Links
Women's Ordination Conference: Vatican's 'scare tactics' appalling
Today, Women's Ordination Conference (WOC) Executive Director Erin Saiz Hanna made the following statement in response to the Vatican's announcement that priests who sexually abuse minors, view child pornography, or sexually abuse mentally disabled adults, along with those who ordain women or women who attempt to be ordained, will now be included among the list of "delicta gravioria," or the most serious crimes against church law. The ordination of women is now classified as a "crime against the sacraments," which includes any action that defiles or desecrates the Eucharist.
The Vatican's decision to list women's ordination in the same category as pedophiles and rapists is appalling, offensive, and a wake-up call for all Catholics around the world. This new canonical declaration which names women's ordination as a serious crime against the Roman Catholic Church is medieval at best. The idea that a woman seeking to spread the message of God somehow "defiles" the Eucharist reveals an antiquated, backwards Church that still views women as "unclean" and unholy.