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On Consulting the Faithful

In his “Apologia Pro Vita Sua” John Henry (Cardinal) Newman explained that he converted to Catholicism because he recognized that the Catholic Church was the closest to that of St. Athanasius.  I was inspired by Newman’s sentiment and chose “The Logos in the Theology of Athanasius” to be the topic of my PhD dissertation.  Life got in the way and I never completed it.

However, I also learned that after his conversion Newman narrowly missed being excommunicated for writing “On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine”. Athanasius lived during the time after the conversion of Constantine, when Christianity became the State Religion.  Constantine and most of that state controlled Church accepted the doctrine of Arius (which was also accepted later by Mohammed) that Christ was a great prophet, but not divine.  Athanasius, backed by the people, gave us the “homoousion” (of the same substance) which is in the Nicene Creed, occasionally recited at Mass.  That doctrine is the basis of our belief in the Holy Trinity, expressed in the Sign of the Cross.

Pope Francis convened the Synod on Family back in 2015.  Perhaps inspired by Newman he invited the Faithful to submit proposals to the Synod.  I accepted the invitation, and proposed that women be invited to the Synod as full participants.  Of course I did not hear back.  But I was gratified to read an article by Michael Swan in the October, 2015 issue of The New Freeman that “Archbishop Paul Andre Durocher raised the question of ordaining female deacons during the first full day of the Synod on Family.”

What is the connection between Family and Ordination?  The obvious is sometimes hard to see.  Traditional families are made up of mothers, fathers, daughters and sons, sisters and brothers. The Synod was made up of sons and brothers.  Period.

Our reading today from the Prophet Malachi is addressed to priests:  “Have we not all one Father?  Has not one God created us?  Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?

It has always been the role of science to describe our world and the role of Faith to worship the God who created us and the world we live in.  But God’s gift of intelligence means that our understanding of God’s creation constantly changes and deepens.  In the distant past science taught men to think they were superior to women for a very good but incomplete reason.  Religion accepted that science and turned observation into law stating that women should obey men.  The scientific basis for that law no longer exists, but religions do not like giving up rules.  Malachi says, “You have not kept my ways but have shown partiality in your instruction.”

Right now, the Faithful are instead instructing the clergy by refusing to join their ranks.  How easy would it be to fill those ranks by if married men and women as well as unmarried men and women would all be invited?

~Agnes Beirne