17. Error Has No Rights

An Argument Against Priestesses

"Closing discussion upon th subject of women's ordination is a violation of free speech."

As I do not accept the first point as giving the issue legitimacy, I fail to see how free speech ever enters into the picture. Am I allowed to cry out "Fire!" in a crowded theater, even when there is none, causing unrest and deaths by the stampeding crowds. No. If there is no such thing as a female priesthood, will my saying there is make it so? No. If women were ordained anyway, as the Anglicans are doing, would this not endanger the spiritual lives of God's people, cutting them off from a legitimate and valid Eucharist? Yes. This point falls, as does its infernal author through eternity, on the same grounds as does that contention of Father Charles Curran. What suddenly is at stake here is a view of ecclesiology and the right of the Magisterium to demand assent even upon issues which might not be formally and infallibly defined as yet. Interestingly enough, many of the same ones who are critics of the Church when their own particular pet views are threatened are quick to commend the Church when it defends its doctrinal integrity against others, i.e. errors about Eucharist and errors about the Trinity and divinity of Christ. A priest friend from the diocese of Peoria was in the initial stages of a book which he hoped would show that the male-only priesthood is infallible due to a consensus in the universal ordinary Magisterium; unfortunately, all kidding aside, he passed away last year. I think his premise is correct.