..."The pope certainly seemed comfortable around Archbishop Jackelen in Sweden, so perhaps the question is this: for a man who talks so much about women being able to do “many things better than men,” as he did on the papal plane today, why can’t he conceive of one of those things being the priesthood? Pope Francis repeated again today his idea of the “feminine dimension” of the Catholic church being represented by Mary, and also said once again that Mary is “more important” to the spirituality of the church than the apostles on Pentecost.
What the pope is neglecting to acknowledge, however, is that Pentecost would never have happened if Mary Magdelene hadn’t been the first witness to the resurrection; if early church leaders like Priscilla, Chloe, Lydia and Phoebe hadn’t provided finances and safety to the apostles; if women weren’t the majority of lay people still propping up the church today.
The Vatican likes to think that it is built on stone, and any pilgrim walking into Saint Peter’s can look into the depths of its catacombs. But in those same catacombs are depictions of a woman wearing a dalmatic with her hands in the “orans” position used by priests during consecration at mass. Francis and the church’s continuous denial of this history and the shifts occurring all around them means the Catholic church is not a house of stone, it’s a house of cards. And more denial of women’s vocations will only exacerbate the danger of its total collapse."
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