"Clericalism," Popes, and Women Deacons

Context: This post was inspired by remarks made by Catholic apologist Pedro Gabriel in his video "Women Deacons: What the Vatican Actually Decided."  It was originally intended as a comment, but I decided against posting it there because of its length. It deals with the response frequently offered by recent Popes to advocates of women's ordination (whether to the diaconate or to the priesthood) that they are guilty of the error of "clericalism," or the fetishizing of clerical power and authority to the dimishment or exclusion of the laity.

"Accordingly, I judged it all the more necessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called ‘deacons’. But I discovered nothing more than depraved and excessive superstition." - Pliny the Younger, letter to Emperor Trajan, 110 AD

"Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes." - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Response: With all due respect for both Francis and Leo (not to mention the venerable Magisterium of the Catholic Church), the charge of "clericalism" in this case strikes me as completely disingenuous; just a convenient way of dodging the issue by subtly accusing supporters of women's ordination (even just to the diaconate) of being the "real" reactionaries or conservatives.

The problem is that this rhetorical trick is thrown up every time women seek equality with men (whether social, spiritual, or political), and it begs the question by denying the very thing that it assumes. After all, those who oppose any form of women's ordination also believe that Holy Orders are a special (and that's just another way of saying "higher") spiritual vocation; otherwise, they wouldn't feel the need to defend them so pugnaciously against female encroachment—there would be nothing at stake. It's no good patting women on the head and saying, "Well, priests are just humble sacramental bureaucrats anyways, and there are lots of other ways to serve God that are just as important, so really you shouldn't want to be a deacon," when you also believe that the all-male priesthood has a monopoly on the sacraments (which are pretty damn important) and holds the only real institutional authority within the Catholic Church, including the power to define doctrine. So "clericalism," far from being a form of deviant extremism, is actually the implicit position of the Catholic Church, clearly attested in its structures of spiritual authority and in its official teachings on ordination and the sacraments.

That this is a form of gender hierarchy becomes obvious if you compare it to other kinds of organized human association. Imagine a nation telling women that they shouldn't want to be government officials or elected representatives, and that even desiring this constitutes a "politicianism" which is contrary to the ethos of a truly democratic society. Or imagine an army telling its female soldiers that they can't be officers, but that's okay because there are lots of other ways they can be important as enlisted (wo)men, and the military probably puts too much emphasis on the authority of officers anyways, and besides we're instituting a program to give more recognition and initiative to corporals and privates. We'd recognize these as not-very-clever attempts to put a progressive, egalitarian spin on what's fundamentally an exclusion of women from power and authority; moreover, it's a changing of the subject disguised as an argument.

If you want to defend an all-male priesthood (or an all-male diaconate), you need to do so on theological and philosophical grounds rather than through vague appeals to an egalitarian ethos that you affirm and deny with the same breath. The charge brought by supporters of women's ordination is simple: refusing to ordain women is (whether explictly or implicitly) an assertion of women's spiritual inferiority, and can't be cashed out in any other way. Because the Catholic Church teaches that clergy have spiritual power and authority that is denied to the laity, accusing would-be women priests and their supporters of "clericalism" isn't a valid response to this charge.

It's a boomerang argument, destined to smack institutional Catholicism in the face.

My wife has given this post her official "Nihil obstat."