Letters

Complementarity

Kathleen Wood

Contents - Dec 2009 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Benedict XVI: When God entered human history - Pope Benedict XVI Ut Unum Sint: Benedict XVI eases way for Anglicans wishing to 'cross the Tiber' - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Marriage: A Biblical defence of marriage: Africans take the lead - Babette Francis Victoria: Abortion evil: pro-life forces need to be united - John Morrissey Episcopacy: Church leadership responsibilities: an American case study - Phil Lawler Events: Melbourne - The Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (1962 Missal) How to get Vatican II back on track: a bishop's prescription - Bishop R. Walker Nickless (Sioux City, Iowa) Foundations of Faith: The Eucharist: what the Old and New Testaments tell us - Br Barry Coldrey Vatican II: Yves Congar, Vatican II, ecumenism: finding the right balance - Andrew Kania Saints: Saint Damien of Molokai: Robert Louis Stevenson's prediction fulfilled Letters: New religion - Peter Donald Letters: Stewardship - Peter Finlayson Letters: Greens and Church - Kevin Cains Letters: Climate change - A.R. (Tony) Grieve Letters: Lost opportunity - Maureen Federico Letters: Saint Damien of Molokai - Arnold Jago Letters: Women priests - Ken Bayliss Letters: Complementarity - Kathleen Wood Books: 111 QUESTIONS ON ISLAM: Samir Khalil Samir SJ on Islam and the West - Michael E Daniel (reviewer) Books: THE MASS AND THE SAINTS, by Thomas Crean OP - Br Barry Coldrey (reviewer) Books: IMAGES OF HOPE, EUROPE TODAY AND TOMORROW, by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - Br Barry Coldrey (reviewer) Books: This month's selection from AD Books Reflection: The sacrament of Christian marriage: a nuptial Mass homily - Fr Glen Tattersall

In response to Robert Prinzen-Wood's letter (November AD2000), the contemporary magisterium of the Catholic Church no longer holds the view that women are unilaterally subject to men, and therefore does not include complementarity as one of the fundamental reasons given for upholding the fact that Jesus chose only men as his Twelve apostles.

This tradition interprets first and foremost a fact of sacred history, not judging what may be regarded as complementarity or even the biblical creation of male and female as dependent on the ordination of men only.

Further study and understanding of this profound matter should include a careful reading of the documents Ordinatio Sacerdotalis and Inter Insigniores, together with the book The Catholic Priesthood and Women by Sara Butler MSBT in order to read a splendid articulation of the Church's position on why the Catholic Church cannot ordain women.

KATHLEEN WOOD
Mandurah, WA

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 22 No 11 (December 2009 - January 2010), p. 15