Thoughts on Patriarch of Lisbon Going Off the Reservation On Female Priests

Last night during the big gay marriage debate a New York State Senator got up and said an amazing thing.

He said he could think of no LEGAL reason out there to oppose gay marriage. Now that is a quite a statement. If you have a legal problem and a lawyer tells you there is legal argument against your case he can think of go get another lawyer. If a person is running for Judge and makes a similar statement he does not belong on the Bench. Needless to say a Legislature that MAKES law itself should not be there if he has this this attitude.

I oppose gay marriage a but I can think of several well reasoned arguments for it. I don't agree with them and I fight those arguments but they exist. Needless to say on our side there were well reasoned legal reasons too oppose it.

Which brings us to the equally shocking statement of Cardinal José da Cruz Policarpo, referred to in Portuguese as Dom José IV da Cruz Policarpo who presides over Lisbon.

I don't know much about this Cardinal and I really don't know much about Portugal. I am aware he is hitting retirement age this year though it appears he will be staying on two more years. However in five years he will not even be able to elect the the next Pope when he turns 80. So for that we can be perhaps blessed.

Vatican Insider has The Patriarch of Lisbon: "There are no theological reasons for excluding women from the priesthood"

Now this question has largely been settled one would think but perhaps not for the good Dom. He says among many things

There will be women a priest «when God wills», for the moment it is better «not to raise the issue». But there is «no fundamental obstacle», from «a theological perspective», for women to say mass on the altar. It is, instead, a «tradition» that dates back from the time of Jesus. ........

Now what to say about that. Like the Senator from New York this is quite a quite a statement. There is no fundamental obstacle from a theological viewpoint? Well I have heard quite a few myself. I suspect also from what John Paul the II called the Second Lung of the Church, the Eastern Orthodox, they have some too.

Also what does he mean by tradition.?

..It is a fundamental equality of all members of the Church. The problem is a strong tradition that comes from Jesus and the ease with which the Reformed churches have granted priesthood to women...

So does he mean very strong but yet small t tradition from the Apostolic age or does he mean big T Holy Tradition from the Apostolic age. I am afraid changing big T tradition is off the table even for a POPE!

Now I have a certain viewpoint of how this whole female Priestess (Notice he can't see to use that word though there is no theological objections) is going in the reformed communities. That is not well. One cannot help but notice that the introduction of female "priests" has seemed to have accelerate some of the most extreme deviations from the Orthodox Christian faith. We see that as to the issue of gay marriage and same sex sexual conduct? We see this as to certain eco-theologies ? We see that in not only in the toleration of abortion but in the USA making abortion something akin to a Sacrament and participation in the Divine plan.

In the Catholic Church I have run into women involved in the female Priest movement. I have not met one that seems to be remotely Orthodox on any other matters. They seems to disdain the structure of the Church. They don't really like how the Mass is done. They are all generally pro gay marriage and object to traditional Catholic sexual ethics. None of them seem to wild about traditional Catholic devotions to the Saints or the Eucharist. They almost all seem to be devoted to the worst elements of liberation theology. Why is that?

The Cardinal also says this:


...The Patriarch of Lisbon also explained that he believed the demand for women priests is a «false problem», because the same girls that pose the question, when he retorts if they would be willing to become priests, shake their head....

Then why are you bringing it up? Sadly I think this will just cause confusion in his Archdiocese and demoralize the Faithful that are having problems already.