The crumbling of the
institutional Church prejudice against women
Cultural prejudice against women had been building up in
the Catholic communities during the first
millennium. In the early Middle Ages this became the Church’s
institutional prejudice when it was enshrined in Church Law. The
beginnings of this we can see in Gratian’s first collection of Church
Law (1140 AD).
In our own time, spurred on by the emancipation of women in secular
society, the institutional prejudice of the Church has begun to crumble. But we
are still far from its total collapse. Women are still excluded from the
ordained ministries in the Catholic Church.
These are, of course, relaxations of ridiculous prohibitions. They do
not address the real issue of women’s equality in Christ that should open
the way to women’s admission to all ministries. But the momentum cannot be
stopped. In time to come it will be seen that it was as ridiculous to keep
women from presiding at the Eucharist, as it was to keep them from singing in
Church or serving at the altar!
Positions now open to
women
Present Church law forbids women to be clerics and so deprives all
women of clerical offices which require the power of order or the power of
jurisdiction [=church governance] (can. 219, §1 & 274 § 1).
On the other hand, Church law allows women to be appointed to many new
tasks and responsibilities that were closed to them in the past. It
demonstrates again how the institutional prejudice is crumbling.
Church law allows women:
To be a member of the pastoral council of the diocese (can. 512
§ 1) and of the parish (can. 536 § 1).
To be full members of provincial councils of bishops (can. 443 §
4), diocesan synods (can. 463 § 2 & 1.5), the finance committee of the
diocese (can. 492 § 1) and of the parish (can. 537).
To be a financial administrator of the diocese (can. 494).
To be consultors on the appointment of parish priests (can. 524) and
the appointment of bishops (can. 377 § 3).
To preach in a church or oratory though not the homily (can. 766).
To be catechists (can. 785) and to give assistance to the parish
priest in the catechetical formation of adults, young people and children (can.
776).
To assist at marriages under certain conditions (c.1112).
To assist the parish priest in exercising the pastoral care of the
community, as parish assistants, or as chaplains in hospitals, colleges, youth
centres and social institutions (can. 519).
To be to be entrusted with a parish because of a shortage of priests
(can. 517 § 2).
To administer certain sacramentals (can. 1168).
To hold offices in an ecclesiastical tribunal, such as being judges
(can. 1421 § 2), assessors (can. 1424), auditors (can 1428 § 2),
promotors of justice and defenders of the marriage bond (can. 1435).
To hold the diocesan offices of a chancellor or a notary (can. 483
§ 2).
The parallel in other
Churches
It is instructive to study the dates from which
Churches opened up to women as ministers:
1852 United Church of Christ 1863 Universalist
denomination, now Unitarian Universalist Association 1865 Salvation
Army 1911 Mennonite 1914 Assemblies of God
1920s Some Baptist denominations 1939 United Methodist
Church. (African Methodists had ordained women for decades.) 1956
Presbyterian Church (USA) 1972 Reform Judaism. 1970s
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 1976 Episcopal
Church 1994 Church of England
Conclusion
Cultural prejudice is slowly breaking down, also in the Catholic
Church. The prejudice is still kept in place by Church authorities clinging to
flimsy arguments that have no real foundation. The
official Church will not be able to shore up its untenable opposition to the
ordination of women for much longer.
Other examples showing the crumbling of the institutional bias
against women:
