Doubling down on the call from Pope Francis at the opening of the Synod of Bishops last Fall to resist “doctrinal rigidity,” four feminist theologians were invited to the Markey Center at Santa Clara University on February 29th to participate in their own conversation, titled “Women Speak on the Synod: a Conversation on Ministry, History, Culture and Practice”.
Committed to discussing—yet again—the possibility of an expanded role for women in ministry in the Church, the theologians gave presentations to a sparsely attended gathering of fewer than 20 individuals, emphasizing Pope Francis’s invitation to “embrace a vision of the Church that is open and welcoming to all.” All four of the presenters at the Santa Clara Synod were indeed “open and welcoming” to many ideas—including some that are counter to the teachings of the Church.
The first presenter, Elyse Rabey, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Theology at Santa Clara University, set the stage by providing what she described as the history of synodality in the Church, stating that “Pope Francis is reviving an ancient form of governance and reimagining it at the same time…making it quite new.” Lauding the fact that Pope Francis invited lay women and laymen to have full voice and vote in these meetings, Rabey reminded the audience that Pope Francis has stressed that synodality is about more than synods. Rather, synodality is about a “Church that is always reforming.”
Rabey, whose curriculum vita states that she has published “on the possibility of women deacons in the Catholic Church”, has also published on “also published on intersex embodiment and theology of creation in Theology and Sexuality and on Marian symbols and kyriarchal ideology in Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza’s book Congress of Wo/Men: Religion, Gender, and Kyriarchal Power.” Fiorenza is a noted radical feminist theologian who has argued that St. Paul was misogynistic, supported the ordination of women to the priesthood, and worked to change the Church’s teaching on abortion.
The second presenter, Rachel Bundang, PhD, expressed her disappointment with the Synod: “I expected more from the process…I felt left behind…as a working theologian, educator and minister. I hoped it would feel more personal. But the process was exclusionary, opaque, and disappointing. I feel left behind…it has left me at a distance.” Sharing her sadness that a neighboring parish was “phasing out female altar servers,” Bundang, who describes herself on the Catholic Women Preach website as a “feminist ethicist,” “preaches” regularly at her home parish in the Bay Area.
Part of the explanation for the disappointment expressed in various ways by the four theologians is that their expectations for change through the Synod were so high. Believing that the Synod would move the Church to change her teachings on women’s role in ordained ministry, on reproductive rights, and “GLBTQ” issues, it is not surprising that these women would be disappointed with the outcome of the Synod so far. Each of these women had their own goals for the Synod and all seemed to be disappointed that these goals were not met.
For example, the third speaker, Elsie Miranda, D. Min, describes herself as a Cuban-American Practical theologian whose academic interests lie at the intersection of Catholic Ethics, Pastoral Formation for Ministry, and Liberative Theologies, particularly among U.S. Hispanic/Latinx and LGBTQ Catholic communities. Miranda is affiliated with New Ways Ministry, the Catholic LGBTQ outreach ministry that the late Pope Benedict XVI described as holding positions “regarding the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts and the objective disorder of the homosexual inclination are doctrinally unacceptable because they do not faithfully covey the clear and constant teaching of the Catholic Church.” Founded in 1977, by Sister Jeannine Gramick and Fr. Robert Nugent, who were both the subject of a notification by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1999, New Ways Ministry appears to have found new acceptance under the current papal regime. On October 17th, Pope Francis received Gramick at his residence in Rome, in a meeting that was described by James Martin, SJ, as a “significant step forward in the church’s outreach to LGBTQ Catholics.”
Beyond support for views contrary to Church teachings on GLBTQ issues, Miranda has spoken out in favor of a woman’s right to choose abortion. Railing against the Dobbs decision in an essay published recently, Miranda made the preposterous claim that “the implications of denying women access to medical procedures that would terminate a pregnancy in the case of rape or incest or in order to save a mother’s life in the case of ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage are inconsistent with a right to life ethic.”
Miranda is not alone on the Santa Clara panel in her views supporting access to abortion. She was joined by self-described “womanist” theologian C. Vanessa White, who told the audience that she “has spent two-thirds of my life engaged in ministry in the Church.” Like Miranda, White has been a public supporter of “reproductive justice” for women. One of several signers of the Faith in Public Life open statement on “reclaiming public debate about abortion and reproductive justice,” White has played an important role in the conversations leading up to the Vatican Synod.
Chosen to participate in the Continental Stage of the Synod by Chicago’s Cardinal Cupich—despite her public support for abortion—White also participated in the theologians’ section of the Synod through the Catholic Theological Society of America. White, who currently serves as an Associate Professor of Spirituality and Ministry at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and Director of the Certificate in Black Theology and Ministry, has also supported New Ways Ministry’s public statements on GLBTQ rights within the Church by signing an LGBTQ non-discrimination statement which decried Catholic Church’s opposition to the Equality Act—an Act that would force Catholic institutions to adhere to government mandates on non-discrimination against LGBTQ teachers, priests, and other employees in Church-related schools and parishes.
While the feminist panel lamented the lack of progress in the Church in implementing their desired outcomes surrounding women in ministry, “reproductive rights,” and LGBTQ issues, all were looking forward to the upcoming Synod in October, 2024, claiming that their voices will finally be heard and validated.
Whether that is true remains to be seen. On one hand, their views are quite common in numerous Catholic colleges and universities across the country. On the other hand, those views are quite consistent with those expressed in Germany via the “Synodal Way,” which has been publicly rebuked by Pope Francis. But they are certainly representative of the ongoing, progressive lobbying for dramatic change in the Church, which will continue to exert influence on the Synod on Synodality assembly, meeting in Rome in October.
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I, for one, am sick and tired of these whackos who keep trying to hijack the Church and promote their sick thinking. We need to hear the voices of faithful Catholic
men and women to counter the shrill of those who want to bend truth to accommodate their secular mindset. This has been going on since about 1965 as I remember. Haven’t they done enough damage to the Body of Christ? The type of inclusion that Christ preached was based on a conversion of heart and NOT accompanying people while they insisted on remaining in their sin.
Agreed. They are not Catholic theologians first and feminists second. Their feminist commitments are primary, and their commitments to being Catholic theologians are secondary. In other words, they are more committed to being feminists than to being Catholic. In their minds, they would dread surrendering their feminism to their supposed Catholicism – their commitment to which is debatable.
The tragedy is that these women theologians equate all the immoral stances of our day regarding human sexuality and reproductive rights with what it means to be and think like a woman! Nothing could be further from the truth or from reality. Not all Catholic women theologians are into the LBGT and anti-life agenda! Many of us uphold the teaching of the Catholic Faith and support the Deposit of Faith – without any need or desire to change it – and stand in direct opposition to the corrupt culture of our times, which is so opposed to the Catholic Faith and is trying to take down the stronghold of the Catholic Church. Let us pray for the conversion of these mis-guided women.
Were it to occur a female diaconate would not, of itself, prove a detriment to the Church. Other than its isolated existence it’s the centrifugal that moves away from the centrality of doctrine to a Church of the people rather than for the people of God. It speaks to a Church in continuous reformation, conceptually contrary to formation. Always changing antithetical to permanence.
God does not change. His revelation in Christ is eternal meaning, permanent in its essential nature, an adaptive fluidity that never obscures what it is. If we take into consideration the very difference in the feminine and masculine, the male and female with their distinguishing characteristics as well as their complimentary we perceive God’s wisdom in the difference. As we find differences throughout nature without which order would be absent.
Certainly there are putative exceptions, Saint Therese of Lisieux desiring the priesthood, Saint Teresa of Avila not so but personality and temperament wise would have been an excellent priest. She counseled priests. Although by nature most women are more sensitive than men and tend to nurture. Men in general, less so, more didactic. It would not be feasible or constructive to change the male priesthood. The issue is containment regarding holy orders for a womens diaconate. The women representatives quoted in this article have in mind a Church other than that instituted by Christ.
Opening Holy Orders in the case of the diaconate to women means opening Holy Orders to to the presbyterate as well. The deacon’s role is to serve. The deacon is configured to Christ – the One who came to serve and not be served. If anyone thinks that these feminist types are interested in anything other than power and domination in the Church, they are as foolish as the German bishops and some fools at the Vatican. Wait until the woman “deacon” is told her role is to serve at table. Eventually, a Church dominated by women will result in a mass exodus of men from the Church as real men interpret their role as one of serving, providing for and protecting women and certainly not being dominated by them. This is the problem with the current Pope: he is seen as a weak, effeminate male who hides his weakness by being a severe autocrat, a father who divides, a father who disparages those he has been called to shepherd.
” Wait until the woman ‘deacon’ is told her role is to serve at table.” Funny.
But then. I know a woman who commanded great obedience and respect since she held sway over dinner and dessert. If the younguns’ arrived late or with hands unwashed, if they disrespected by words or by face her or her sweat at soup, if they failed to say ‘thanks or Grace’, the consequences could be hunger, bed, a corner, or torture by salivation while others prolonged enjoyment of dessert. She had power and could cruelly exercise it.
The feminist theologian is already a nutcase. Imagine her as a deacon doing duty at table liturgy. No. She may sooner draw the diner’s blood than her own, and how would she feel about having Christ in her wine?
Deacon Peitler, the drift of my comment is not an affirmation, rather an open assessment of the possibility. That is why I say the ordination would effectively be a centrifugal event. That is said as a criticism rather than an affirmation. The effeminization of the Church is manifest in pontifical appointments and continued related topics for discussion in the Synod and in dicasteries. The appointment of Card Fernández as prefect of a DDF that no longer addresses violations of the faith instead intends to develop new advances is a clear indication.
We’re in complete agreement then. Thanks for your words.
Also Deacon, it would be disingenuous, even craven of me not to express my true opinion of a womens diaconate as I indeed do reference in my initial comment. While all men are not the same, some possessing virtues others do not the same holds true for women. I’ve met women in Africa who were faithful, unassuming, and courageous. Some doing the work of ordained clergy when priests weren’t available. Trekking by themselves into remote forests, some stationed alone in thatched roofed villages under trying conditions, reading the Gospel, preaching, attesting to the Catholic faith. These were not the women lampooned by some commenters, or as represented that I can assure you were among the best of Mankind I’ve known.
That said, there was no human created by God who surpassed the Ever-Virgin Mother of God spared of the inheritance of the Original Sin.
I, too, am aware of many great women who have filled the ranks of the Church. I spoke with one yesterday by phone. She is a religious Sister who will be 100 years old this July, a loving Christ-like person, humble in every discernible way, and gave her life as a sacrifice for others. She was my teacher in 6th grade. She was the one who, at my ordination, encouraged me to write down special intentions for those I held close to my
heart and to tuck it into my shirt pocket, so that when I lay prostrate before the altar I could ask for intercession of the Saints during the singing of the litany. She is my model for what Christian witness looks like in oh so many ways.
Leprechauns, unicorns, and feminist theologians. All things that only exist in people’s imagination.
You could add “hens that crow” but weirdly enough that’s a real thing. And at least to my mind, similar to these feminist theologians.
Relevant Radio just replayed a Bishop Sheen show last Sunday with chickens involved. he explained how chickens establish a “pecking order” to make his point on classless societies.
Don’t forget “black theology”😂 What on earth is that? Last I heard there was no Jew or Greek, man or woman, etc., and by extension no black or white.
The fictional explanation of the term “hooker” is that, during the Civil War, those under the command of General Hooker were a rowdy bunch notoriously inclined to visit brothels and such, whereby female camp followers and prostitutes were branded as “hookers.” Not so: https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=hooker
But, from whence commeth today’s equally (equality!) fictional and even oxymoronic “feminist theologians”? Those camp followers of the apostolic Church: Rabey, Bendang, Miranda and White—
…the Four Hoarse Wimmin of the Apocryphal-lips.
A classic sign of desire to live in original sin (and clueless of everlasting life) is using one’s own mind to convert others rather than self.
“But they are certainly representative of the ongoing [so-called] progressive lobbying . . .”
About sums it up.
Thanks for this report.
“Feminist theologians”
Isn’t that an oxymoron?
Reb;
just eliminate the ‘oxy’ and we’re good with it.
Whenever I hear or read anything about ordaining women in the Catholic Church, I’m reminded of those Japanese soldiers who were being found on remote Pacific islands well into the 1950s — they hadn’t heard (and some refused to believe) that the war was over and that their side had lost.
When the opening gambits are “frustration” and “disappointment” then you KNOW they are opening with the VICTIM CARD, and if there is anyone out there who is as sick of that tactic as I am, I sincerely hope that we never meet.
Every now and then it strikes me that this needs to be said – Jesus Christ’s house is indeed open to everyone, but it’s HIS house, and HE makes the rules.
What god are they studying as theologians? Moloch? To be sure, they are not Christians.
What is “reproductive justice ” and who receives that?
It’s doublespeak for, “I want the freedom to destroy a human life because it’s inconvenient to me.”
I’m done with feminism. Just sayin’.
Se their finger points at “doctrinal rigidity”. But the three other
fingers point to themselves: forever pulling at Holy MOTHER Church’s
skirts, “BAAAing” for what is impossible. They might as well “BAAA”
to the same Holy MOTHER to change into a Man.
Responses to two of the comments (a “couple”!) above, the first trivial and the second not:
FIRST, for whatever it’s worth, the last Japanese soldiers to surrender in the Pacific were not some slackers in the 1950s, but in others in 1960 through 1974 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_holdout Probably ate a lot of snakes. But, the first question they asked was not dietary, but more probably about liturgical reform and temple priestesses.
SECOND, the pretense of female deacons would not be a merely “centrifugal” event…
Worse than a challenge to unity, it would dismember the integrated three levels of Holy Orders. And, dismember memory, with its falsification of early Church history. And, what then of St. John Paul II and Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994)? https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1994/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_19940522_ordinatio-sacerdotalis.html
Would the female diaconate carve-out be the opening wedge for toward a female priesthood, and even the obsolescence of any more-than-symbolic priesthood? Anglicanism within the gates? The identical strategy of homosexual “civil unions” which proved to be the half-way house to complete redefinition, with the intrusion of anti-binary “gay marriage.” And now, the contagion of cosmetic pseudo-blessings for LGBTQ “couples”—together with all other “irregular” couples. Togetherness! The hermeneutics of Gradualism! “Time is greater than space”!
But, what does it matter in an “inverted pyramid” (c)hurch, where bishop Successors of the Apostles now serve synodally “primarily as facilitators,” and where the entire priesthood/priestesshood becomes laicized whilst the laity become clericalized?
Not doctrinally, of course, but enabled and concretely—here and there, incrementally, procedurally, and polyhedrally?
Santa Clara was my Alma Mater. It is distressing to see that this university,
formerly devoted to Jesus Christ and St. Claire, has become the woke and
self-proclaimed “University of Silicon Valley”.
Por qué querría una mujer ser ordenada diaconisa? 1 Para servir en el altar. No es necesaria ni la mujer ni el hombre, cualquier laico puede servir en el altar.2. Para ayudar a la función educativa de la Iglesia. Idem. 3. Para ordenar la feligresía en todo lo relacionado con las finanzas. Idem. 4. Para ayudar al Párroco en la atención de los enfermos,la preparación al matrimonio, etc. Idem. Conclusión: En vez de perder el tiempo proponiendo ordenaciones que no condicen con lo que siempre observó la Iglesia, démosle a los laicos el lugar que les corresponde conforme sea su formación, ya sean varones o mujeres. La solución es simple; por eso es verdadera,