8. Theological Authorities

An Argument Against Priestesses

"Most theological authorities favor an examination of women's ordination."

Is this true? And if it is, so what? How about these authorities?:

O. Semmelroth speaks about this issue in terms of a pictorial representation of the redemptive encounter between Christ and humanity in the Church. Thus, in the Eucharist, there is a sacramental reflection of the "rite of heavenly sacrifice" in which the oblation of Christ and the "participating" sacrifice of Mary on Calvary has eternal validity before the heavenly Father. The exercise of ecclesiastical office is characterized as a male role and the function of the congregation is female. Semmelroth observes: "What Paul writes in the fifth chapter of Ephesians about the relation of husband to wife is to a high degree valid for the relation between the priest and congregation, for the latter is a relationship which like that of marriage -- yet even more realistically -- reflects the relationship between Christ and Mary." Another insight is that Christ, the bridegroom and head of the Church-- the life-giving principle for the Church-- could not, in fact, be represented by a woman who is subject to man and could not be called like him, the head. Just as the man is ideally the head of the home, and the woman, its heart, (and I see few people walking around with only one or the other), most of our people constitute the heart of the Church while the priests represent its head. Women's ordination would destroy this Scriptural analogy.

E. Krebs writes: "As father, spouse and bridegroom, Christ stands vis-a-vis his Church. . . . But being father and bridegroom is the role of the male. So there is in the priesthood a mystical relationship to maleness, by which we can clearly see that Christ has entrusted this masculine office to the male."

M. Schmaus writes, and you really should get his series of books now reprinted: "Thus [as in the case of Christ] the fact that the priest is a man is in itself a natural indication of his commission to go out into the world and proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, to give the sacraments and so confer divine life in a creativity effected by the power of Christ. The place of women is rather to receive life and to take care of it." Refutations to these arguments, which I have also read were, like yours, not overly convincing.