Pope Francis is wrong to declare female priests a ‘closed question’

Rite & Reason: Many Catholics who do not fit in a patriarchal, hierarchical, model of church feel a deep sense of exclusion

Soline Humbert

Sun Oct 1 2023 – 00:30

Recently in Marseilles Pope Francis admonished us – quite rightly – not to treat migrants as hot potatoes. But what about those of us who are being treated as hot potatoes in the church? Too hot to handle and therefore left out in the cold of no-woman’s land. Our crime? Migrating into the sacred space men have reserved for themselves alone – the presbyteral ministry, or priesthood.

The place of women in the church has surfaced as one of the big issues confronting the Catholic Church today, and with it their continued exclusion from ordination to both the diaconate and the priesthood.

However, the issue of female priests was filtered out, “discerned out”, in the working document for the synod of bishops about to start in Rome. Pope Francis has declared it a closed question.

The truth is that where there are open wounds, there are open questions. And there are plenty of open wounds in members of the church, wounds from which the life blood of the church is haemorrhaging. A church that would aspire to be a field hospital needs to address these wounds and take responsibility for inflicting them. This applies especially to church leaders. Survivors of clerical sexual abuse and cover-up have revealed to us how a church built on inequality and power is abusive and cannot be a credible witness.