Sir, - In response to Rev G.H. Duggan's summary dismissal (April 25th) of the possibility of the ordination of women to ministerial priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church, it is instructive to look at why he considers it a "lost cause". He gives two reasons:
1. The Pope has already spoken on the issue, ruling out any further discussion.
2. Women themselves have lost interest in the issue.
However, the witness of history is to the impermanence of structural arrangements of any kind. They evolve to meet changing needs and they disappear if they do not. Christ left no inalterable blueprint regarding how the fruits of redemption were to be administered or by whom. The one constant was to be the universal availability of salvation to the whole of humanity.
Even this has been misunderstood frequently in the course of Christian history. The third millennium finds us thankfully acknowledging the need for repentance and reconciliation for our blindness and intolerance to those not of our fold. It was surely real ignorance of the heart of God, rather than wickedness, that inspired projects such as the Crusades or the Inquisition or the pogroms against the people of Jesus.
In relation to any supposed loss of interest among women in the possibility of priestly ordination, the facts belie the claim. The movement is world-wide and developing rapidly. In our time, lay Christians have grown remarkably in awareness of the demands of their baptismal vocation and all that it implies for their own particular role in life. In this context, it is hardly surprising that some are strongly called and are eager to share in the exercise of a full ministry of word and sacrament. Such women are clinging in prayer and often in great distress of spirit to the words of life entrusted to them: "go and tell Peter and the brothers that you have met the Lord and he has said these things to you. . .return to Galilee. . .you will meet me there. . .he is not in the tomb. . .he is risen". It is the same message the Spirit has confided to the women disciples today and they cannot betray it.
The forthcoming International Conference on Women's Ordination will be held at UCD from June 29th to July 1st. It will be of concern to men and women who acknowledge the sovereign right of the Lord of the Church to freely call whomsoever he will from among his disciples to whatever service he has chosen for them in building his kingdom of love. The testimony to this new call of Christ in the lives of women will be a feature of the event, which will anticipate and celebrate that joyful day when women will be free to answer publicly the urgent call of the Spirit in their lives. - Yours, etc.,
Delma Sheridan, Anglesea Avenue, Blackrock. Co Dublin.