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Women Priests ExcommunicatedThe Catholic Church Bans Women from Taking Holy Orders
Excommunication was used by the Catholic Church as a means to prevent the spread of new theories in the past. John Paul II had to apologize for those mistakes.
The Vatican declared recently that any women who tried to be ordained or any bishops who tried to ordain women would be automatically excommunicated from the Church. This comes as no surprise considering the position of the Church regarding women. For centuries women were always relegated to second place, even when society approved laws promoting the equality between the sexes. The Church is yet again behind the times. Other Christian denominations realized this mistake some time ago and attempted to solve it in the best way possible. Today many churches have women vicars and soon there will also be women bishops. Hopefully it will not be long until the Vatican will be forced to reconsider its stance and accept the need to move forward. They must also apologise to those women who were excommunicated as a result of their attempt to take part in the life of the Church. It will not be the first time that the Catholic hierarchy, represented by the Pope, has to apologise for the mistakes of the past. In 2000, Pope John Paul II had to issue a formal apology for all the errors of the Church over the last 2000 years including the trial of Galileo among others. The Galileo Galilei AffairGalileo was brought to trial on suspicion of heresy because of his heliocentric ideas: that the Sun is the centre of the world. This opposed to the Old Testament saying that “the world is firmly established; it shall never be moved” [1 Chronicles 16:30]. Galileo was required to recant his theory and was sentenced to imprisonment which later was commuted to house arrest for the rest of his life. The mistake of the Church is glaringly obvious here and needs no analysis. The Burning of Heretics, Witches and DissidentsWhen the Pope apologized for the past sins of the Church, many people wondered if he was going to ask for forgiveness for specific crimes. Unfortunately the Pope was not very specific although he did mention the anti-Jewish acts, the Inquisition, forced conversions, the Crusades and sins against women. Regrettably the Church is still sinning against women when it threatens them with excommunication. Horrible crimes were committed by the Inquisition with the only purpose being to maintain the hegemony and status quo of the Church, which was very afraid of modern ideas and scientific theories opposing its dogma. It remains frightened today. On many occasions, excommunication led to a trial for heresy or witchcraft. The sentence was most likely to be burnt at the stake and many people lost their lives this way. The killing at the stake was particularly cruel and savage, showing no Christian mercy whatsoever. It was an act devised to produce fear. Giordano Bruno was a Dominican monk who was murdered by the church in 1600 for his dissident views. His execution was particularly cruel: he was brought to a central Roman market square, his jaw was clamped in an iron gag and an iron spike driven through his tongue, he was tied to a pole naked and burned at the stake. Ironically, and rather sadly, his opinions would now be viewed as normal for any free thinking person. References:The Holy Bible; Oxford, New Revised Standard Version anglicized edition Kessler, John J, Giordano Bruno: The Forgotten Philosopher Encyclopaedia, www.newadvent.org Murphy, John Patrick Michael, Giordano Bruno (1998)
The copyright of the article Women Priests Excommunicated in Catholic Clergy is owned by José Luis Rodríguez-Olveira. Permission to republish Women Priests Excommunicated in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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