Catholic Church must rethink all-male priesthood

By Douglas W. Kmiec
San Francisco Chronicle
August 21, 2018

https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Catholic-Church-must-rethink-all-male-priesthood-13172724.php

In this Sept. 24, 2015, file photo a member of the clergy prays the rosary as he waits for Pope Francis to arrive at St. Patrick's Cathedral for evening prayer service in New York. Across the U.S., Catholics once faithful with their financial support to their churches are searching for ways to respond to the constant sex-abuse scandals that have tarnished the institution in which they believe, with back-to-back scandals in the past two months. Photo by Mary Altaffer

No amount of monetary damages can compensate the victims of clerical sex abuse; plus the money wrongly hurts the impressive social justice work of the Catholic Church. No, an appropriate act of contrition requires that the episcopal level of the American Catholic Church submit to the holy father its resignation en masse, allowing Pope Francis, if in prayer he discerns it necessary, to clean house.

But even that would be insufficient; the modern Catholic Church must really rethink its bias for an all-male seminary and priesthood, and how that plays right into a corrupting and tragic illness that targets male adolescents. In 90 percent of the cases, the abuse is directed at boys ages 12 through 19.

The option of a married priesthood as well could reduce the predatory environment. Of course, these are profound doctrinal matters — separate and apart from the abuse — but ending the clerical monopoly on church leadership is long overdue. In the secular culture, excluding on the basis of gender has proved to be premised largely upon animus. Inside the church, such discrimination may well aggravate the ultimate abuse of the body of Christ.