Publisher's Synopsis
Few issues have created as much controversy in the Catholic Church as the debate over women's ordination and the broader role of women in the Church. Today the Church stands accused--both from within and from without--of preaching justice to the world while itself practicing injustice by continuing to exclude women from the priesthood. Is it not especially unjust to exclude the very members who have tirelessly devoted themselves to the Church? Has the Vatican no grounds for its stand against women's ordination except a tradition that simply reflects first century patriarchal culture? This provocative book outlines the Church's conception of justice, and goes far beyond the argument of tradition to explain and fully defend the Church's opposition to women's ordination.
Benedict Ashley provides a theological exploration of the definitive 1994 Vatican declaration which opposed the ordination of women. Presenting both sides of the debate, Ashley confronts the arguments of feminist and liberation theologians in favor of changing the Church's practice of ordaining priests, and explains the Church's reasoning for strictly denying women's participation in the priesthood.
Ashley sets out the important distinction between personal equality and functional inequality, and then uses this distinction as the principal tool for dealing with the difficult issue of women's ordination. On the basis of both political theory and biblical symbolism, he contends that, though members of the Church certainly have equal basic rights, a hierarchy of functions is necessary for the mission of the Church, and active participation in this mission is more significant than structural democracy.
This book will be of interest to Catholics and non-Catholics struggling with the issues of women's ordination and the broader issues of gender and participation in the Church.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Benedict M. Ashley, O.P., is emeritus professor of moral theology of Aquinas Institute of Theology and former professor of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family. He is the author ofTheologies of the Body: Humanist and Christian,Spiritual Direction in the Dominican Tradition, andLiving in the Truth of Love, and coauthor ofHealthcare Ethics. Father Ashley also serves as a consultant to the Committee on Doctrine of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and is a senior fellow of the Pope John Center for Medical Ethics. He was awarded the medal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice by John Paul II in 1992.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:
""Ashley offers much wisdom on the equality and inequality of persons in family, civil society, and Church. His thorough treatment of the question of women's ordination gets well beyond the slogans of the day.""-Avery Dulles, S.J., Fordham University
""By considering ecclesial justice in the larger context of the natural law and politics, Ashely makes a genuinely new contribution to this debate. . . . A well-reasoned, well-informed effort to set out the logic of Catholic teaching which sheds new light on the question.""--The Thomist