Here comes Pope Francis in a non-doctoral interview to speak about women’s entry into the priesthood. He’s not for it: you’d have to be naive to be surprised. The interest here lies in the argument. This is borrowed from the great Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar.
There would be two principles in the Church. From the first, called “Pétrinien”, everything of ministerial order would come. The other, Marian, would govern the Church as such. The two principles are sexually qualified (one would say today that they are “gendered”): the first is essentially masculine, the second feminine. We perceive that according to such categories, women’s access to ministry is not possible on the basis of a Petrine-male principle.
We know how much it is not a matter of course today, at least in the West, to qualify men and women, to “essentialize” them. Balthasar sees in the church symbolized what the woman, who for him is “essentially the answer”, has by definition receptive, inviting, available, Peter embodies the active male principle, the initiative. But isn’t anthropology, a culturally influenced anthropology, contaminating theology here?
Do men have their place in the church?
On the other hand, if we must exclude women from the ordained ministry in the name of an essentially masculine Petrine principle, we must ask what men must do in a church governed by the Marian essentially feminine principle: Do they have it? her place there? Are they not there as second-order “citizens” who are inherently less able to conform to what the Church is – “wife and mother”, available and receptive? This is certainly not the Pope’s intention; but we recognize that systematizations might be problematic if we take them literally. Caution is advised when we move from the register of the symbolic – the church on the side of Mary and thus the woman, the ministry on the side of Peter and thus the men – to that of the concrete, the consequences one draws from metaphors, which from theologically anthropological elaborations.
But we will be grateful to the Pope for these remarks: we cannot follow him, at least he offers himself for an argument that has its value and limits. It contributes to a debate. Indeed, it is important not to dwell on an argument from authority which purports to be sufficient in itself, but which relies more on reasoning than revelation – shall we say, reasoning firmly grounded in revelation, but which she reads again and interprets according to patterns that themselves have revealed nothing.
The Catholic Church is not mature
We can also consider that when it comes to women’s ordination, making demands is not the best attitude. First, because the Catholic Church as a whole is obviously unwilling to cross such a threshold. And because the defenders of the status quo stand on this register to disqualify the request: In the Church we make no claims… Instead of personal or categorical aspirations, we must consider the needs of God’s people. What are reasonable and questionable theological considerations worth in relation to the lack of ministers who end up essentially – “Marian” if you will – harming the Church?
The Pope acknowledges that “at the Vatican, the places where we use women work better”. He says this about a third register, neither ministerial nor ecclesiastical, which would be “administrative” – but which is at least a bit ministerial, and one hopes to be ecclesiastical because Vatican administration is also a service to the Church… And the examples of “feminine” discernment given by the Pope in matters of vocations show that among the places that “work” better with women there are the advices of (which is often a reality today). the seminars. Combine them with the theological faculties, where women teach in the same way as men, priests or lay people: they only work better, but are not part of the administration.
All this indicates that we can expand Francis’ formula, also from its categories: “In the Church (and not only in the Vatican), the places where women are present work better”, correspond better to that, what the church should be, what it should do to fulfill its mission. If we embrace this principle over time and without undue ripples, who knows how far we can go? “In the church”, but also “in the service”? When the needs of God’s people call for it… But that takes time as well as reflection and discernment. The Pope contributes in his own way and in a personal capacity.