On July 14, 2014, the Church of England voted to allow women to become bishops. “Today is the completion of what was begun over 20 years ago with the ordination of women as priests. I am delighted with today’s result,” said Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the world’s 80 million Anglicans. (Reuters)
Roman Catholic Church leaders have criticized the Church of England’s historic vote. “The decision of the Church of England to admit women to the episcopate therefore sadly places a further obstacle on the path to this unity between us,” read a statement by Archbishop Bernard Longley, Chairman of the Department of Dialogue and Unity, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. (Christian Post)
Many Catholics, as well as conservative members of the Anglican Communion, maintain that women should not serve as priests and/or bishops, since Jesus Christ selected only males to serve as his apostles. (Christian Post)
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Reality check, what about Mary Magdalene? She is usually thought of as the second-most important woman in the New Testament after Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary Magdalene traveled with Jesus as one of his followers. She was present at Jesus’ two most important moments: the crucifixion and the resurrection. Within the four Gospels, the oldest historical record mentioning her name, she is named more than most of the apostles. The Gospel references describe her as courageous, brave enough to stand by Jesus in his hours of suffering, death and beyond. (Wikipedia)
Mary was most prominent during Jesus’ last days. When Jesus was crucified by the Romans, Mary Magdalene was there supporting him in his final moments and mourning his death. She stayed with him at the cross after the other disciples (except John) had fled. She was at his burial, and she is the only person that all four Gospels say was first to realize that Jesus had risen and to testify to that central teaching of faith. John and Mark specifically name her as the first person to see Jesus after his resurrection. Indeed, she was the “Apostle to the Apostles”, an honorific bestowed upon her by fourth-century orthodox theologian St. Augustine, among others before him. (Wikipedia)
Yet, the Roman Catholic Church has the following eloquent explanation sealed by the Pope’s infallibility:
In his Apostolic Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis (1994), the Holy Father Pope John Paul II, declared that “the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.” This definitive statement leaves no “wiggle room” for those who would like to continue debating the question. As the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made clear in 1995, the statement that the Church has no authority to ordain women as priests, is not merely a matter of Church discipline (which can be changed), but belongs to the deposit of faith (which cannot). “This teaching requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium 25, 2). Thus, in the present circumstances, the Roman Pontiff, exercising his proper office of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), has handed on this same teaching by a formal declaration, explicitly stating what is to be held always, everywhere, and by all, as belonging to the deposit of the faith” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Concerning the Teaching Contained in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis).
This Apostolic Letter alludes to the reasons given in the Declaration Inter Insignores, by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1976. They include, in addition to the testimony of Scripture and Tradition, the example of Christ, who though counter-cultural in many respects, continued Israel’s tradition of a male priesthood in reserving the Office of Apostle to men. That the Apostles did not regard this as a divine oversight is evident from the fact that they themselves ordained only men. And so the Church has continued this Sacred Tradition down to the present. (EWTN)
What a crock of highfalutin bull-shit that conveniently ignores and disregards the example of Christ and Mary Magdalene. More importantly, even in the hypothetical absence of Mary Magdalene in the Scriptures, the Roman Catholic Church’s position to continue a tradition of male priesthood over 2000 years ago as “belonging to the deposit of the faith” is so utterly incongruous in light of the advancement of social mores in the global community, including more progressive views and attitudes toward the roles of men and women in society, over the past couple of millennia.
Woman as homemaker
Man as homemaker
Men as factory workers
Women as factory workers
Man as breadwinner
Woman as breadwinner
Men in the military
Women in the military
Male pilots in the air force
Female pilots in the air force
Men as priests and bishops
Women as priests and bishops–NOT ALLOWED BY THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
The following pictures of Muslim women completely covered in burqas are prime examples of a repressive and oppressive religious practice that may have been commonplace 2000 years ago but clearly has no place in our society today—much the same way the Roman Catholic Church’s refusal to allow women priests and bishops clearly has no place in our society today. In the words of British Prime Minister William Gladstone when he publicly attacked the dogma of papal infallibility conjured at the First Vatican Council nearly 150 years ago, “arbitrary tyranny” and “a crime against liberty hidden beneath a suffocating cloud of incense.”
Then why are those Anglicans are Joining the Ordinariate(a special Diocese for Anglican Converts to Catholicism)?
Josemaria, those Anglicans are headed in the wrong direction if they are converting to Catholicism because of women priests and bishops in the Anglican Church.
There is a Gospel of Mary Magdalene; a Gospel of the Apostle Philip; and even a Gospel of the Apostle Judas Iscariote…many more Gospels removed for the Christian Bible New Testament. In the Old Testament; there is another version of the Book of Genesis; a Gospel of Enoch, etc…
Why these Gospels and Books were not removed. I don’t know.
Religion has a place in the 21th Century; if and only if, we advance in our practice of faith. However, if we cling to the religious traditions, interpreted 2,000 years ago. Religion will become, out of place; as mankind advances in knowledge and technology.
This is the reason, we have people who commit suicide bombings of the infidels; with the belief of receiving a reward of: 72 virgins in Pradise (How can you handle 72 wives?). And,we have women dressed in burqas; and people sentenced to flogging and death, if they convert to other religion.
I believe freedom with responsibility to do good; and faith go together; for the advancement of mankind. We should also advance in faith as we advance in Science and Technology…
It should read : “Why these Gospels and Books were removed.” ” I don’t know.”
HT, Amen to that.
Organized religion has been used for various reasons over time. The need for the major world religions to change with the times and to be flexible and develop with the times is a primary reason that social norms do not progress/change as rapidly as they could.
it may very well be time for people to abandon organized religion altogether,no? it appears to be the source of half the world’s problems as well as the justififying reason for all sorts of nastiness,including murder.
The secular world awaits the hypocritical zealots that justify their nastiness through these organized institutions.We won’t be mad when you arrive at your sense’s but if you’ve broken the law…….
Thom Hardy:
It is debatable on the use of Organized Religions in our times. There are positive and negative effects of Ordanized Religions in this Age of Information Technology.
Religion is used by some as a panacea of all the evils in their lives. In others, it is used as a tool of control of followers. In some, it is an insane tool.
With promises of followers of Heavenly rewards in a Paradise. Some with 72 virgins, in Paradise. Others, with Eternal Happiness; maybe like those On High in “Shabu” forever.
And if if do not follow; you are supposed to go to Eternal Damnation in Hell. Where the Fire burns you eternally. It is insanity if you think. Like in the Iglesia ni Kristo (INC); if you don’t vote for the political candidates choosen by Bishop Manalo. You will be “tiwalag”, and spend your Eternity in Hell. If this is the case. I don’t want to believe in an insane God…
@ HT , I was being nice, LOL!!! the laughability of the belief in the ‘Invisible Man’, HA! it is beyond preposterous!
This is not to say that there is not a ‘God’, or a higher spirituality/divine creator BUT LET’s FACE IT: Anyone alive today that thinks they have any idea of what that is, is just fuckin nuts!!! and for people to bow done in ritualistic praise of these ‘Invisible Man” is hysterical!!!
Have you ever seen a dog watch a bunch of people praying? They get the look on their faces as if they are thinking:”What are these idiots up to now?”. Superstition is for idiots as well.
Or how about that good old standby:”It is written..” and then some pompous douchbag gets all high and mighty as if God has come down from the sky and actually written something in a book that everyone knows was written by a human being, but hey, ‘IT is written..”, whatta load of shit.
if you ever get the chance read :Chapter 2/The Odor of Sanctity’ from the book “The Brothers Karamazov’ by Dostoeyevsky, it puts religion in its place. I mean, read the whole book while your at it….mind expanding, really is.
@ Virtual Vigilante: Bro, how about an up-date on the goings on with Enrile, Estrada and the other guy? Revilla, is it? Are they still in Jail? If so, where? and has Enrile been allowed out for medical reason’s?(Compassion, ugh! where was ‘Jonny’s’ compassion when he threw thousand’s in prison from ’72-’82, the POS)…and how bout evryone’s favorite butchers: The Amputuans? Are they still in jail? and how is the case going against them? It is not funny how SC CJ Corona can be impeached in less than 6 weeks and Mass murdering scumbags, like the Amputuans, are yet to stand trial 5+ years later and are probably not even in their cells.
It is really a disgrace to the memories of the victims of that slaughter for this lack of prosecution to continue. Just thinking of this makes me want to puke all over the “Honorable” scumbags responsible for this charade.
Thom Hardy, I too have an episode of vomiting wheneven I chance upon a status report on the Ampatuans.
It’s July 9, 2013. This is over a year ago. No one has been convicted since the hearings began in January 5, 2010. Witnesses and their relatives have been hunted down one after another. Ampatuan sells eight (8) big properties. Kin of massacre victims agree to settle with Ampatuans.
It reads like a storybook from hell. There is no other way to characterize the situation other than a failure of government. Was there any doubt that the Ampatuans were responsible for the massacre? This was and remains an open-and-shut case. Yet, the Ampatuans continue to lord over their entire criminal enterprise. They continue to dictate who lives and who dies. And worse, they prostitute the kin of the massacred. These monsters are still around doing their darnedest to save their despicable asses, while raping and defecating on Lady Justice each excruciating step of the way.
When government has failed, what do we, the citizens, do with a perversion like the Ampatuans? We exterminate them ourselves (e.g., detonating a couple of hundred kilos of dynamite or TNT wherever they are kept in between court appearances should do the trick) or we seek the help of another perversion, the National People’s Army or NPA for short. We implore the NPA. Make yourselves useful and boost your public relations ratings. Exterminate the Ampatuans once and for all—the more, the better.
@ V.V. WOWO!!! LOL, no mincing words, direct and to the point…OUTSTANDING!!!
Another sad point is that the Amputuans are probably not even in their jail cells most of the time, if ever!
Thanks for the update. U know whenever that one scumbags face ( Jr.,is it?) is in the news with that contemptible sneer on his mug….OH BOY THAT GUY NEEDS A BEATING!!!
The government is proving it is a failed state.