The Nov. 28 article on dissenting groups in the Catholic Church cries out for a response from a committed Catholic woman (“Diocese Distances Itself From Two Groups’ Teachings”). Those affiliated with Roman Catholic Womenpriests have broken the rules and been censured for such “scandalous” behavior as wanting to serve the church and Jesus in positions of leadership (as they did in the early church).

This reminds me of another “rebel” who broke so many of the taboos of his time by treating women as equal to men. The details are reported in Gospels written by men! Yet Jesus neither proclaimed a non-Jewish faith nor denied his Hebrew roots. He simply chastised religious leaders for their callous behavior, spoke publicly with women, called women to sit at his feet as disciples (Mary and Martha), sent a woman to reveal his resurrection (Mary of Magdala), told “Good Shepherd” stories using the example of a woman as the good shepherd (looking for a lost coin), brought a woman back into a society that shunned her (for a gynecological problem), learned from a Samaritan woman that his mission should expand to even those outside the temple Jews and told a crowd to stop their own sinning instead of stoning an adulterous woman.

Pray tell — even St. Paul said to the Corinthians (11:11-12), “You need to learn, however, that woman is not different from man, and man is not different from woman. Woman may come from man, but man is born of a woman. And both come from God.” God bless these courageous women priests. The road they chose is hard, but it is Jesus’ road.

JANE PILLAR
Scott

First Published: December 22, 2014, 5:00 a.m.