Madam, – Mary Condren’s intemperate call (Opinion, July 26th) for women priests to be legally foisted on the Catholic church is little more than an open call for persecution of the church.
It is sheer hubris on her part to declare that the Vatican document Normae de Gravioribus Delictus is the last straw for women — who appointed her to speak on behalf of women?
It is also simple-minded to assume women speak with one voice on this issue. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Rev Joseph O’Leary would welcome the ordination of women in the Catholic Church but unless these ordinations are carried out according to existing canonical law they “are a crime against the sacraments” (July 24th). This category of crimes against sacraments is a new one for many of us and it shows how church authorities can reinforce injustice and prejudice against women by categorising their “illegal” ordination as an offence in canon law.
However, the reality is that the continued exclusion of women from the priesthood in the Catholic church is a crime against the dignity of women and their God-given right to be full members of the church of Christ.
The Pope is guilty of a failure to recognise and indeed promote this right of women’s ordination. In the civil sphere, women in the past had to disobey unjust laws of the state to gain their emancipation. Equally in the church women should exercise “holy disobedience” and not be put off by being legally categorised as “criminals against the sacraments”.
When we have enough ‘illegally’ ordained women then the Vatican will have to negotiate with them to integrate the into their rightful place in the church.
In the meantime, I am looking forward to listening to the American Bishop Mary Meehan who will address the forthcoming Humbert Summer School and who knows, while here she might help the emancipation of women in the Catholic church by ordaining women into the church of God. – Yours, etc,