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The Catholic Priesthood and Women: A Guide to the Teaching of the Church

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Sister Sara Butler, professor of dogmatic theology at St. Joseph's Seminary in New York, has written a well-researched, tightly reasoned, and cogently crafted study of what is, for Catholics, a settled issue: women cannot properly be ordained to the ministerial priesthood. Sister Butler's analysis is far more theologically persuasive than this--but, at its heart, her thesis is that one can examine the Catholic priesthood either socially or sacramentally. A merely "social" examination--which is based upon a manifestly defective understanding--sees the priesthood as an office of leadership, to which women have a claim equal to that of men. A Protestant view of the priesthood, in fact, may well confirm this understanding. Sister Butler, however, points out that the priesthood is not a social or leadership role (or a "career" [see p. 42]), but is, rather, a sacrament of apostolic ministry in which those who are ordained serve as "signs" or icons of Christ. The Church has no authority to change the priesthood by ordaining women, for the Church must be true to Christ's will (see pp. 2, 15, 46), and Christ chose for the priesthood "those whom He wanted" (Mark 3:13). Along the way, Sister Butler addresses the common objections to Church teaching, such as the notion that Jesus chose no women to be Apostles because of the culture in which He lived (but Jesus never compromised the Truth by conforming to societal constraints and surely would not have been intimidated as He established His Church [see p. 67]); that the Church is oppressing women (but the 1983 Code of Canon Law is clear that Catholic women have essentially the same juridical status as Catholic men [see pp. 31, 60]); and that--always offered in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek manner--the Church should ordain only Jewish males (but once it was clear that Gentiles could be admitted to Baptism and the community, there was, of course, no such controversy, tongue-in-cheek or not: "[W]hile there is no theological or canonical tradition concerning the admission or exclusion of Gentile converts from priestly functions, there is a tradition concerning the exclusion of women from priestly ordination" [p. 103]). Referring to a number of key Church documents, Sister Butler points out the four fundamental reasons barring women's ordination: the unbroken, universal tradition of ordaining men; the rootedness of this tradition in Christ's deeds and His apostolic selections; apostolic fidelity to Christ's choice of men to be Apostles; and the normative tradition of the Church. A particularly powerful passage in the book, referring to Cardinal Newman's concept of doctrinal development, contends that if an idea conforms to the Gospel, has been witnessed to and practiced by the Apostles (and the Church Fathers [on this, see Rod Bennett's book entitled Four Witnesses]), and has been preserved without interruption in the Catholic Church, it is a valid "development" and not a "corruption" (pp. 109-110). Those who demand that women be ordained--and who stridently object to what is now definitively settled Church teaching that women do not have a "social right" to ordination--"end up questioning the Lord's intention with respect to the priesthood, the Church's hierarchical constitution, and even its foundation" (p. 111). In short, insistence that women must be ordained is, to use Cardinal Newman's term, a "corruption." Sister Butler is adamant that ordaining only men "does not imply a negative judgment on women" (p. 59), pointing out that the Church, which regards men and women as equals in Christ (cf. Gal 3:28 and see p. 33), "rejects the idea that the equalization of rights requires the identical treatment of women and men" (p. 26). The book offers a compelling understanding of both marriage--for example: is the wife to be submissive? "In Christ, the submission is not unilateral but bilateral" (p. 37)--and of the overarching idea of sacrament, a concept alien to secularists and, very regrettably, even to many Protestant Christians. Until SACRAMENT is understood, PRIESTHOOD cannot be understood. Sister Butler makes a very strong contribution to the religious education needed by Catholics, Protestants, and non-Christians. This is a book which deserves a wide and attentive audience. Although it is brief (112 pages of text), it demands a careful, close reading, and it is helpful to read the texts of the documents (e.g., Inter insigniores and Ordinatio Sacerdotalis) upon which she depends and from which, among many others, she draws heavily--testimony to her thorough research. (The book offers an extensive bibliogaphy and is indexed.) By the way, Sister Butler herself, at one point in her life, supported the ordination of women; she changed her mind, for she had "failed to take into account the implications of Catholic teaching on the nature of Holy Orders as a sacrament" (p. ix). Although the issue of women's ordination is, for faithful Catholics, a settled one, there remain "political" questions among non- and nominal Catholics about the judgment of Pope John Paul the Great with regard to this matter. The late Pope pointed out that the Church is not free--the Pope did not have the authority--to change the practice of ordaining only men because it is rooted in the will of Christ. For the skeptics, that will never be reason enough; for Catholic Christians, it is always reason enough (see CCC #890-892). And Pope John Paul might well have said, with St. Paul, "Am I now currying favor with human beings or God? . . . If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ" (Gal 1:10; cf. John 12:43).

I recently finished reading Catholic Priesthood and Women: A Guide To The Teaching Of The Church by Sr. Sara Butler, MSBT. When I had first read about this book I was intrigued by both the subject and the author and ordered it. Despite Ordinatio Sacerdotalis the issue of women's ordination is still a hot button issue in the Church and it is still being discussed as if one day this doctrine will change. Thus I think it is an important issue to delve down deeper into and to understand more fully when discussing this topic with those who don't hold to Church teaching on it.

In 1978 Sr. Butler chaired a task force on women's ordination for the Catholic Theological Society of America which favored women's ordination. It was only later when she worked with the Anglican-Roman Catholic Consultations and for the USCCB on a Pastoral letter for women's concern that she realized that the CTSA's previous critique was seriously flawed. In recent years she was appointed to the International Theological Commission and was involved in the recent document on the hope of salvation for infants who die with being baptized. That she had once held the opposite view makes this book even better since she is able to ably give the objections and then to give replies to them.

She starts off by giving a history of this issue. For most of the history of the Church there has been little doctrinal development on this issue since it has really never been a point of contention within the Church. There have been Church fathers who have addressed this issue at times mainly in response to heretical sects such as the Gnostics ordaining women. It is only in recent times that the magisterium has had to seriously address this issue. The first response was by Pope Paul VI in 1975 in a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Goggan the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time had asked for papal counsel. The following year the Pope had directed the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to explain the tradition more fully which they did with Inter Insigniores. Up to the issuance of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis there were several references to women's ordination in a couple of papal addresses and letters.

One of the major critiques of this doctrine has been that the tradition was greatly influenced by an outdated view of women and a flawed anthropology. The second chapter on the book addresses this and explains Church teaching on the status of women in society and the Church. There certainly has in the history of the Church been a flawed understanding of the role of women and there has been a lot of doctrinal development in this area, especially during and since Vatican II. In the 1917 code of Canon law there were some roles that male non-clergy could perform that women were barred from as designated in 33 canons. In the revised code there are now only three instances where the status of women and men is not precisely equal. Two concern rites and to which rite the child of a parents in two different rites belong to. The third concerns the lay ministries of lector and acolyte which since they were once part of minor orders and because of "venerable tradition" is reserved to males. The argument that the Church is using a flawed anthropology is itself flawed. The Church in reflecting more deeply on this issue has corrected itself in this area, yet it still teaches that the priesthood is only reserved to males.

Through the rest of the book she first takes a look at three common arguments used by those who dissent from Church teaching. In Summa - Sed Contra style after fairly giving those arguments she replies to those objections thoroughly. These sections of the book are highly valuable and really help you to understand what the Church teaches and why. She also writes in a way where I think that anybody who wants to look at the subject will benefit without being an academic or a theologian.

What I find interesting is that it was the Anglicans who first got the magisterium moving and that in many ways the objections to this teaching are really a Protestant view of the priesthood in the first place. If these arguments were correct they would prove too much. By using a dominant Protestant view on the role of ministers you end up with no priesthood in the first place. Other mistaken views of the priesthood see it as a form of power and the argument goes that women are excluded from this power structure within the Church. Their arguments would destroy settled Church teaching in the area of the ministerial priesthood making effectively the priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood the same thing. That Baptism is what can enter us into the ministerial priesthood. Again a Protestant idea and of course they mostly do not see Ordination to the Priesthood as a sacrament in the first place

She also make an important distinction in this book between the fundamental and theological reasons for the Church's teaching. The fundamental reason is the Christ in his sovereign freedom only appointed men as Apostles and that the Apostles also only did the same. The Church's teaching relies only on the fundamental reason and not the theological ones, yet the objections mainly attack the theological ones. The theological explanations can help us to understand why this is what Jesus did and I am sure that this is an area where there will be doctrinal development and we will have deeper theological reasons for this. There is a very good reason for why they do this because it is very difficult to directly attack the fundamental reason on a historical basis, though Sr. Butler does address a couple of arguments where this is done.

Towards the end of the book she addresses seven more objections and also answer these. She also looks at the doctrine using what is basically a theological smell test for the development of doctrine. She takes guidelines from the Council of Trent and others later developed by John Cardinal Newman's Development of Doctrine. She show why women's ordination does not pass muster in this context, especially since it would deny other settled doctrine.

At 112 pages this book is a very good treatment on the subject and I learned a great deal from it. At times you kind of wish that Jesus had appointed both men and women to the priesthood so that we wouldn't have to put up with the nonsense of riverboat ordinations and the slander that the priesthood is an issue of rights and equality. As is always the case when you take the time to learn what the Church teaches and why you come to a greater appreciation of her. There is always a problem when people take their theology from society and not from Christ. After reading this book though I did find that I had a greater sympathy for women's ordination advocates. Even though they are greatly mistaken I can see how in the context of society it can be greatly difficult to understand this teaching. The key though is for all of us to do our own part to more deeply understand this doctrine so that we can better explain it others.

I highly recommend this book to everybody.

It would be very difficult to add to the reviewers below, so I won't try to. I will content myself to say that Sr. Sara's book is absolutely amazing in its clarity and precision. She treats the issue of women in the priesthood very fairly, and her treatment is very comprehensive for such a short book. It is a must-have for all priests and parish libraries.

Not only does Sr. Sarah Butler thoroughly explain the reasons why the Catholic Church calls only men to ordination as bishops and priests, but she does it in 112 pages. The presentation is not at all ponderous, but the careful, sequential presentation will require more than a casual read. In the process Sr. Butler gives her readers a brilliantly clear understanding of how the Roman Catholic Church understands the faith as the mind and will of Christ, recieved by the apostles and given expression in Tradition. The reader sees the process by which the Church reasons in this particular matter (and, by extention, in other theological matters). Sr. Butler provides careful explation of essential concepts in Catholic thinking such as "the Lord's manifest will", "the Apostle's way of acting" and "the settled doctine of the Catholic faith." Her distinction between Fundamental Reasons and Theological Arguements is enormously helpful. To date this is one of, if not "the," definitive books on the subject.

What gives great credibility to this work is the fact that Sr. Sara Butler was for many years a key figure in the campaign for the ordination of women. However, through study and reflection, her position changed, and in this book she explores the data which helped to foster that change. Sr. Sara Butler presents a brief exploration of the explanation and justification for an all male priesthood. There is nothing particularly groundbreaking in this book, however its compact size and the many points it covers does make it an excellent reference.

At last... a complete discussion of the topic of ordination for women in the Catholic Church, presenting historical arguments as well as current. Butler is a knowledgeable and objective presenter of the church's reasoning.

Sara Butler gives a clear exposition of the teaching of the Catholic Church in regard to the neuralgic issue of the ordination of women. She also courageously and clearly presents the rationales offered by those who are in favor of the ordination of women and then clearly explains why they do not have validity. This book is a great contribution to the literature about the Magisterium's teaching as to why the Church cannot validly ordain women to the Catholic priesthood.

What if Sr. Sara Butler is really a man disguised as a woman? Or, what if Sr. Sara is really a man with the body of a woman? Or, what if Sr. Sara is both a man and a woman with the dual anatomy of a man and a woman? Or, what if Sr. Sara has an indistinguishable anatomy where identifying her sexual organs is scientifically impossible? Or what if Sr. Sara had female organs, but only male chromosomes? Or, what if Sr. Sara was a man at birth and had a sex re-assignment to a woman that she never knew occurred? As for me, I personally believe that Sr. Sara is a woman with a woman's anatomy. I further believe that her anatomy has been unaltered. It is a belief. No speculation about the anatomy of Sr. Sara is worthy of discussion.

For believers in an all male clergy the "discussion" of the possibility of woman's ordination is not necessary. Sr. Sara is a remarkable apologist for the non-discussion. Her book does a superb job of validating the reasons and necessity for an all male clergy. In a heated debate where everyone who disagrees with Sr. Sara is silenced, she is clearly the articulate winner. It helps that Sr. Sara is a woman. Otherwise silenced critics might quietly mumble that she is merely a sexist male. That would be unfair.

Yet, in spite of a marvelous affirmation of the Sacramentality of a male clergy, there is still room for suspicion. Sr. Sara agrees that very little information exists about the historical Jesus. What if the Sitz im Leben of the historical Jesus were different? Would some of the apostles have been women? Perhaps some historical apostles were women? What about the women who were popes? What about those women in history who were ordained through renegade apostolic succession? Believers would be certain to label those ordinations as invalid, but is there room to think of the historical ordinations of women as merely illicit by the standard of misunderstood biology? Is our understanding of the biology of what makes a "woman" a "woman" and a "man" a "man" in need revision? My suspicion is that there is biologically more there than meets the eye. It is in redefinition that room exists for discussion.

For example, apologists for the long-line of ordained male priests who are celibate and gay quickly point-out that many gay men have female characteristics which make them more pastorally sensitive as priests than their heterosexual counter-parts.

Perhaps the reverse is true for certain women? There are women with biologically male characteristics. Why shouldn't a woman who acts like a man be considered for ordination if she also has certain biological markers and characteristics which are also male?

Tom Bradley