On Mondays, I answer questions frequently asked by those considering a return to the Catholic Church. How do I know this stuff? I was away for more than 30 years myself, and am the co-author of When They Come Home: Ways to Welcome Returning Catholics, a book for pastors and parish leaders interested in this ministry.
Isn’t it an insult to Catholic women that they can’t be priests?
The fact that women cannot be ordained does not mean that they are not a critical part of the Church. Our popes have named thirty-
three people doctors of our Church, who, according to the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, “have had a profound influence on theological and spiritual thought.” Four women have received this high honor—all since 1970: St. Teresa of Avila, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Therese of Lisieux, and Hildegard of Bingen.
Thousands of women through the ages have been canonized or beatified, including some of our contemporaries such as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. Catholic women are writers (Flannery O’Connor, Joan Chittister, Rumer Godden, Mary Gordon, Louise Erdrich, Denise Levertov), social activists (Dorothy Day, Catherine de Hueck), and politicians and judges (Sens. Maria Cantwell, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and Patty Murray; Supreme Court Justice Cynthia Sotomayor; Congresswomen Nancy Pelosi, Betty McCollum, Rosa DeLauro, and Anna Eshoo). Women serve the Church and Christ in many, many ways that do not involve ordination.
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