New evangelization will never be possible without women who are proud and happy to belong to the Catholic Church, the president of the Belgian bishops\u2019 conference told the Synod of Bishops.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo-thirds of active members of the church are women,\u201d and the primary evangelizers are usually women, \u201chowever many women feel discriminated against by the church,\u201d Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard of Mechelen-Brussels told the synod Oct. 9.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s high time\u201d the church better explain why only men may be ordained, he said.<\/p>\n
It is not because women are looked upon as being less worthy or able to minister to others, \u201cit\u2019s absolutely the contrary,\u201d the archbishop said.<\/p>\n
The priesthood is open only to men \u201cbecause the male figure of the priest is a representative of Christ, the groom, who came to wed humanity\u201d through his spouse, the church, he said.<\/p>\n
A male priesthood \u201cis only out of respect for this profound symbol of marriage,\u201d Archbishop Leonard said. \u201cLet us remember and remind the church of her profound feminine nature as the bride of Christ and our mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
The archbishop spoke forcefully and with emotion, said Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, who briefed reporters about what occurred in the synod hall. The speech was a bit of a \u201cshocker,\u201d said one synod participant, because the archbishop is considered to be very conservative.<\/p>\n
Archbishop Leonard asked everyone to give thanks for \u201cthe quality and the specificity of the massive contribution of women to evangelization.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout joyous women who are recognized for all of their qualities\u201d and who are proud of belonging to the church, \u201cthere will be no new evangelization,\u201d he told synod participants.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Read more. <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catholic News Service has details from the remarks made Tuesday: New evangelization will never be possible without women who are proud and happy to belong to the Catholic Church, the president of the Belgian bishops\u2019 conference told the Synod of Bishops. \u201cTwo-thirds of active members of the church are women,\u201d and the primary evangelizers are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,39],"tags":[1271],"class_list":["post-17580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-evangelization","category-pope","tag-synod"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n