You, and the others looking in from the outside, are missing one very significant bit in all this. It is a discipline in the Church to pick 12 men to stand for the Apostles in this Rite. This is our discipline, this is our Rite, the meaning is ours and the liturgical unity is ours.
They are men only because they stand for the 12 apostles. That they are men is not the point. This is not a gender issue, and those who make it such have long since lost the meaning of the practice. That people are protesting this *is* a condemnation of that diocese, but not over gender. It is a condemnation that the diocese has failed to teach these people the meaning of what is going on.
It is not about men and women, it is not about the 12 men. It puts our priesthood in context. It defines their relation, in imitating the actions of Christ, they proclaim their servanthood.
What is at stake here is that the discipline is to select 12 men. Exceptions can be made, but discipline difines the norm, and it does this in part to foster liturgical unity. It is not that women are not worthy of standing in this role .. and those who truly understand Catholicism's Theology of the Body - and yes, the Church has a formal Theology of the Body - understand this with no problem. The problem is defying discipline, in putting our selves and out cultural gender issues before the liturgical unity of the Church. That is the problem here and one of the greatest problems that the Catholic Church faces in western culture. Western culture teaches us to put the individual above all others, Catholicsim teaches us to put the community before ourselves.
no subject
They are men only because they stand for the 12 apostles. That they are men is not the point. This is not a gender issue, and those who make it such have long since lost the meaning of the practice. That people are protesting this *is* a condemnation of that diocese, but not over gender. It is a condemnation that the diocese has failed to teach these people the meaning of what is going on.
It is not about men and women, it is not about the 12 men. It puts our priesthood in context. It defines their relation, in imitating the actions of Christ, they proclaim their servanthood.
What is at stake here is that the discipline is to select 12 men. Exceptions can be made, but discipline difines the norm, and it does this in part to foster liturgical unity. It is not that women are not worthy of standing in this role .. and those who truly understand Catholicism's Theology of the Body - and yes, the Church has a formal Theology of the Body - understand this with no problem. The problem is defying discipline, in putting our selves and out cultural gender issues before the liturgical unity of the Church. That is the problem here and one of the greatest problems that the Catholic Church faces in western culture. Western culture teaches us to put the individual above all others, Catholicsim teaches us to put the community before ourselves.