THANK GOODNESS FOR TINA BEATTIE

HEN I AM pressed for an explanation as to why I don't believe women can be Catholic priests - and I often am - it's not long before I find myself talking about altars and sacrifice, death and male violence, and the connection between the Eucharist and the Sacrifice on Calvary. Just as a male priest is a symbol of Christ's Paschal offering, as priest and victim, so a female priest is a symbol of a quite different story. A female eucharistic service, with a woman priest consecrating the body and blood of Christ, is a reminder of the Incarnation, of the motherhood of Mary, indeed: a good story but a different story - a story in aid of which bread and wine are pressed into service but not for the Paschal offering which is the Catholic Eucharist. So much in the end comes down to the doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass.

I have sometimes been made to feel that all this is rather rarefied and perhaps a little fanciful. Thank goodness, then, for Tina Beattie, the Catholic feminist theologian, who has said more or less the same thing (ed. Shortt, God's Advocates, DLT 2005 pp210f). After mentioning that 'some anthropologists and psychologists argue that the idea of sacrifice is deeply rooted in a masculine religious imaginary (sic), so that there's a relationship between an all-male priesthood and cultic sacrifice' - my point - she goes on to say that 'if a woman says, "This is my body, this is my blood", the symbolism might be that of fertility, menstruation, childbirth'. This would represent 'a dimension of the incarnation of Christ and the life of the Church that's about fecundity rather than sacrifice'. A number of feminist thinkers, says Beattie, like her, are interested in what they would see as 'an enrichment of eucharistic symbolism'.

It has long intrigued me that, amongst the more forceful 'traditionalists', there are English specialists. Those who are most deeply immersed in English literature are those who care most about what the story is and what the story says. Occasionally critics and directors will give us new slants on the work of authors and playwrights only to be reminded by their fellow specialists of the need to be faithful to the original story. So it is with theology. There are some ingenious new slants, especially in the fizz and pop atmosphere of contemporary culture, but in the end we must remain true to the story. However pioneering, Catholic theology must square with Scripture and with Catholic tradition.

None of this means that we must say no to women's ministry: there are small signs of some wonderful developments, particularly in the developing world. Though we must say 'no' to women bishops and priests, we say 'yes' to the catechists and pastors who are emerging. Indeed we must be sorry that the deaconess movement in the Church of England - a real gift to the universal Church - has all but disappeared and been replaced by forms of women's ministry which have made Anglicanism seem more 'up to date' but which, arguably at least, have delayed the reception of women's representative ministry in the greater part of the Church.

May God bless you as you seek to serve him.

+ Andrew Ebbsfleet



This pastoral letter may be downloaded as a PDF file for display purposes by clicking here,

or as an RTF file for easy copy-and-pasting into pew sheets and parish magazines by clicking here.
 

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet
Bishop's House, Dry Sandford, Abingdon, OXON OX13 6JP
Tel: +44 (0) 1865 390746

All text and images on the web site of the See of Ebbsfleet are
© The Bishop of Ebbsfleet unless otherwise acknowledged.

The menu system is the intellectual property of www.milonic.com