Wednesday, December 14, 2005 at 1:01am
Are conservative Catholic women presently functioning as priests?
There should be no illusions about Catholic women functioning as priests in the contemporary Catholic Church. Or should there? Might it be an illusion that women do not already so function, albeit not in the formally ordained priesthood?
The Vatican II document on the Church, Lumen Gentium, recognizes that all the baptized participate in the one priesthood of Jesus, though the ordained differ from the non-ordained "in essence and not only in degree." In the popular mind, this might be reduced to the ability to share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ through the administration of sacraments.
Do Catholic women administer sacraments?
Most Catholics realize that anyone with the right intention and using the right formula and ritual can baptize in case of the danger of death. Usually this would be the case of the endangered new-born in a hospital. Women baptize.
Secondly, few Catholics recognize that the ordained do not marry them. The ordained witness to the laity's mutual administration of the sacrament upon each other, but strictly speaking they do not administer the sacrament of marriage.
In the Sunday night movie scenario (because everyone is going to live happily ever after), the engaged Catholic couple survives the downed airplane in the jungles of Brazil. Other survivors go in other directions to seek help. The engaged couple, after days or weeks of fruitless search, fear for their survival, and formally recite the marriage vows and consummate the marriage. Since this is a Sunday night movie, they are of course found the next day.
When they return home to great joy all around, and the follow-through on their arranged wedding plans, they will re-affirm what happened in the jungle. But what happened in the jungle was formal, valid, and licit, celebration and administration of the sacrament of marriage. One has to have the exceptional circumstances of the crash and the jungle to validate the sacrament, since proper form and witnesses are otherwise necessary for the sacrament to be valid and licit. But they were sacramentally married in the jungle.
The point is that the dramatic exceptional situation only underscores what is true of every Catholic marriage, and what Catholicism understands as the heart of any valid marriage: two members of the laity administer the sacrament of marriage.
For two thousand years, of those exercising the priesthood of Christ by administering the sacrament of marriage, fifty-percent have been women.
Central to the Catholic active exercise of the priesthood of Christ is the administration of sacraments. Women administer sacraments.
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Dr. George Gilmore is professor of humanities at Spring Hill College. His email address is {email ggilmore@shc.edu}ggilmore@shc.edu{/email}. © copyright 2005 by George Gilmore.
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UPI Religion & Spirituality Forum is a big tent for all expressions
Of faith and spirituality, neither excluding nor favoring any.
All opinions expressed belong to the writer alone, and are
not necessarily shared by UPI Religion & Spirituality Forum.
The Vatican II document on the Church, Lumen Gentium, recognizes that all the baptized participate in the one priesthood of Jesus, though the ordained differ from the non-ordained "in essence and not only in degree." In the popular mind, this might be reduced to the ability to share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ through the administration of sacraments.
Do Catholic women administer sacraments?
Most Catholics realize that anyone with the right intention and using the right formula and ritual can baptize in case of the danger of death. Usually this would be the case of the endangered new-born in a hospital. Women baptize.
Secondly, few Catholics recognize that the ordained do not marry them. The ordained witness to the laity's mutual administration of the sacrament upon each other, but strictly speaking they do not administer the sacrament of marriage.
In the Sunday night movie scenario (because everyone is going to live happily ever after), the engaged Catholic couple survives the downed airplane in the jungles of Brazil. Other survivors go in other directions to seek help. The engaged couple, after days or weeks of fruitless search, fear for their survival, and formally recite the marriage vows and consummate the marriage. Since this is a Sunday night movie, they are of course found the next day.
When they return home to great joy all around, and the follow-through on their arranged wedding plans, they will re-affirm what happened in the jungle. But what happened in the jungle was formal, valid, and licit, celebration and administration of the sacrament of marriage. One has to have the exceptional circumstances of the crash and the jungle to validate the sacrament, since proper form and witnesses are otherwise necessary for the sacrament to be valid and licit. But they were sacramentally married in the jungle.
The point is that the dramatic exceptional situation only underscores what is true of every Catholic marriage, and what Catholicism understands as the heart of any valid marriage: two members of the laity administer the sacrament of marriage.
For two thousand years, of those exercising the priesthood of Christ by administering the sacrament of marriage, fifty-percent have been women.
Central to the Catholic active exercise of the priesthood of Christ is the administration of sacraments. Women administer sacraments.
— — —
Dr. George Gilmore is professor of humanities at Spring Hill College. His email address is {email ggilmore@shc.edu}ggilmore@shc.edu{/email}. © copyright 2005 by George Gilmore.
UPI Religion & Spirituality Forum is a big tent for all expressions
Of faith and spirituality, neither excluding nor favoring any.
All opinions expressed belong to the writer alone, and are
not necessarily shared by UPI Religion & Spirituality Forum.