A Pope Who Loves Women
BY: ANTHONY ADAMS.
There is a refreshingly heterosexual aura on Pope Francis. He seems to be a man with a healthy and mature appreciation for real women. This sets him apart from most of the hierarchy comprised of men who are stunted in their visions of women, comfortable with an imaginary Mary-Queen-Of-The-Universe-Star-Of-The Sea-Mediatrix-Of-Salvation, but flummoxed by flesh-and-blood women with whom they shrink from shoulder-rubbing in the halls of church authority. (I will return to why I think Francis is a mature heterosexual at the conclusion of this.)
(Tony Adams was ordained in 1977 after studying for the priesthood at The Pontifical North American College in Rome and at Rome's Gregorian University. He was friendly with the Irish Catholic bishop - John Magee of Cloyne - and was involved in papal ceremonies at The Vatican.
He left the priesthood at the age of 30 and is married to his partner for 33 years. He lives in Florida and is a writer, playwright, critic, columnist, tour guide and wedding officiant.)
There is a refreshingly heterosexual aura on Pope Francis. He seems to be a man with a healthy and mature appreciation for real women. This sets him apart from most of the hierarchy comprised of men who are stunted in their visions of women, comfortable with an imaginary Mary-Queen-Of-The-Universe-Star-Of-The Sea-Mediatrix-Of-Salvation, but flummoxed by flesh-and-blood women with whom they shrink from shoulder-rubbing in the halls of church authority. (I will return to why I think Francis is a mature heterosexual at the conclusion of this.)
Pope Francis has given sudden
evidence of his appreciation for real women in a spontaneous response to a nun
who, during the May 12, 2016 meeting with the 50th anniversary
conference of leaders of religious orders of women (the International Union of
Superiors General) dared to ask him if the Catholic Church might be well served
by women deacons. His answer – akin to his “Who am I to judge?” comment that
temporarily thrilled gay Catholics – might be a slightly opened door to the
ordination of women, albeit at a pace that will probably prohibit the
ordination of any of the nuns present for his response in the Sala Nervi audience
hall that day.
Pope Francis is willing to call for a
study of the idea that women might be ordained deacons. This is significant,
even though it is the same kind of side-stepping that he used when he convened
a pow-wow over the issues of marriage and family. Pope Francis harbours
personal opinions about these matters, but feels that it is his responsibility
to act collegially and to discern the will of God as voiced by his bishops. In
the case of granting Communion to divorced/remarried Catholics or granting
marriage to LGBT Catholics, Pope Francis let his bishops temper what I suspect
was his personal inclination to act more compassionately in those areas.
What does a Roman Catholic deacon do,
and what would be the impact of women deacons. In short, a lot!
A deacon can do everything a priest
can do sacramentally except offer Mass (Eucharist) and grant absolution via the
sacrament of Penance (Confession.) In a twist that is perhaps indicative of the
media-driven time in which we live, reserving the sacramental act of
transforming bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus to male priests
has less impact than allowing women the deacon’s voice, not just proclaiming
the Gospel during Mass but also preaching/delivering the homily. Having women
deacons would mean that the Catholic in the pew on Sunday might receive most of
the vocalized sentiment and truth about God via a woman. The
central mystery of Transubstantiation would be reserved to the male priesthood,
but because it is a mystery, it is already beyond our hearing.
Women proclaiming the Gospel and
preaching the Good News at Mass is really not the biggest impact of allowing
women to be ordained as deacons. The biggest impact might be something Francis
had not thought of when he made his spontaneous response about having the issue
studied. Ordaining women to the diaconate opens the door to naming women
cardinals. This is the bonus round of women’s rights in the Catholic Church and
a place where Church tradition, law, history and progress get extremely
confusing, and where it is impossible to predict how the dominoes set in motion
by the ordination of women deacons may fall.
The historical facts provide more
openness than prohibitions. St Paul mentions the deaconess Phoebe, but how her
authority stacked up against her male counterparts is anyone’s guess. Also, in
the earliest years of the Church, cardinals were not always ordained priests.
They were princes whose authority was practical and temporal. Even today, becoming
a cardinal does not involve a sacrament. In other words, it is the conferring
of an honorific that does not necessitate the flow of grace that comes through
sacraments. Over centuries, the church decided for practical reasons that popes
and cardinals really ought first to be ordained priests/bishops, but it took a
number of Church councils and papal proclamations to hammer out this
restriction. (The Synod of 769, the Papal Bull In Nomine Domini of
1059, the third Lateran Council of 1179 and the revision of the Code of Canon
Law by Pope Benedict XV in 1917 stating that all cardinals must first be
ordained priests/bishops. The last non-priest/bishop cardinal died in 1899.)
Adding to the historical confusion is
the fact that there are three classes of cardinals: cardinal bishops, cardinal
priests and cardinal deacons. These distinctions are rooted in
extinctions involving Roman ecclesiastical infrastructure and authority that
simply do not exist today, even in the Curia. If women can be ordained deacons,
logic would dictate that they can also be made cardinals. Once the College of
Cardinals is populated by a significant number of women, the Catholic Church
will, if it has not yet expired under the suffocating weight of its
recalcitrant patriarchy, be revived by the election of a pope who will dare to
do what is in his/her heart and soul. This proposed study is the type of
leadership that Pope Francis favours. Timid about making sweeping changes, he
is quite willing to plant the seeds of change, trusting that long after he is
gone, good seed will produce good fruit.
Why do I suspect that Pope Francis is
a mature heterosexual? Obscured by all he has said and done in the whirlwind of
his papacy, was an early report about how he, as Cardinal Bergoglio, treated a
widow in Buenos Aires. A predecessor bishop had left the priesthood to marry a
woman. When that bishop died, Bergoglio telephoned the widow every Sunday
afternoon for several years. This very simple gesture goes beyond civility and
indicates his acknowledgement of her value in his own episcopacy. He sought her
out because she possessed something he lacked as a celibate man, something that
might inform his leadership and shape his compassion. That is certainly not the
kind of counsel kept by most of the hierarchy.
Finally, as happy as I am about Pope
Francis’ openness to the ordination of women deacons, he is well acquainted
with how committees work on these matters. When Pope Paul VI set up a committee
to study the regulation of birth, the majority report given to him by Jesuit
Father Josef Fuchs (my moral theology professor at the Gregorian University)
was in favour of allowing parents to make informed conscience-driven decisions.
That report was discarded in favour of a minority report that resulted in Paul’s
1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae saying no to artificial birth
control.
Tossing an examination of the
historical and traditional indicators of the merits of ordaining women deacons
to a committee directed by a bunch of elderly virginal males protective of
their exclusivity is not an encouraging process. We’ll see, if we and the
Catholic Church live long enough.
Meanwhile, I think back upon my time
in the priesthood, knowing that the greatest amount of good I did was through
my presence at key moments in the life of my parishioners, including baptizing
their children, marrying those in love and presiding over funeral rites for the
departed. These are among the responsibilities that would be granted to women
deacons. These are the moments that Catholics never forget. Give women this
kind of voice and authority, and they will be one or two generations away from
full equality in the Catholic Church.
I also recall my years in Rome as a
seminarian. An order of American nuns sent a young woman to Rome the year I was
sent by my archbishop. Sister Barbara attended all the classes I attended at
the Gregorian University for four years. She finished her course of studies
with an award for excellence, but in the course of those years, as I was
received first into the minor orders and then ordained a deacon and finally a
priest, Sister Barbara watched from a pew at every ceremony, praying for her
privileged male friends. She deserved the sacraments I received. Maybe it is
not too late.
Congratulations Tony on this article. One of the best I've read on women in ministry. Thank you for allowing me to reproduce it.
ReplyDeleteIf Pope Francis is heterosexual, then I'm a giraffe.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes you say this?
DeleteI don't think there's any indication or proof concerning ++Francis, but I'm amused by the reference to the giraffe. It's obvious, but I'll say it. Maybe anon @ 10:03 you ought to "wind your neck in" making such unsupported statements.
DeleteAnd Pat, Tony Adams spoke good sense when he described those negative/hostile anonymous comments as a "sewer of trolls".
I also liked another descriptive comment referring to them as lemmings. Very apt.
MMM
Interesting thoughts MMM.
DeleteAt least the lemmings are completely quiet today.
The Union pub must be closed.
His well known passion for the tango, unless it's a deliberate Jesuitical obfuscation, makes speculation about his sexual orientation superfluous. These modern terms "homosexual", "heterosexual" have had unfortunate consequences. Those of us who are natural celibates regret the passing of a world in which intense friendships could be publically acknowledged without all the nudge nudge wink wink that now inevitably attends them.
DeleteCelibate Proud & Happy
A good and thoughtful comment.
DeleteIts good for us to be reminded that there are "natural celibates".
You're a giraffe.
DeleteHello! Somehow an apostrophe has crept into the text. Third to the last graf: "virginal male's" should be "virginal males." Cheers!
ReplyDeleteCorrected :-)
DeleteAt least Tony Adams is honest. Why do priests,of whatever orientation,who are sexually active remain in ministry? It is hypocritical.Catholic priesthood demands celibacy.Publicly they pretend to be celibate but privately they are not.It's very dishonest.Generally, they are living very comfortably from the offerings of parishioners (some of whom are even barred from receiving Holy Communion themselves due to personal circumstances). There is no integrity in this kind of 'witness'. It is living a lie. Better to leave the priesthood and be poor, but at least they'll have some integrity left.Many good men couldn't be priests because they felt they couldn't commit to celibacy.What do they think when they see the hypocrisy of priests who are not celibate and even worse when hierarchs turn a blind eye?
ReplyDeleteTHE RORY COYLE STORY:
ReplyDeleteYou're asking all the wrong questions Pat and haven't caught on to the bigger story yet. You call the Irish News coverage "Sanitised". I would call it extremely "cautious". Get back onto your sources, Pat; what they've told you is a long way short of the full story. You've only been told about one cog in the wheel.
My only source on Rory being on Grindr was the gay man who entrapped him on Grindr.
DeleteMy sources about the pictures / text was a journalist - NOT in The Irish News.
If you can point me in the right direction my email is bishoppatbuckley@hotmail.com
I think entrapment is when someone sets out on purpose to induce someone.
DeleteI thought the younger man just happened across Coyle on Grindr and after recognising him as a priest decided to ‘out him’ for his hypocrisy.
Being outed for hypocrisy is fair game. Not so sure about entrapment.
You are right. I stand corrected.
DeleteSince it is clear I am not the only one to know the full stretch of the story I will leave it to the other informed commentators to give you the details. I think worldwide viral might be over egging it slightly, but it will certainly cast a few 'high and mighty' individuals from their thrones.
DeleteI know nothing of the involvement of Dundalk. The stretch to which I refer is not geographic. It is more individual oriented. It sounds like Dundalk Dan has even more details that I have been privy too and I thought I had enough to blow the wind up a few cassocks as it was. Perhaps Dan will share his intelligence with this blog's author and let him know what has been going on. I look forward to tomorrow's installment of the scandal to compare it with what I know.
DeleteYou may want to attempt to re-connect with the young "outter" Pat. I guarantee he knows more than he seems to have told you. Haven't you seen the transcript for yourself? It's all there. No doubt the Irish News will wait for another outlet to break the full extent of the story and pile on in behind them rather than take the risk of going solo with it. Otherwise, as you say, it will remain locked in their vault to protect those involved.
DeleteAnon. @ 17:36, to out Coyle for his hypocrisy, or to make loads o' money out of his hypocrisy?
DeleteI doubt if that young gay man's motive for outing Rory Coyle was as noble as you seem to think.
I'm glad you have been alerted. There is much much more to the Coyle story. You've only scraped the top of an iceberg !! This hasn't even started yet. I'm surprised you haven't been appraised of the whole goings on. When you find out your blog will go viral.
ReplyDeleteGo for it Pat.
Dundalk Dan
DD, can you point me t.in the direction?
DeleteExcellent Article Tony, Thank you Pat for posting it.
ReplyDeleteYou can breathe a sigh of relief today as the 'Unionist Lemmings' obviously jumped off that cliff ;-)
I think DD is trying to tell you Pat that this is not the first time Rory Coyle has caused admiratio and that his history is more colourful and there is a bigger scandal awaiting birth.
DeletePP Armagh.
Now we are getting somewhere. Thanks PP Armagh.
ReplyDeletePat you may well find there are "colourful" clerics in this presbyterate as well as D&C- if not more so by the time this is all " out in the open"
Moy Marty
Its certainly beginning to look like that.
DeleteWas Dundalk not Rory's first parish?
DeleteIf I'm reading between the lines correctly it looks like one Coyle was "functioning" but another coil wasn't????
ReplyDeleteCollegelands Cathy
Maybe RuRu the Red is going to call time on all his other clerical Grindr-ites in Armagh, Down and Connor, Clogher, Dromore, Derry....????
ReplyDeleteObservers in the Fortwilliam area of Belfast report midnight oil being put into lamps in a big house on Somerton Road. Could Timmo be preparing the PR brief to defend the indefensible ?
ReplyDeleteI see the secret of Timmo's involvement is out !!! Good man Pat !!!
ReplyDeleteWE have had a woman deacon for quite a few years in my old parish in the N E of England, you would nearly think that this was something new, then again Ireland is quite a few years behind England in everything spiritual at the moment.
ReplyDeleteYou have many claims to fame, including a Cardinal living exile in the N E of England.
DeleteI will read tomorrow's edition of this blog with extreme anticipation!
ReplyDeleteHomophobes
ReplyDeletePriest + Grindr = Hypocrite.
Delete