IRELAND
The Irish Times
April 2, 2018
By Sharon Tighe-Mooney
Rite&Reason: There is no prohibition in the scriptures about women ministering
While there have been important cultural advances for women in terms of their role in society, the one institution that does not appear to have altered its attitude towards women to any great degree is the Roman Catholic Church.
This is despite Pope Francis’s 2013 remarks that women are “essential for the church”.
It seems that it is also “essential” that women remain silent, and the long-held tradition that women should remain silent in church, attributed to St Paul (1 Corinthians 14.34), and now believed by scholars to be a later addition to his letter, continues to dominate the Vatican mindset.
To dismiss this edict as no longer applicable is to underestimate the deep-seated antipathy to hearing the voices of women in the institutional church.
This was epitomised recently when the former president of Ireland, Mary McAleese, was vetoed from speaking at a conference to be held within the Vatican on International Women’s Day.
The objective was to silence her. To be heard, therefore, McAleese had to speak outside the walls of the Vatican.
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