New Yorker article: The Women Who Want to Be Priests

Discussion in 'The Signs of the Times' started by TinNM, Jul 21, 2021.

  1. TinNM

    TinNM Guest

    The Women Who Want to Be Priests | The New Yorker

    The Women Who Want to Be Priests
    They feel drawn by God to the calling—and won’t let the Vatican stop them.

    By Margaret Talbot

    June 21, 2021
    Soline Humbert was a seventeen-year-old studying history and politics at Trinity College in Dublin when she first felt a calling to enter the priesthood. She did not welcome it. A cradle Catholic who was born and raised in France, Humbert knew that in the Roman Catholic Church only men could be priests—it was an indisputable rule anchored in official teachings and traditions. This was in the early nineteen-seventies, and in other religions, and in society at large, women’s roles were being recast under the influence of second-wave feminism. Most of the major Protestant denominations had already either recognized the ordination of women or were moving toward it. Reform Judaism had just ordained its first female rabbi. But the Catholic Church, so ingrained with symbols, held fast to the notion that a priest must bear a physical resemblance to Christ in order to stand in persona Christi. Vatican authorities often noted that Jesus chose only men as his twelve apostles—the model for the priesthood and for the foundation of his church. Moreover, his omission of the Virgin Mary from those ranks meant that women could be revered without being ordained. Other Christian traditions found countervailing inspiration in the knowledge that Christ picked Mary Magdalene to witness and proclaim the Resurrection—and in Catholic theology she was sometimes known as the apostle of the apostles. But the Vatican did not see that story, or stories of Christ’s openness to women, as justification for allowing them into the priesthood.

    Humbert told me that the sudden conviction that came over her was profoundly dislocating. It felt like “a delusion rooted in pride, or in a rejection of my female nature and of God.” She was a capable, grounded person: she had weathered the death of her beloved mother from cancer, when she was twelve, and she had moved from France to Ireland on her own. Now she wondered if she was losing her mind. She saw a psychiatrist, then confided in a chaplain, who laughed at the idea. Finally, she began to pray: “Do not call me—your Church doesn’t want me.”

    Humbert tried to put her sense of vocation behind her. She graduated from college, earned an M.B.A. and a master’s degree in theology, and got married and had two sons. She worked as a management consultant and volunteered at her local diocese, as a marriage counsellor. Then, one day in 1990, the yearning came back, like a dormant volcano that resumes rumbling. She was happy with her husband, Colm Holmes, a businessman who had a warm, twinkly manner and easygoing, egalitarian convictions—he’d grown up on stories of his great-aunt, a suffragist. Their boys, eight and six, were flourishing. There was nothing outwardly, or even inwardly, wrong with her life, except for her enormous longing to serve God by preaching the Gospel, hearing confessions, and blessing the bread and wine of the Eucharist. She went to tell the archbishop of Dublin, thinking that, given the dwindling supply of priests, he might be glad to know that God was calling women. Humbert recalls, “He told me, ‘Why do you want to be a priest? You could be a saint.’ And I said, ‘Well, I could be a priest and a saint. Men can be both.’ ”​

    Continued at link above, if anyone has any problem reading the full article, I can email you it. It's actually an interesting story, not beating a drum about it.

    I was just passing it on, it's from June of this year.
     
  2. garabandal

    garabandal Powers

    No thanks - don't know why you bothered posting this on an orthodox Catholic forum.
     
    Mary's child, BrianK, AED and 2 others like this.
  3. Clare A

    Clare A Archangels

    “Nothing outwardly or inwardly wrong with her life.” After her two sons she has used NFP then.

    She wants to be a married woman priest in the church?

    Satan is the father of lies.
     
  4. TinNM

    TinNM Guest

    Well, heck, you said penance was living a happy life or something, no thanks to your remarks either. Hardly orthodox. "Don't sin and live a good life" I think, that's hardly orthodoxy.

    But if you get your kicks from insulting others, have at it.

    And it talks about St. Therese Liseiux talking of having that desire to become a Priest, I didn't know Satan was her father.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 22, 2021
  5. PurpleFlower

    PurpleFlower Powers

    I read the whole article and have so much to try to atone for now.

    You know, one thing to ponder anew from this article is how easy it is to mistake your own or the devil's voice as that of God.
     
  6. PurpleFlower

    PurpleFlower Powers

    St. Therese was speaking poetically with words of love when she mentioned wanting to be a priest. She also wished to be a fighter, a doctor, a missionary, an apostle, a martyr...in short, she wanted to be EVERYTHING for Christ. She had an innocent and holy envy for the priest's ability to hold Christ lovingly in his hands and give Him to others, but she also spoke of her envy of the humility of St. Francis in choosing to remain a lowly brother instead of a priest, saying she would have chosen this as well.

    These words of love are so far removed from the hubris compelling these women to choose disobedience and excommunication--thus losing their souls if they die in this state --to be "priests" because they feel they'd make really good ones and women shouldn't be "held down" by a "misogynistic," "dying" Church.
     
  7. TinNM

    TinNM Guest

    Nonetheless, I found it interesting what seemed to be the inner life of these two women mentioned. How they felt called, even with the first woman living in Dublin rejecting the call and how Saint Teresa Lisieux, the little flower felt similar inclinations.

    Not condescengly lecturing others per I am such a Traditionalist bad@$$ on this.

    No one is advocating, I thought their experiences were worth noting.
     
  8. AED

    AED Powers

    Its sometimes helpful to get a glimpse into the distorted thinking of these poor women. But it is incredibly disturbing and disheartening to read.
     
  9. PurpleFlower

    PurpleFlower Powers

    We should be careful to remember that the telling of their story serves an agenda we know to be in a spirit of disobedience to the Church. Just as how they twisted St. Therese's words to make it seem as if she wanted to literally be a female priest (completely false), they can easily twist the description of their "call" as being something from God, when it wasn't.

    There's a reason we need the teachings of the Church and the spiritual guidance of faithful priests to aid us in our discernment. It is often difficult to distinguish the true voice of God from ourselves and the devil. The way these women tell the story of their "call" sounds just like the supposed drive of homo- and transsexuals to embrace their "true selves." The devil is very cunning, and often very convincing. Even those of us with a strong faith should only read articles like this with great caution (I prayed the St. Michael prayer as I did), because the devil works through these articles to manipulate the emotions and plant small seeds of doubt.
     
  10. BrianK

    BrianK Powers Staff Member

    There’s a world of difference between defending an orthodox Catholic forum and being traditionalist.

    Calling for orthodox Catholicism on a Catholic forum is not being a “Traditionalist bada$$.” One needn’t be a traditionalist to expect orthodoxy.

    Every forum member here has a right to expect NOT to be hounded by the heterodox and apostate outside world.
     
  11. josephite

    josephite Powers

    Bishop Fulton Sheen tells us why women can not be priests in this brilliant video below.
    The whole video is worth listening to, as the Venerable Bishop explains so much theological truth, if you go to the 15 minute mark, he explains why women can not be priests. Its beautiful.
     
  12. TinNM

    TinNM Guest

    Like it or not, from the article, these women, at least that one from Dublin receives what sounds like "private revelation" as well. :rolleyes:

    So, if one entertains, unapproved private revelation, well guess what? These are too. So, maybe if one is to listen to messages that are not approved like Garabandal, these might be in the same category. Of course, it would help to read the article.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 22, 2021
  13. TinNM

    TinNM Guest

    This is largely why I think one of the most worthwhile causes, per donations and so on, are Convents for Nuns, at times, they are the most self-sacrificing of all, not withstanding that I like many people, had some rather strict nuns in school. But that's just the way it was. Nuns change their names in many cases if not all, do hard work. So, maybe one has a direct relationship with the subject, rather than to just dump on someone. They may have a very real interest.

    Thanks for the Apologetics lesson. Here's another source.

    Why Can't Women Be Priests? | Catholic Answers

    I never would have known it was against Catholic teaching. :rolleyes:
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 22, 2021
  14. josephite

    josephite Powers

    Dear TinNM,
    I thought the explanation of why God wants only "male" priests by Bishop Fulton Sheen, was so illuminating and theologically sound that I wanted us all to know.
    Because I too have struggled with the question of why woman cannot be priests. Especially in my younger years.

    The explanations I recall over the last 50 years, from priests and Bishops, did not really cut it for me, as the explanations never got to a humanly understandable truth and most explanations seemed patronising or bordered on chauvinism.

    I realised, however, that Jesus had intended His priests to be male from the beginning, but I also wondered whether there was a humanly understandable reason for this or was it to be accepted as a supernatural truth that we would only understand when in heaven? Either way I accepted this truth.

    To be given human understandable reasons with theological evidence is such a blessing!

    By posting Bishop Fulton Sheens explanations of this question, I wanted to expose and highlight the theological truths he gives, because many faithful Catholics have searched for answers to this question over many years. Here, amazingly, Bishop Fulton Sheen answers our questions succinctly and without any theological contradictions. Thank you Lord Jesus, for giving us our dear Bishop Sheen.

    As a btw, at the moment I am dealing with some sufferings, hence I have not been on the forum much over the last 5 to 6 weeks. Like BrianK I have increasingly asked for sufferings to atone/alleviate Our Lords grievous passion. Even though this seems like a silly thing to do, however Like Brian I will not renege on these, praise God for His sustenance. I can attest that....The Lord is Faithful.

    Many wonderful members of the MoG forum have been accommodating with prayers and encouragement, I know the graces they wrought are included with what sustains me, so thank you all.
    I wish I had time to reply and update all. Maybe one day God Willing, I can.

    We will remain strong under Our Lady's Mantle and St Joseph's Cloak. Amen
     
  15. BrianK

    BrianK Powers Staff Member

  16. AED

    AED Powers

    God bless you Josephite. May the Lamb of God sprinkle the lintel and door posts of your soul with His Precious Blood for protection strength and perseverence.
     
  17. padraig

    padraig Powers

    Offering up mass this morning. You are very,very brave.
     
  18. padraig

    padraig Powers

    Men and women are so very,very different. The older I get the more I rejoice in this. Different but complimentary.

    One of the saddest things I have seen happening as I get older is that the line between men and woman becoming more and more blurred, with men wanting to become more like women (witness the 'Gay' phenomena) and women wanting to be like men (witness Feminism).

    A man who cannot be happy and at peace in his own skin at being a man or a woman happy and at peace in her own skin at being a woman will never be happy about anything.

    They will constantly be strangers in a strange land.
     
    BrianK, josephite, Clare A and 4 others like this.

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