UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
Vatican. Vatican. Vatican. Women. Women. Women. (“Equal” but Different and Subordinate.)
The Vatican’s Pontifical Council on Culture (whose members are all cardinals and bishops) will discuss women tomorrow. And for several days after that. And as Kaya Oakes says (see the tweet above), this is the image their website is using to advertise their discussion?
The conference’s working document states that the group won’t discuss the issue of women’s ordination since women don’t want that — they don’t want ordination. Women want, the cardinals and bishops doing the discussing inform us, some kind of “equality” which recognizes that they are distinctively different from men.
Here’s the wonderful response of the Women’s Ordination Conference to this toxic silliness:
The document claims that there will be no discussion on women’s ordination because “according to statistics, [ordination] is not something that women want.” This undeniable falsehood and the Vatican’s refusal to open dialogue shows contempt for the faithful and demonstrates that as a leadership, the male hierarchy is out of touch with the people it is called to serve. Many qualified women, with the support of their communities, discern vocations to priesthood, and yet the hierarchy is comfortable in rejecting the obvious: God does not discriminate.
The document divides humanity into socially-constructed stereotypes and attempts to say they are “natural,” with corresponding gender-defined roles. This thinking and language have been challenged and rejected in scholarship for decades, and are wildly culturally and spiritually unacceptable. Human beings exist on multiple continuums, with intersectional identities: without including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people, this document denies the full humanity of God’s people.
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