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The Papal "No": A Comprehensive Guide to Vatican's Refusal of Women's Ordination
A Catholic Press Association Award-winner, The Papal "No" is a unique book in contemporary literature concerning the Roman Catholic Church's increasingly controversial exclusion of women from priesthood. Requiring no background knowledge and written in clear and accessible language, The Papal "No" assembles virtually all the major Vatican documents on women's ordination, exploring responses to them by theologians, educators, bishops, lay Catholic groups, and others. Along the way, it offers explanations of concepts such as "reception" and "subordinationism" that are unfamiliar to many readers. With an appendix of twelve key documents numbered for easy reference, helpful glossary, and endnotes for scholars, The Papal "No" is the most complete resource ever to appear on one of the most pressing issues in the Catholic Church today.
300 pages, Paperback
First published September 25, 2004
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February 1, 2012
It lives up to its subtitle!
This book is a necessary resource for understanding the debate regarding women's ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood. Halter provides all the critical documents in a robust collection of appendixes, and follows the debate chronologically with useful, germane reflection. The twin virtues of this book are its reasonableness and comprehensive resourcefulness.
This book is a necessary resource for understanding the debate regarding women's ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood. Halter provides all the critical documents in a robust collection of appendixes, and follows the debate chronologically with useful, germane reflection. The twin virtues of this book are its reasonableness and comprehensive resourcefulness.
September 18, 2024
A MARVELOUS HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE FIGHT FOR WOMEN'S ORDINATION IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Deborah Halter is the former editor of a diocesan newspaper and executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference (WOC), as well as a lecturer in world religions at Loyola University in New Orleans. She wrote in the Preface to this 2004 book, "'Good Catholics' traditionally have not questioned Rome, at least not openly. But after Vatican II... some 'manly' women...and sympathetic men began to ask questions... Why CAN'T women be priests? Where DOES the Bible say women can't be ordained? Where does the Bible say that Jesus ordained ANYBODY? As their questions grew more complex the Vatican's replies took on more and finer points... Lay Catholics were left further out of the ever-tightening loop.
"This book, then, is intended for anyone who wishes to understand Rome's refusal to ordain women to the priesthood, but who lacks the theological background... or the vast amount of time necessary for extensive research... Although I have no call to priesthood, I've a lifelong yearning to see young girls aspire to be priests, to see women celebrate mass, and to be ministered to by women and men... I cannot accept Pope John Paul II's verdict that this subject is closed to discussion. The call to serve Christ and God's people can never be silenced." (Pg. xiii-xiv)
She observes, "Opponents of women priests have suffered the decline of the male-only priesthood within the church while seeing more and more parishes run by women, leaving many traditionalist Catholics---especially women---uncertain of their own place in the church. The reality is that women are more likely than men to oppose women's ordination. In 1974, 35 percent of the men and 25 percent of the women polled in the United States favored women priests. IN 1985, 51 percent of the men and 44 percent of the women wanted female clergy." (Pg. xiv)
She points out, "When the Second Vatican Council convened in 1962, a Roman Catholic could still pick up the Catholic Encyclopedia, published in 1914, and read that women were 'inferior in some respects to men both in body and soul.' ... After nearly two millennia of this reasoning, it was epoch-making when the Second Vatican Council denounced anthropological subordinationism: 'All women and men are endowed with a rational soul and are created in God's image; they have the same nature and origin and, being redeemed by Christ, they enjoy the same divine calling and destiny; there is here a basic equality between all and it must be accorded ever greater recognition.'" (Pg. 22)
She notes, "as John Paul II amplified his opposition to women's ordination, WOC members helped form a coalition of about thirty women's groups, which... would become 'Women-Church Convergence,' a loosely organized, ecumenical, feminist group. By the end of the decade, this new group had aligned itself with the secular women's movement. By its third meeting in 1983, the Women-Church Conference brochure did not use the word 'Catholic.'" (Pg. 33)
She states, "The 1983 Code of Canon Law... Published eighteen years after the close of Vatican II... reflected the egalitarian spirit of that council while maintaining the male-only priesthood... It also continued to ban women from the nonordained ministries of lector and altar server, while still providing for the 'installation' of lay men to these ministries... However... the Code allowed lay 'persons' to 'fulfill the function' (but not the formal ministry) of lectors and altar servers 'by temporary deputation' according to the 'necessity of the Church' and when qualified ministers (males) were "lacking'..." (Pg. 65)
She documents that "By the late-1990s, more than 80 percent of all parish administrators in the United States were women, and women held 47 percent of the nation's diocesan administrative and professional positions. Some of these women... mistook their limited access to ministry for full participation in the church..." (Pg. 100)
She laments, "Twenty years ago, Rosemary Radford Ruether conducted an informal survey that showed 'it was fairly common for Catholic women who obtained M.Div. ... degrees to switch to a Protestant denomination to become ordained ministers.' Certainly today, Episcopalians and Lutherans, among others, are familiar with former Catholic women who are now their priests, ministers, and seminarians. In 1994, Jane Redmont astutely observed, 'Disaffection and leaving. Disaffection and staying. Either way, Christian unity is affected.' Mostly, Roman Catholicism is affected." (Pg. 169)
This enormously informative book will be "must reading" for anyone wanting to know more about the issue of ordination of women in the Catholic Church.
Deborah Halter is the former editor of a diocesan newspaper and executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference (WOC), as well as a lecturer in world religions at Loyola University in New Orleans. She wrote in the Preface to this 2004 book, "'Good Catholics' traditionally have not questioned Rome, at least not openly. But after Vatican II... some 'manly' women...and sympathetic men began to ask questions... Why CAN'T women be priests? Where DOES the Bible say women can't be ordained? Where does the Bible say that Jesus ordained ANYBODY? As their questions grew more complex the Vatican's replies took on more and finer points... Lay Catholics were left further out of the ever-tightening loop.
"This book, then, is intended for anyone who wishes to understand Rome's refusal to ordain women to the priesthood, but who lacks the theological background... or the vast amount of time necessary for extensive research... Although I have no call to priesthood, I've a lifelong yearning to see young girls aspire to be priests, to see women celebrate mass, and to be ministered to by women and men... I cannot accept Pope John Paul II's verdict that this subject is closed to discussion. The call to serve Christ and God's people can never be silenced." (Pg. xiii-xiv)
She observes, "Opponents of women priests have suffered the decline of the male-only priesthood within the church while seeing more and more parishes run by women, leaving many traditionalist Catholics---especially women---uncertain of their own place in the church. The reality is that women are more likely than men to oppose women's ordination. In 1974, 35 percent of the men and 25 percent of the women polled in the United States favored women priests. IN 1985, 51 percent of the men and 44 percent of the women wanted female clergy." (Pg. xiv)
She points out, "When the Second Vatican Council convened in 1962, a Roman Catholic could still pick up the Catholic Encyclopedia, published in 1914, and read that women were 'inferior in some respects to men both in body and soul.' ... After nearly two millennia of this reasoning, it was epoch-making when the Second Vatican Council denounced anthropological subordinationism: 'All women and men are endowed with a rational soul and are created in God's image; they have the same nature and origin and, being redeemed by Christ, they enjoy the same divine calling and destiny; there is here a basic equality between all and it must be accorded ever greater recognition.'" (Pg. 22)
She notes, "as John Paul II amplified his opposition to women's ordination, WOC members helped form a coalition of about thirty women's groups, which... would become 'Women-Church Convergence,' a loosely organized, ecumenical, feminist group. By the end of the decade, this new group had aligned itself with the secular women's movement. By its third meeting in 1983, the Women-Church Conference brochure did not use the word 'Catholic.'" (Pg. 33)
She states, "The 1983 Code of Canon Law... Published eighteen years after the close of Vatican II... reflected the egalitarian spirit of that council while maintaining the male-only priesthood... It also continued to ban women from the nonordained ministries of lector and altar server, while still providing for the 'installation' of lay men to these ministries... However... the Code allowed lay 'persons' to 'fulfill the function' (but not the formal ministry) of lectors and altar servers 'by temporary deputation' according to the 'necessity of the Church' and when qualified ministers (males) were "lacking'..." (Pg. 65)
She documents that "By the late-1990s, more than 80 percent of all parish administrators in the United States were women, and women held 47 percent of the nation's diocesan administrative and professional positions. Some of these women... mistook their limited access to ministry for full participation in the church..." (Pg. 100)
She laments, "Twenty years ago, Rosemary Radford Ruether conducted an informal survey that showed 'it was fairly common for Catholic women who obtained M.Div. ... degrees to switch to a Protestant denomination to become ordained ministers.' Certainly today, Episcopalians and Lutherans, among others, are familiar with former Catholic women who are now their priests, ministers, and seminarians. In 1994, Jane Redmont astutely observed, 'Disaffection and leaving. Disaffection and staying. Either way, Christian unity is affected.' Mostly, Roman Catholicism is affected." (Pg. 169)
This enormously informative book will be "must reading" for anyone wanting to know more about the issue of ordination of women in the Catholic Church.
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