The Synodal Times: Cardinal Hollerich asks western women to be patient with the Church
The Synodal Times May 23
The call for equal rights and the ordination of women is getting louder and louder in the Catholic Church – at least in the West. But there are also other mentalities in the universal Church, a Pope’s confidant reminds us.
In the discussion about the ordination of women in the Church, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich warns against excessive impatience. “If you attack too much, you won’t achieve much,” he said in an interview published on Friday by the website kath.ch. “You have to be cautious, take one step at a time, and then perhaps you can go very far.”
He does not believe that demonstrations are the right way to change things, said the Archbishop of Luxembourg. This would “lead to polarisation and ultimately to the death of the Church”. The Jesuit and papal confidant warns that the issues at hand must be discussed in detail and comprehensively. Otherwise, there is a danger that the women’s issue will be seen as something that “liberal Catholics want to push through”. It takes “tact and patience if you want real solutions”.
Cardinal Hollerich is Archbishop of Luxembourg and at the same time Relator General, i.e. a kind of moderator or managing director in the synodal process of the universal church. He emphasised that the synod is not about politicising, but above all about listening to one another. “We must not perceive the world as a threat,” he said. He believes that the Spirit of God is at work in the world; and it is important to recognise “through the discernment of spirits” where the Spirit is at work in society.
“It needs arguments and time”
The issue of the ordination of women is not an infallible doctrinal decision, the Jesuit reminded the audience. “It can be changed. It needs arguments and time.” According to Hollerich, he would be happy if women felt fully equal in the Church. “Whether that happens through the priesthood or not is something that time will tell.” The important thing now is “that women are given more responsibility”.
Vocation is not the only criterion for ordination, emphasised the cardinal; and: “I also know men who feel called and are not admitted to ordination.” Hollerich conceded that a man’s vocation is scrutinised but not that of a woman. This could be perceived as structural discrimination, “if you think in European terms”. But, according to Hollerich, “the Church is bigger”; various other continents in their way of life of the Church could not necessarily understand this way of thinking.
“Huge problems afterwards” The objection that appointed women should therefore take a back seat is “based on a typically European principle of the individual”, explained the cardinal. “Many societies don’t think like that at all; the community comes before the individual.” In the Church, many see such individualistic positions as neo-colonialist; “and we must be very careful not to initiate a huge backlash”. According to Hollerich, the global Church must take different mentalities into account. “We have to have these discussions with the whole Church, otherwise we will have huge problems later. Then the Catholic Church will fall apart.”
The Jesuit explained: “It’s not the evil Vatican that insists on these positions and doesn’t want to change anything.” There would be “a storm in other continents if it were to introduce the female priesthood tomorrow” and the Vatican would have to back down. This has already happened with the comparatively “small matter” that same-sex couples can now be blessed in church.
Link to article:
The following post was made by His Excellency Bishop Strickland on twitter. I adduce it verbatim.
“In a recent interview Cardinal Hollerich urges a ‘cautious approach’ to considering ordination of women.
Let me be clear that I reject ANY approach to the ordination of women because, as St John Paul II authoritatively stated, the Church simply does not have the authority to do so. I believe every faithful Catholic must understand this and reject any efforts by anyone who promotes this error. The Cardinal believes ‘caution’ on this issue is a strategic approach that will help make it acceptable to the faithful. However, there can be no consideration of the ordination of women, cautious or otherwise, because these would be invalid ordinations and would undermine the Sacrament of Holy Orders.”
Dermot,
Bishop Strickland! Are you serious? When had he any heed on what Cardinal Hollerich says or thinks?
And for the latter asking people to be patient, as on the deck of the Titanic, it is a hollow ask as the water threatens to submerge the barque of Peter. How many more tides are we going to miss, how many more have to go overboard before our leaders recognize what (in the secular world) is known as ‘the bleeding obvious’? A surfeit of caution and an over reliance on patience is making the Church a corpse.
I commend the quote from Trailhead de Chardin quoted by Seamus Ahearne: ‘Nothing else in the world is so powerful as an idea whose time has come’.
An idea whose time has come. Yes, but it’s time had come half a century ago, when John Paul II shut the door on it. Maybe the idea has been showing its power in a negative way ever since: “shut the door on a living idea and it’s you yourself who will die.” The closed circle of a homophile upper room, an exalted clerical club like the obscene Knights of the Grail in Parsifal, who have room for women only as silenced and as servants, is now the tottering upper echelon of our church, and even Pope Francis is in its thrall, like Titurel immured in his tomb.