According to this article, Pope Francis said the following about indefinitely postponing a decision on the ordination of female deacons in the Church:
"We cannot go beyond revelation and dogmatic expressions," Francis told the UISG. "We are Catholics. If someone wants to make another church, they are free to do so."
I find this jaw-dropping, and two things come immediately to mind. The first is the word Geistvergessenheit - spirit-forgottenness - that the professor who manages the theology courses I take uses to describe the Church and its tendency to try to tie God down (see: neo-scholasticism). Under revelation, one assumes, the Pope includes church tradition and the Bible (in that order, we're Catholic after all), but he seems to have forgotten about the Holy Spirit, perhaps conveniently since the Father and the Son are clearly male but the Spirit, ruach...she's a trouble-making woman.
I'm being flippant, obviously. The Pope probably hasn't forgotten about the Holy Spirit...he just...well, actually, according to the same author, he believes the Spirit can't work through a woman's body in the same way as a man's: women's "complementary" sexual organs show we're meant to be receivers, nurturers, and followers.
Right.
I have to wonder though, might he also be saying 'look, within this Church structure there's nothing I can do; if you want out of this you're going to have to vote with your feet'?
Incidentally, some Catholic women in Germany have been up to exactly that this week.
I'm right up there at the top of any list of rule-followers and make-it-work-ers....but I don't see a way out here other than out. I just don't know yet where else to go.
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