Thoughts on Women

This week, I read an article by Andrew Sullivan about how promising the new Pope is.  I am guessing when people say that he seems promising, or that he seems great, they mean that they agree with something which with the Pope agrees, but that's just a guess.

I think the new Pope seems wonderful, and a real man of the people, but I liked every Pope of my lifetime.  One of the things that Andrew Sullivan talked about was this Pope and women.  AS thinks that women should be allowed to be priests, and I guess he thinks that by washing the feet of those women, this Pope is maybe going to allow that?  My guess is that he's not, even if AS thinks it's "absurd" that the Pope said that JPII shut down the debate about women being priests.  I'm of the understanding that the Pope is God's vicar on earth, so it seems to me like he can do whatever the hell he wants that God wants, but maybe I am a simpleton.

Then, AS says this, he says it seems that what the Pope is saying is this:  

Remember that in the Church, the honor accorded to Jesus’ mother is higher than that of any of the apostles, and that women, simply by virtue of being women, are above priests in importance to the Body of Christ.” That’s both a repetition of orthodoxy and yet also a whole-sale re-imagination of it.

And this is where I got kind of mad, because I can't think of a church who more venerates The Blessed Mother than the Catholic church.  I get into discussions ALL THE TIME with people who (wrongly) think that Catholics worship saints, including and mostly the Blessed Mother.  The usual explanation is that the Church encourages *veneration* of the Blessed Mother, and extreme admiration because she was born without sin, so she could give birth to the Son of God.  I admire that!  So does every Pope I've heard of, and every priest and Catholic I know.  SHEESH!  AS says that this is a repetition of orthodoxy and a WHOLE-SALE REIMAGINATION of it.  Dummy.

So this morning, I woke up early and I was thinking, as I usually am, I hate my job, I don't want the day to start, I can't get out of bed and do this stupid job again, these girls are going to run me ragged as usual, boo hoo poor me, etc., and I thought hey!  Even though I am admired and loved by these people, these kids of mine, they don't treat me well and by well I mean how you would the QUEEN.  I have these expectations of how I should be treated and those expectations have to go right out the window with, well, all of them but especially Felicity and Anthony, too.  But although it bothers me on a daily basis, it doesn't bother me in the scheme of things, it doesn't hurt my feelings, and it doesn't make me think that my job as their Mother is somehow not worthy.  I am their MOTHER.  They were formed, knitted, in my WOMB.  They were pulled out of me and then I fed them (well, most of them) with my BODY and kept them alive!  What position could be higher than that, more deserving of love and respect?

So then I was thinking, why are we so concerned for women that they can't be priests?  I was having a discussion with a friend about it one night and she said that she thought Mother Teresa should be able to be a PRIEST!, and I said, what in the world makes you think that Mother Teresa WANTS to be a priest?  When she is a SAINT, doing what she does?  A SAINT!

I think that we think that there is some sort of GLASS CEILING for women in the Church and that being a nun, maybe being a Mother Superior, is as high as they can go.  But maybe, maybe my position is as high as you can go.  Maybe my mother's position is as high as you can go.  Maybe the lady who cleans some church in Rome is as high as you can go.  Who the hell knows?  Why do we assume PRIEST is it?  To me that is as sexist as anything.  We are talking about vocations here, messages from God about what you should do with your life!  How does acting like we're talking about making it up from the typing pool to the boardroom help anything?

Anyway.  Maybe I am a bad woman for not wanting to be a priest, for not being mad at the Church for not allowing me to go as far as I can go at Roman Catholic, Inc., but I don't think so.  Frankly, I get mad a LOT of the time that my vocation appears to be Wife and Mother because it sucks.  But it's great.  EVENTUALLY.  I HOPE.