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Mother Pelican
A Journal of Solidarity and Sustainability

Vol. 18, No. 6, June 2022
Luis T. Gutiérrez, Editor
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From Homo economicus to Homo ecologicus ~
Sequel 6 ~ Historical Dynamics

Luis T. Gutiérrez

June 2022


22.06.Page24.Image1.jpg
The masculinization of God. Cartoon courtesy of David Hayward.
Click on the image to enlarge.


This article on historical dynamics is Sequel 6 to From Homo economicus to Homo ecologicus ~ Cultural Evolution During the 21st Century. It follows Sequel 1 on conscious evolution, Sequel 2 on human supremacy, Sequel 3 on human personhood, Sequel 4 on human relations, and Sequel 5 on human agency.

The historical dynamics of human agency are tightly coupled to cultural evolution. In practical terms, cultural evolution has thus far unfolded within a patriarchal context. Patriarchy is defined as "a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is traced through the male line." In other words, "a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it."

With few exceptions, patriarchy has prevailed worldwide since the inception of human history, coinciding with the agricultural revolution, and has conditioned most religious traditions for millennia; a conditioning that has included the masculinization of God. The Bible, for instance, is a patriarchal artifact. Patriarchy is ubiquitous in most biblical texts, starting with Genesis 3:16 (ca. 1000 BCE) and the polygamous patriarchs of the Old Testament, and passing through the election (by Jesus?) of 12 male apostles to represent the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel in the New Testament. It is impossible to capture in one page all the diverse manifestations of patriarchal gender ideology and its influence on social and religious institutions. The following box offers a summary of patriarchal cultural evolution in the Judeo-Christian tradition:

Religious Patriarchy in the Judeo-Christian Tradition

Annotated Timeline of Key Events

The following is a summary of the currently unfolding process of discernment pursuant to the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate in the liturgical churches.

Fundamental Question

Should the patriarchal priesthood of the Old Law, restricted to males, still be normative for the sacramental priesthood of the New Law?

Chronology of Key Events

  • Original sin -- The original "unity in diversity" of man and woman became an impaired communion of domination/subordination -- Cf. Genesis 3:16
  • Emergence of the patriarchal culture -- starting at least 10,000 years or so, in conjunction with the agricultural revolution, long before biblical times
  • Patriarchal covenant of the Old Law -- starting 1000 BC or so... primitive, artificial, phallocentric, takes for granted the impaired communion of man and woman, derived from original sin, as "divine law"
  • Patriarchal culture of classical Greece -- "woman is a defective male" (Aristotle, later "mitigated" but not fundamentally refuted by Aquinas)
  • Patriarchal culture of the Roman Empire -- Even the language is patriarchal... "virtue" comes from the Latin "vir"

    Within the boundaries of the Roman Empire, the early Christian Church eventually coalesced into five patriarchates: Jerusalem, Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch.
  • Sacramental covenant of the New Law -- The dogmatic definition of priestly ordination as a sacrament (Council of Trent, 1563) does not mention maleness or masculinity as a requirement for apostolic succession
  • "Scandal" of women priests in the Anglican Communion -- Florence Li Tim-Oi ordained in Hong Kong, 1944
  • Apostolic Constitution Sacramentum Ordinis about "what is required for validity in conferring of Sacred Orders" -- No mention of a maleness or masculinity requirement for ordination (Pius XII, 1947)

    About the rite of ordination: "If it was at one time necessary even for validity by the will and command of the Church, every one knows that the Church has the power to change and abrogate what she herself has established."
  • Vatican II, Lumen Gentium -- "viri probati" can be ordained as deacons
  • "Scandal" of women priests in the Episcopal Church USA -- starting 1974 (approved 1976)
  • New doctrinal rationalization, Inter Insigniores, a literalist interpretation of the 12 male apostles chosen by Jesus under the Old Law to represent the patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 1976)

    After the resurrection and the ascension, the Church elected Matthias to replace Judas, and has since elected all successors to the apostles. Why is it that Matthias was chosen by the Church to be an apostle, and not Mary Magdalene? Because the witness of Mary Magdalene, or any other woman, was considered worthless.

    After the resurrection, under the New Law, the Church is given full authority to mediate all vocations. By the power of the keys, the Church can ordain women at any time, without waiting for the Lord to return and give permission. It doesn't make sense to say that the Church is not authorized to ordain women.

  • New biblical exegesis -- Theology of the Body (TOB) on the sacramentality of the human body, human flesh, male and female -- John Paul II, 1979-1984
    About the original unity of man and woman in one and the same human nature: "Bodiliness and sexuality are not simply identical... the fact that man is a "body" belongs more deeply to the structure of the personal subject than the fact that in his somatic constitution he is also male or female... it is a question here of homogeneity of the whole being of both." (TOB 8)

    About complementarity in unity: The "complementarity" of man and woman is for natural reciprocity and interpersonal communion, not for artificial separation of social/sacramental roles based on cultural gender stereotypes. The sacramentality of a female human body is equivalent to the sacramentality of a male human body. The obvious implication is that any baptized person, man or woman, can be ordained to act in persona Christi... (TOB 13, 19, 33, 89, 96...)

  • "It's a long way to Tipperary", John Paul II's visit to the USA, 1981, referring to the ordination of women to the sacramental priesthood
  • Publication of the Code of Canon Law, #1024, John Paul II, 1983
    "A baptized male alone receives sacred ordination validly."
  • Recognition of the equal dignity of men and women, but only males can be ordained -- John Paul II, Mulieres Dignitatem, 1988
  • "Scandal" of women bishops in the Anglican Communion -- Barbara Harris in Boston, USA, and Penny Jamieson in Dunedin, New Zealand, 1989
  • "Scandal" of women priests in the Church of England -- approved 1992, started 1994

    For more info: Ordination of women in the Anglican Communion
  • Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1577 (same as Inter Insigniores) and #1598 (under the New Law, the male-only priesthood is a choice made by the Church, not by Christ), John Paul II, 1994

    • Lamentably, #1577 elevates the pre-Easter choice of the 12 male apostles to a patriarchal post-Easter doctrine (but not a dogma!)
    • Thankfully, #1598 recognizes that the male-only priesthood is a choice made by the Church (first sentence) and who can make the choice (second sentence)
    • Again, the choice is made by the Church, not by Christ personally; so what about allowing the Risen Lord to call women, and see what happens?
    • Canon 1024 is, in effect, an artificial contraceptive (if not an outright abortifacient!) of female vocations to the sacramental priesthood
  • Pontifical "executive order" to stop further discussion on women priests and bishops ~ Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, John Paul II, 1994

    • The letter is addressed to the bishops, not to the entire Church.
    • It does not say it is a dogmatic definition, so it is not infallible as either extraordinary teaching (Pope ex cathedra) or ordinary teaching (Pope and bishops together have never taught infallibly that women cannot be ordained to the sacramental priesthood).
    • It does not explain why a baptized female is not valid matter for the sacrament.
    • It is entirely written in past and present tense.
    • It says nothing about what the Church can or cannot do in the future, so it is "definitive" for the past and the present, but cannot possibly be "definitive" for the future, since it says nothing about the future.
    • In other words, it is a gagging order, not a dogma.
  • Pontifical "fake news" dubiously elevating the male-only priesthood to infallible teaching ~ Responsum ad Propositum Dubium, CDF 1995
  • It is hard to understand how Ordinatio Sacerdotalis can be made to be infallible, retroactively, by invoking a doctrine (Lumen Gentium, section 25) that was never infallibly proclaimed. It defies logic, plain and simple.

  • "The door is closed" -- Francis, interview, 2013
    The door is provisionally closed but not dogmatically locked.
  • "The reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ the Spouse who gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a question open to discussion..." -- Francis, Evangelii Gaudium #104, 2013
  • So women cannot be ordained to the priesthood in order to preserve the analogical image of Christ as sacrificial bridegroom and the Church as bride. Thankfully, the ludicrous argument about the pre-Easter 12 male apostles is not repeated. However, a rigidly patriarchal interpretation of the bridegroom-bride analogy (Ephesians 5:22-33) effectively reduces the mysteriun magnum to a benign patriarchal covenant. In reality, the Christ-Church nuptial covenant is a great mystery; and the Church is metaphorically a woman, but it is more than a woman with a male head. The continued conflation of patriarchal gender ideology with the truth revealed in Christ Jesus is a cultural tragedy that is becoming a doctrinal travesty, a doctrinal cover-up that significantly erodes the credibility of the institutional church, with potentially disgraceful pastoral consequences.

  • Detour about climate change and integral ecology -- Francis, Laudato Si', 2015

    Laudato Si' is a wakeup call on the reality of the ecological crisis. It is the best guidance we have at the intersection of Catholic social doctrine and human ecology. However, patriarchy as a cultural driver of population/consumption growth is not mentioned. Social inequities, capitalist greed, consumerism and the idolatry of technology are thoroughly analyzed, but anthropogenic climate change is overstated and the population growth issue is grossly understated. Population and consumption growth issues can be distinguished, but cannot be separated.
  • John Paul II was "pointing in that direction" -- Francis, interview, 2016
    Confirms that Ordinatio Sacerdotalis was not a dogmatic definition.
  • Another commission about women deacons -- Francis, meeting, 2016
    Ambiguity of historical data precludes resolving the issue based on precedent.
  • Another remark about "viri probati" -- Francis, interview, 2016
    Why only "viri probati"? Why not also "feminae probatae"?
    The Church celebrates "Corpus Christi," not "vir Christi"!
  • Recognition that patriarchy has often been abusive in family and society -- Francis, Amoris Laetitia #54 & #154, 2016

    About gender ideologies (#56): "It needs to be emphasized that "biological sex and the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not separated." Is this still the patriarchal gender binary? Can a human person be exclusively masculine or exclusively feminine? The body is normally male or female, but personal subjects are always masculine and feminine, because there is a feminine dimension in man and a masculine dimension in woman (Genesis 2). There is a "feminine genius" in Jesus, just as there is a "masculine genius" in Mary. Is the Church still constrained by patriarchal gender ideology?

  • Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development -- Francis, 2016 (human persons are spirited bodies, "body-souls," not just bodies, thus requiring integral development of the spiritual and corporal, subjective and objective, masculine and feminine dimensions)
  • The body is a sacrament of the entire person, but is not the entire person. Questions: Why is it then, that only persons with male bodies can be tested for ordination to the sacramental priesthood? Since priests and bishops are ordained to act in the person of Christ, and only males are ordained, how can they make visible the feminine genius in Christ? Why is it that the patriarchal priesthood of the Old Law is still normative for the sacramental priesthood of the New Law? To be a model of integral human development, the hierarchy of the Church needs male-female INTEGRATION.

  • In a meeting of Voices of Faith, 8 March 2018, many valid concerns were raised about ecclesiastical patriarchy no longer being for the glory of God and the good of souls. Pope Francis was invited, but did not attend. This is where we are at the moment. One wonders how this crucial issue will be handled in the forthcoming Synod of Bishops on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment, scheduled for October 2018.
  • In an article in L'Osservatore Romano, 29 May 2018, Archbishop Luis Ladaria, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, reiterates the doctrine of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis as "definitive." He adds an argument about the "substance" of the sacrament of order which is incompatible with human "unity in diversity" as in the Theology of the Body. See the following response: The Provisional Character of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis ~ Doubts and Questions Remain.
  • Synod of Bishops on "Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology" ~ October 2019. The possibility of women deacons is timidly mentioned, and proposed for further study, but the possibility of women priests and women bishops is not even mentioned. However, the possibility of ordaining more married men to the priesthood is strongly proposed. Thus the church seemingly remains frozen in patriarchal gender ideology.
  • Apostolic Exhortation Querida Amazonia, 2 February 2020. Section 101: "Jesus Christ appears as the Spouse of the community that celebrates the Eucharist through the figure of a man who presides as a sign of the one Priest." Lamentably, cultural inertia still prevails over reason and discernment. The priestly "figure of a man" can become the priestly "figure of a human" only when patriarchal gender ideology is discarded and the priest becomes a figure of the Word who became flesh, i.e., became a human being in a human body, which is ontologically more fundamental than becoming a man or a woman (cf. Theology of the Body, 8).
  • Detour about fraternity and social friendship -- Francis, Fratelli Tutti, 2020
  • "Those who raise walls will end up as slaves within the very walls they have built." (FT 27) The perplexing absence of the gender dimension in Fratelli Tutti is a symptom that the exclusively male priesthood, prescribed in canon 1024 and rooted in the ancient patriarchal gender theory of male headship, is a rigid wall that keeps the church confined in the patriarchal cage.

  • Official approval of women as lectors and acolytes -- Francis, Spiritus Domini, 15 January 2021
  • This is another baby step toward the ordination of women. For twenty centuries, we have had only male acolytes. Why not female acolytes? Why only the boys, and not the girls? Patriarchal gender theory is a false ideology, plain and simple. It may take many more years, decades, centuries, but the Spirit of Truth will deliver us from religious patriarchy.

  • Announcement (12 April 2021) of International Theological Symposium "For a fundamental theology of priesthood," being organized by the Congregation for Bishops.
  • The announcement refers to "cultural movements that question the place of women in the Church." Isn't patriarchy a culture, and isn't religious patriarchy derived from the patriarchal culture of male hegemony? The program in this website includes a panel on female ministries. "Changes cannot be dictated by cultural pressures, but neither should they exclude the fact that in the issues that prompt change, there is a call to free the faith from encrustations of the past." Stirrings? What about patriarchal encrustations?

  • Announcement (21 May 2021) of the Synodal Process 2021-2023 under the theme "For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission."
  • Will this be a real consultation with all the faithful, including reconsideration of the patriarchal semblance of the church? Will this include discernment about the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate? Will this include listening to the sensus fidelium in all matters of human sexuality?

  • Announcement (1 June 2021) of canon law revisions pertaining to sex abuse, fraud, and the ordination of women.
  • Simultaneously toughening church laws on sex abuse, fraud, and the ordination of women, as the Vatican just announced, is indicative of a connection that has yet to be fully clarified. Canon 1024 is a form of sex abuse in the body of Christ, because it prescribes the systematic abortion of female vocations to ordained ministry; and it is a fraud of the sacramental economy, just as slavery was a fraud of the social economy, but male apostolic succession must be protected by threat of excommunication. This is just more disciplinary fine tuning, nothing dogmatic, not even a doctrinal clarification; when it comes to the ordination of women, there seems to be a paralysis in doctrinal development. At a time when Catholic social doctrine has developed with meteoric speed from Rerum Novarum to Laudato Si', this stagnation in patriarchal ecclesiology is very perplexing. Could it be that the hierarchical church doesn't want to admit that it has been doing something wrong for 2000 years?

  • Symposium on the anthropology of vocations and the fundamental theology of the priesthood, Vatican, 17-19 February 2022.
  • The elephant in the room is the ordination of women, but they don't want to see it. The program did not include any formal presentation about the ordination of women. It included one round table on "woman and ministry, status questionis." The usual condescending platitudes about women being important members of the church, the common priesthood of the faithful rooted in baptism, etc. Nothing about the personhood of women in Christ. Apparently they are refraining from fabricating more silly rationalizations in defense of the exclusively male priesthood, so now they are proposing some buzzwords, like "clericalism" and "synodality." The official line is that the main problem with the ministerial priesthood is clericalism, not patriarchalism; and the future is synodality, which is expected to somehow cure clericalism while sticking with patriarchalism. Nothing official about the possibility of ordaining women to act in the person of Christ in the foreseeable future. In other words, the Vatican is blinking, but chooses to remain in willful blindness.

    Note on the Unique Vocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

    The Blessed Virgin Mary's unique vocation as Mother of God utterly transcends all choices made by the Church for apostolic succession after the resurrection, so it is absurd to assume that women cannot be apostles under the New Law just because Mary was not chosen to be an apostle under the Old Law.

    Summary

    Should the patriarchal priesthood of the Old Law, restricted to males, still be normative for the sacramental priesthood of the New Law?

    All men and women share one and the same human nature, the same biblical flesh. For the redemption, and the sacramental economy, the masculinity of Jesus is as incidental as the color of his eyes. The sacramental priesthood of the New Law is ministerial, not patriarchal. The exclusively male priesthood conceals the divine feminine in the Incarnate Word. The presence of Mary in the Christian community is not a sacramentally suitable substitute for the presence of Christ in the priest when acting in persona Christi. For this reason, women should be ordained to the priesthood and the episcopate, for the glory of God and the good of souls.

    The historical pattern that emerges is one that gradually evolves from rigid and essentialist patriarchy (i.e., human nature is assumed to be strictly binary, male or female) to a more realistic theological synthesis of unity in diversity in the image of God (i.e., integral human nature, male and female). In terms of the Christian faith, the patriarchal mindset whereby only human males have a natural resemblance to Jesus Christ is now being reconsidered, for many reasons that are intrinsic to a theology of the body consistent with the singularity of human nature, male and female:

    1. Jesus Christ is the Redeemer, God made flesh, not a patriarch.
    2. God the Father is a person, but not a male.
    3. God the Son is a person, but was not a male before the incarnation.
    4. God the Holy Spirit is a person, but not a male.
    5. The Trinity is a communion of persons, not a patriarchate.
    6. The "Son of Man" is God made flesh, not a patriarch.
    7. All men and women are fully consubstantial in one and the same human nature.
    8. Bodiliness and sexuality are not simply identical.
    9. Being a body-soul is more fundamental for human nature than sexuality.
    10. The body is a sacrament of the entire person, but is not the entire person.
    11. The priest acts in the person of Christ, not in the masculinity of Christ.
    12. All men and women are ontologically homogeneous in their whole being.
    13. All men and women are of the same flesh in their somatic structure.
    14. The complementarity of man and woman is enabled by their consubstantiality.
    15. All men and women are fully consubstantial with Jesus Christ as to his humanity.
    16. For the redemption, the masculinity of Jesus is as incidental as the color of his eyes.
    17. Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life, not the male of life.
    18. The substance of the Eucharist is BODY, not XX or XY chromosomes.
    19. The substance of the Eucharist is FLESH, not testosterone.
    20. The Church is "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic," but not necessarily patriarchal.
    21. Patriarchy is a disordered attachment to the supremacy of masculinity.
    22. The Church is a communion of persons, not a patriarchate.
    23. The Church is the body of Christ, not a woman with a male head.
    24. The Virgin Mary is the "type" of the Church, not a woman with a male head.
    25. The Virgin Mary precedes the sacramental economy as Mother of the Eucharist.
    26. The Marian dimension of the Church precedes the apostolic dimension.
    27. Apostolic succession is contingent on redeemed flesh, not on masculinity.
    28. The nuptial mystery of Christ and the Church is not a patriarchal marriage.
    29. Canon 1024 is an artificial contraceptive and abortifacient of female priestly vocations.
    30. Catechism 1577 reduces the priesthood of the New Law to priesthood of the Old Law.
    31. Catechism 1598 declares that ordaining only males is a choice, not a dogma.
    32. The exclusively male priesthood makes invisible the "feminine genius" in Christ.
    33. The Christian/Catholic/Orthodox faith is not intrinsically (dogmatically) patriarchal.
    34. The conflation of patriarchal gender ideology and Christian doctrines is a disgrace.
    35. Institutionalized ecclesiastical patriarchy is an abuse against Christ and the Church.
    36. It is time to discard the patriarchal scaffolding that obscures the Catholic faith.
    37. Male headship is an ancient but entirely artificial cultural custom, not natural law.
    38. After the resurrection, nothing requires that apostolic succession be exclusively male.
    39. The first "transubstantiation" in history happened in the Blessed Virgin Mary's body.
    40. Transubstantiation can happen via women ordained to act in persona Christi.

    What is the linkage between the patriarchal mindset, exclusively male religious priesthoods, and ecological overshoot? Culture and religion can be distinguished, but cannot be separated. The subjugation of women in religious traditions, which emerged in conjunction with the patriarchal culture in pre-biblical times, also reinforces the subjugation of nature, exacerbated since the industrial revolution by the power of fossil fuels. It is, in general terms, a matter of males oppressing females -- including "benign" oppression, and also including the brutal exploitation of Mother Nature. This flaw is deeply rooted in human history, to the point where it was, until not so long ago, taken for granted as "natural law." Exceptions prove the general rule, and many women have internalized this cultural conditioning, so humans exploiting Mother Nature is just an extension of patriarchal gender ideology. Thus Genesis 1:28 has been distorted into a divine mandate to exploit the entire community of creation for the convenience of humans. Thankfully, this false belief has been corrected by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si':

    "66. The creation accounts in the book of Genesis contain, in their own symbolic and narrative language, profound teachings about human existence and its historical reality. They suggest that human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbour and with the earth itself. According to the Bible, these three vital relationships have been broken, both outwardly and within us. This rupture is sin. The harmony between the Creator, humanity and creation as a whole was disrupted by our presuming to take the place of God and refusing to acknowledge our creaturely limitations. This in turn distorted our mandate to “have dominion” over the earth (cf. Gen 1:28), to “till it and keep it” (Gen 2:15). As a result, the originally harmonious relationship between human beings and nature became conflictual (cf. Gen 3:17-19). It is significant that the harmony which Saint Francis of Assisi experienced with all creatures was seen as a healing of that rupture. Saint Bonaventure held that, through universal reconciliation with every creature, Saint Francis in some way returned to the state of original innocence. This is a far cry from our situation today, where sin is manifest in all its destructive power in wars, the various forms of violence and abuse, the abandonment of the most vulnerable, and attacks on nature."

    Significantly, he skips Genesis 3:16, which establishes the intrinsic connection between the patriarchal curse and the ensuing social and ecological consequences, since gender shapes all human relations. Nevertheless, going forward in the historical human journey, Pope Francis' encyclicals Laudato Si' on sustainability, and Fratelli Tutti on solidarity, are good guidance for human agency by all men and women of good will. There is an intrinsic connection between the two encyclicals, because ecological sustainability is not attainable without human solidarity. The Laudato Si' Action Platform and the Laudato Si' Movement are recommended as a most effective means, especially for 1.2 billion Catholics, to play a part in conscious cultural evolution for the renewal of humanity and human civilization:

    LSAP.LOGO1.jpg
    Study the encyclicals Laudato Si' and Fratelli Tutti.
    Explore the Laudato Si' official website.
    Another good resource is the Laudato Si' Research Institute.
    Click the image for more information about the Laudato Si' Action Platform.
    Consider becoming active in the Laudato Si' Movement.

    Goals of the Laudato Si' Action Platform:
    (1) Hearing the Cry of the Earth
    (2) Hearing the Cry of the Poor
    (3) Ecological Economics
    (4) Adoption of Sustainable Lifestyles
    (5) Ecological Education
    (6) Ecological Spirituality
    (7) Community Resilience and Empowerment.


    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Luis T. Gutiérrez is the owner and editor of the Mother Pelican Journal.


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