Priestesses Would Be Unfeminist?
There are lots of good reasons why the Catholic Church has not and will never ordain women to the priesthood. There are also some screwy reasons floating around. One of the screwiest we’ve ever seen showed up in Envoy magazine (vol. 5.3) in the Q&A column by Brian Wilson, a priest who belongs to the Legionaries of Christ.
According to Fr. Wilson, “When Jesus looks at a woman, what He first sees is His Spouse — His Church — for whom He gave up His life.” Wilson adds that Jesus “also sees His Spouse in every man, but not in so ‘blatant’ a way. A woman is a more perfect ‘icon’ of the Church…. A man is a better ‘icon,’ in this same sense, of Christ, the Priest….”
Wilson says that Christ “came to serve” and “He still wants to serve,” and He does this through priests, for “the priesthood is essentially service….” Jesus, according to Wilson, still says to His Spouse, “Sit down at the table, and I will serve you.” And so in the Church, claims Wilson, “everything happens in a way contrary to what has been the norm in human society, where typically the men sit down and the women serve.”
Get it? If we had women priests, women would be serving, and that’s not properly feminist. Wilson manages to stand with the Church and with feminism at the same time. Clever! But too clever by half.
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