Similar Posts
NCR Online: Former doctrinal chief calls Father Gustavo Gutierrez ‘one of the great theologians of our time’
Junno Arocho Esteves Rome — October 23, 2024 Dominican Father Gustavo Gutiérrez is pictured in 2007 on the campus of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Father Gutiérrez, known…
Séamus Ahearne: Sitting down and writing a bit…
IS BAD NEWS THE ONLY GOOD NEWS AROUND? There is a gnawing feeling in my bones. It is a darkness. It is a dullness. It is the sourness of expression…
Jim Cogley: Reflections Tues 23rd Jan – Mon 29th Jan:
Midnight deliveries as the storm abates. An observation is that when a storm comes slowly it lasts a long time and when it comes quickly it blows over fast. So,…
New book: Maynooth College Reflects on Catechesis in the Life of the Church
Maynooth College Reflects on Catechesis in the Life of the Church Edited by Jeremy Corley, Andrew Meszaros, and John-Paul Sheridan But how are they to call on one in whom…
UCA News: Women pained by papal commission’s ‘no’ to women’s diaconate
The commission’s conclusion signifies a tragic lack of courage, synodality, and pastoral leadership, Catholic women say. By Virginia Saldanha Published: December 08, 2025 12:19 PM GMT Link to article: https://www.ucanews.com/news/women-pained-by-papal-commissions-no-to-womens-diaconate/111234?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=UCAN+Evng+Campaign08Dec2025_03&cmid=acfbf4ed-0015-4444-9575-b9ba2239d97b…
New Lay Ministries
Jo O Sullivan takes time to write her reflections on the request from the Dublin Archdiocese that Parish Pastoral Councils discuss what kinds of new ministries are needed if our church is to “thrive into the future”.

Disappointing that Dermot Farrell still has such a fixed patriarchal view of women in regard to priesthood and that ‘certain pillars’ can’t be changed. He shows a lack of understanding of the movement in the early church that shut out the role of women that Jesus had opened up in his ministry. We need the ‘Syrophoenician woman’ who changed the mindset/ worldview of Jesus to work on Dermot and so many others who have such ‘fixed/ unchangeable’ perspectives.
Roy, I am at the moment reading “Women Remembered. Jesus’ Female Disciples” by Helen Bond and Joan Taylor, both Professors of Christian Origins. Helen lectures at New College here at Edinburgh University and she has previously spoken on this subject at our Edinburgh Newman Association.
This book confirms absolutely that, as you say: “He shows a lack of understanding of the movement in the early church that shut out the role of women that Jesus had opened up in his ministry.”
The section on Mary may prove difficult for some of our flock as the presence of her other children is taken for granted —indeed for all of us who pray our belief in the “ever-virgin” every time we attend Mass.
We have discussed this in the past on this site to no great conclusion.
The stonewalling of the hierarchy is becoming a joke. Seeing women priests in action (and seeing same-sex couples thrive) one is convinced beyond argument that the church attitude to women (as to LGBT folk) is baseless.