Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church Unmasking a Cuckoo's Egg Tradition

by Wijngaards, John

• ISBN13: 9780826413390
• ISBN10: 0826413390
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

John Wijngaards may be the only Roman Catholic priest to have resigned from the priesthood because of the church's refusal to ordain women. A biblical scholar and a popular spiritual writer, he's long been a supporter of women's ordination. He wrote a book championing it in 1977 and the following year he attended the National Women's Ordination Conference in Baltimore, one of the few men to do so. In 1998 he resigned from the priesthood to devote himself full time to the campaign for women's ordination. This book is the result.In this engaging and informative book, the author shows how the church's anti-woman tradition is a veritable cuckoo's egg--a spurious import from Greek philosophy that destroys all contrary evidence from scripture and tradition (for instance, the fact that for many centuries women were ordained deacons). Offering a rigorous examination of Rome's arguments, the book includes extracts from key materials and supplies website links to comprehensive documentation, making this the most complete and authoritative resource on the issue.

Author Biography

John Wijngaards has a licentiate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute and a doctorate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome. A missionary in India for 13 years, he was vicar general of the Mill Hill Missionaries for 6 years

Table of Contents

Part I: Setting the Scene	1	(32)
The Discovery	3	(5)
Papal Teaching on Slavery	8	(9)
A Time for Speaking	17	(8)
The Focus of This Book	25	(8)
Part II: Claim and Counter-claim	33	(24)
The Mismatch in Vision	35	(7)
The Assessment of Believers	42	(6)
Naming the Culprit	48	(9)
Part III: Cross-examining the Evidence	57	(72)
The Arguments Found in `Tradition'	59	(9)
Not Created in God's Image?	68	(9)
Not Allowed to Teach?	77	(8)
Carrying the Burden of Eve's Sin?	85	(6)
Deliberately Left Out by Jesus Christ?	91	(9)
Not Human Enough to Represent Christ?	100	(13)
Not Man Enough to Represent the `Groom'?	113	(9)
Verdict on the Presumed `Tradition'	122	(7)
Part IV: Picking Up the Pieces	129	(54)
Genuine Tradition	131	(8)
Nine Centuries of Women Deacons	139	(8)
The Reality of Women Deacons	147	(9)
The Devotion to Mary as Priest	156	(8)
Women with a Priestly Vocation	164	(6)
Unmasking the Intruder	170	(7)
The Way Forward	177	(6)
Appendix: Sources of Official Texts	183	(2)
Notes	185