ON THE MARK I want you to know that your last two issues have struck me as more superb than usual. Congratulations to staff and contributors for such excellence! Let me comment on one writer, Jo McGowan, whom I have long appreciated. Her column on the nonordination of women in our church (“Hiatus,” June 4) was honest, heartfelt, and on the mark. I don’t believe John Paul (...)
Letters
Say It Ain't So, Jo...
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Like Jo McGowan, I'm frequently tempted to take a hike from the RC church. But then, I love the liturgy enough to tamp down these instincts.
The ordination stalemate could be softened, in my view, by one simple change: admission of women to ordination as permanent deacons. The ordination ritual looks the same as that for celibate priests; deacons answer to local ordinaries; women would have the opportunity to preach; there's ample evidence from early-church practice; people could get accustomed to seeing women ritually-garbed in the sanctuary; it's a less scary change for a male-run institution.
There's no guarantee that women would enhance our experience of either Word or Sacrament, but without even a fair test of the matter, it's a very weird exclusion we have.