Abstract
Although the topic of ordination of women is not high on the agenda, or even on the agenda at all, for the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, there could be much to learn from how each of these two families of churches, together with the Latin Rite Roman Catholic Church, with their ecclesiological, theological, and societal similarities and differences, have dealt with this issue (or ignored and suppressed it) during the course of their history. This chapter will discuss the contribution that a three-way dialogue might make to assist a growing ecumenical unity and a Church fit-for-purpose to preach the Gospel and to be a sign of the Kingdom of God in today’s world.
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Notes
- 1.
Catherine Clifford, Decoding Vatican II: Interpretation and Ongoing Reception (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 2014), 74.
- 2.
Catholic Church, Lumen gentium (LG) 10, 21 November 1964, https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html,
- 3.
LG, 32.
- 4.
LG, 34.
- 5.
Catholic Church, Gaudium et spes (GS) 29, 7 December 1965, http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html
- 6.
See also Patricia Madigan, “Women During and After Vatican II.” In Catholicism Opening to the World and Other Confessions, edited by Vladimir Latinovic et al., (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
- 7.
Inter Insigniores (II): On the Question of Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood was issued as a Declaration on 15 October 1976 by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) with the approval of Pope Paul VI. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19761015_inter-insigniores_en.html
- 8.
Mulieris Dignitatem (MD), On the dignity and Vocation of Women on the Occasion of the Marion Year, an apostolic letter by Pope John Paul II on the dignity of women, written in conjunction with the 1987–1988 Marian Year was published on 15 August 1988, http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1988/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_19880815_mulieris-dignitatem.html
- 9.
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (OS): On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone was an apostolic letter issued by Pope John Paul II to the bishops of the Catholic Church on 22 May 1994 in which he affirmed “the reservation of priestly ordination to men alone” and declared “that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.” http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1994/do, cuments/hf_jp-ii_apl_19940522_ordinatio-sacerdotalis.html
- 10.
John Paul II, Letter to Women, written just before the Fourth World Conference on Women to be held in Bei**g was published on 29 June 1995, http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/letters/1995/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_29061995_women.html
- 11.
Dennis Ferrara, “The Ordination of Women: Tradition and Meaning,” Theological Studies, Volume 55, no. 4 (1984): 706–19.
- 12.
Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, “Mary and Women,” in Discerning the Signs of the Times: The Vision of Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, edited by Michael Plekon and Sarah E. Hinlicky (Crestwood, New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001), 105.
- 13.
Division of Studies, World Council of Churches, Study Encounter 4, no. 4 (1968): 193 §G. See Vladimir Latinovic, “The Viewpoint of an Orthodox Theologian.” In Ecclesiology and Exclusion: Boundaries of Being and Belonging in Postmodern Times, edited by Dennis M. Doyle et al. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2012). 173.
- 14.
Kallistos Ware, “Man, Woman and the Priesthood of Christ,” in Elisabeth Behr-Sigel & Kallistos Ware, The Ordination of Women in the Orthodox Church (Geneva: WCC Publications, 2000), 50.
- 15.
Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, “Women in the Orthodox Church,” in Discerning, 121.
- 16.
World Council of Churches, “Participation of Orthodox Women in the Ecumenical Movement – Report of the Inter-Orthodox Consultation,” 12 June 2008, https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-programmes/ecumenical-movement-in-the-21st-century/women/participation-of-orthodox-women-in-the-ecumenical-movement
- 17.
Behr-Sigel, Women, 121.
- 18.
Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, “Orthodox Theological Formation in the 21st Century: The Tasks Involved,” in Discerning, 19.
- 19.
Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, “The Bible, Tradition, the Sacraments: Sources of Authority in the Church,” in Discerning, 86.
- 20.
Ibid., 87–88.
- 21.
Thomas Hopko, “Women and the Priesthood: Reflections on the Debate – 1983,” in Women and the Priesthood, edited by Thomas Hopko (New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1999), 235–36, 240.
- 22.
Nonna Verna Harrison, “Orthodox Arguments Against the Ordination of Women as Priests,” in Women and the Priesthood, 167.
- 23.
Quoted in Behr-Sigel, Orthodox, 15.
- 24.
Ware, Man, 65, 70.
- 25.
Georges Barrois, “Women and the Priestly Office according to the Scriptures,” in Women and the Priesthood, edited by Thomas Hopko (New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1999) 74–75.
- 26.
Ware, Man, 88.
- 27.
Hopko, Women, 241–42.
- 28.
Thomas Hopko, “Presbyter/Bishop: A Masculine Ministry,” in Women and the Priesthood, 158.
- 29.
Ibid., 157.
- 30.
Harrison, Orthodox, 181.
- 31.
Ware, Man, 86.
- 32.
Ibid., 85.
- 33.
Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia, “Man, Woman and the Priesthood of Christ,” in Women and the Priesthood, 48.
- 34.
Joan L. Roccasalvo, The Eastern Catholic Churches: An Introduction to Their Worship and Spirituality (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 1992), 21.
- 35.
Ibid., 22–27, also 56–58.
- 36.
Laurent A. Cleenewerck, His Broken Body: Understanding and Healing the Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches (Washington DC: Euclid University Consortium Press, 2007), 139.
- 37.
See Hopko, “Women and the Priesthood: Reflections, 235ff.
- 38.
Massimo Faggioli, “Failure of the episcopate; new alignment of power in the Church,” La Croix International, 18 June 2019.
- 39.
Lavinia Byrne, Woman at the Altar: The Ordination of Women in the Roman Catholic Church (London: Mowbray, 1994), 89, 122.
- 40.
This has occurred in the context of some ecumenical gatherings in Australia when members of Eastern Catholic Churches are not welcomed by representatives of Orthodox churches while they can also feel a lack of inclusion by Catholic Church representatives.
- 41.
Antoine Tarabay et al., The Maronite Church: Roots and Mission (Jounieh: Kreimi, 2014), 57.
- 42.
Perhaps remembering a long history of suffering including during the Monophysite controversy of the fifth century, and forced migration from Syria to Lebanon in seventh and eighth centuries).
- 43.
Francis Zayak and Abdo Khalife, The Maronite Rite: Questions on the Maronites (Sydney, Australia: Maronite Diocese of Saint Maroun, 1978), 25–26. Capital letters in the original text.
- 44.
Joseph Azize, An Introduction to the Maronite Faith (Redland Bay, Qld: Connor Court Publishing, 2017), 153.
- 45.
Ibid., 281 (italics in original text).
- 46.
Ibid., 293, 297.
- 47.
Joseph Takchi, “The Maronite Catholic Church in Australia.” The Australasian Catholic Record 73, no 1 (1996): 17.
- 48.
Robert Turner, “Eschatology and Truth,” in The Theology of John Zizioulas: Personhood and the Church, edited by Douglas H. Knight (Hampshire, UK: Ashgate, 2007) 22.
- 49.
Ibid., 23; See also John Zizioulas, Being as Communion. Studies in Personhood and the Church (New York, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press and London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1985), 19–20.
- 50.
Turner, 33.
- 51.
See Patricia Fox, God as Communion (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2001), 112–13.
- 52.
Ibid., 114.
- 53.
Ibid., 115, 117.
- 54.
Ibid., 101.
- 55.
Ibid., 102.
- 56.
Ibid., 104.
- 57.
Ibid., 105.
- 58.
Ibid., 216–17.
- 59.
Ibid., 219.
- 60.
Ibid., 219ff.
- 61.
See also Azize, An Introduction, 199 where he notes that “symbols are fluid, and melt and merge depending on what seems to be appropriate.”
- 62.
Fox, God, 221.
- 63.
Philip Rossato SJ, “The Ordination of the Baptized: The Laity as an Order of the Church,” in The Theology of John Zizioulas, 170.
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Madigan OP, P. (2021). Ordination of Women: A “Bridge” or a “Brake” for Christian Unity?. In: Latinovic, V., Wooden, A.K. (eds) Stolen Churches or Bridges to Orthodoxy? . Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55458-3_9
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