![\"2013-04-27T235550Z_1442936219_GM1E94S0LSV01_RTRMADP_3_USA-RELIGION-WOMENPRIESTS\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2016\/03\/2013-04-27T235550Z_1442936219_GM1E94S0LSV01_RTRMADP_3_USA-RELIGION-WOMENPRIESTS-300x203.jpg\")
An essayist\u00a0in L\u2019Osservatore Romano\u2013\u00a0the Vatican paper\u2013suggests that women should be allowed to preach at Mass.<\/p>\nAn essayist\u00a0in L\u2019Osservatore Romano\u2013\u00a0the Vatican paper\u2013suggests that women should be allowed to preach at Mass.<\/p>\n
On Facebook, popular \u201cPublic Figure\u201d Fr\u00a0James Martin agrees.<\/p>\n
I wholeheartedly agree. Not hearing women reflecting on the Gospels at Mass impoverishes us, limits us, and prevents us from hearing the wisdom and experience of fully half of our church. I am reminded of this every time I hear a woman reflect on her experiences of the New Testament\u2013particularly on stories like the Annunciation, the Nativity, and all the interactions that Jesus ever had with women: with Mary Magdalene, with Martha and Mary, as well as with the woman at the well, the Syrophoenician woman, the woman caught in adultery, the woman with the flow of blood, and on and on. This is not to say that women cannot reflect on all the Scriptures\u2013and on every single one of the stories in the Old and New Testaments\u2013but we are especially impoverished by not having women reflect on stories that are about women in particular.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Of course the Scripture specifically forbids this. I Timothy 2:12 St Paul says, \u201cI do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ouch. Not exactly what the feminists wanted to hear.<\/p>\n
Which raises the interesting question of how this \u201cdifficult passage\u201d should be interpreted. Shall we take it literally or is this one of those passages where we say, \u201cThat was then. This is now.\u201d Lest we become too fundamentalist, all of us do this all the time, else we would not let our women have braided hair, wear gold jewelry or pearls\u2026for St Paul also says in the same chapter, \u201cI also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Considering the dress sense of most of the modern nuns I\u2019ve met they are quite happy complying with the second of St Paul\u2019s bits of advice while ignoring the first.<\/p>\n
Seriously, should women be allowed to preach at Mass? Like most feminism, this seems wrong headed to me. Why should a person have something worthwhile to say simply because he is a man or she is a woman? Surely the question is not about their sex, but whether they have the theological and Biblical education, know how to teach or preach and can do it well. (Mind you\u2013such criteria would exclude a good number of the ordained men I fear)<\/p>\n
It is true, some people are not permitted to preach at Mass, but they are not prohibited simply because they are female. No one is permitted to preach who is not ordained. Most men are also not permitted to preach. Only priests and deacons are authorized to preach at Mass. Women are excluded not because they are women, but because they are not priests.<\/p>\n
Should qualified women be allowed to teach the faith and \u201cpreach\u201d? Sure. There is nothing stopping them. \u00a0Just not at Mass.<\/p>\n
Fr Martin has a good point too. A woman probably does bring special insights to Biblical passages about women. It wouldn\u2019t be a bad idea to hear those ideas. But not at Mass because preaching at Mass is reserved to the priest or deacon.<\/p>\n
Could a woman be a good preacher? You bet.<\/p>\n
Have you ever heard Johnette Benkovic speak? She\u2019s a more powerful evangelist than most priests I know. Remember Mother Angelica in her heyday? She was one heckuva preacher. Mother Teresa packed a punch and so did all the great female saints. In our own day most of the CCD teachers are women. Most of the Directors of Religious Education are women.<\/p>\n
So where did we get the idea that women are not allowed to preach and teach?<\/p>\n
Sorry. This is just another sneaky ploy by weary old 1970s liberals to push the women\u2019s ordination agenda.<\/p>\n
They want women to preach at Mass so they will eventually be ordained deacons so they will then be ordained as priests.<\/p>\n
These folks should troop on home and curl up with a good Vatican document like Inter Insigniores<\/a> and\u00a0Ordinatio Sacerdotalis<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An essayist\u00a0in L\u2019Osservatore Romano\u2013\u00a0the Vatican paper\u2013suggests that women should be allowed to preach at Mass. On Facebook, popular \u201cPublic Figure\u201d Fr\u00a0James Martin agrees. I wholeheartedly agree. Not hearing women reflecting on the Gospels at Mass impoverishes us, limits us, and prevents us from hearing the wisdom and experience of fully half of our church. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":21460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Should Women Preach at Mass?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An essayist\u00a0in L'Osservatore Romano--\u00a0the Vatican paper--suggests that women should be allowed to preach at Mass. On Facebook, popular "Public Figure"\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/03\/should-women-preach-at-mass.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should Women Preach at Mass?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An essayist\u00a0in L'Osservatore Romano--\u00a0the Vatican paper--suggests that women should be allowed to preach at Mass. On Facebook, popular "Public Figure"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/03\/should-women-preach-at-mass.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-03T01:43:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2016\/03\/2013-04-27T235550Z_1442936219_GM1E94S0LSV01_RTRMADP_3_USA-RELIGION-WOMENPRIESTS.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1517\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/03\/should-women-preach-at-mass.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/03\/should-women-preach-at-mass.html\",\"name\":\"Should Women Preach at Mass?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-03T01:43:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-03T01:43:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad\"},\"description\":\"An essayist\u00a0in L'Osservatore Romano--\u00a0the Vatican paper--suggests that women should be allowed to preach at Mass. On Facebook, popular \\\"Public Figure\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/03\/should-women-preach-at-mass.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/03\/should-women-preach-at-mass.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/03\/should-women-preach-at-mass.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Should Women Preach at Mass?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/dwightlongenecker.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/author\/frdwight\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Should Women Preach at Mass?","description":"An essayist\u00a0in L'Osservatore Romano--\u00a0the Vatican paper--suggests that women should be allowed to preach at Mass. On Facebook, popular \"Public Figure\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/03\/should-women-preach-at-mass.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Should Women Preach at Mass?","og_description":"An essayist\u00a0in L'Osservatore Romano--\u00a0the Vatican paper--suggests that women should be allowed to preach at Mass. On Facebook, popular \"Public Figure\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/03\/should-women-preach-at-mass.html","og_site_name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","article_published_time":"2016-03-03T01:43:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1517,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2016\/03\/2013-04-27T235550Z_1442936219_GM1E94S0LSV01_RTRMADP_3_USA-RELIGION-WOMENPRIESTS.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/03\/should-women-preach-at-mass.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/03\/should-women-preach-at-mass.html","name":"Should Women Preach at Mass?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-03-03T01:43:26+00:00","dateModified":"2016-03-03T01:43:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad"},"description":"An essayist\u00a0in L'Osservatore Romano--\u00a0the Vatican paper--suggests that women should be allowed to preach at Mass. On Facebook, popular \"Public Figure\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/03\/should-women-preach-at-mass.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/03\/should-women-preach-at-mass.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2016\/03\/should-women-preach-at-mass.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Should Women Preach at Mass?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g","caption":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/dwightlongenecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/author\/frdwight"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/557"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}