The headline says, “Church law won’t stop Pismo woman’s dream,” about a woman who thinks she’s going to be ordained a Catholic priest. If I said I wanted to become a biological mother, i.e. I was going to conceive a child naturally and bear him to birth, would the newspaper print the headline, “Law of nature won’t stop Salem man’s dream.” Well, they probably would, but it would be just as ridiculous. Merlene Doko is going through a sham ritual in Pittsburgh on July 31 pretending to be ordained a priest.
No matter what this woman does or think she’s doing, she’s not going to be a Catholic priest. It can’t happen. Just like there is no way for me to become a woman. Oh, I could pretend, dress up in women’s clothes, and even go through self-mutilating surgery to have facsimiles of women’s genitalia inserted. But that wouldn’t change the essence of who I am. No matter what I do, my DNA would remain the same. I would still have one X and one Y chromosome. And even if scientists develop some kind of bizarre “Star Trek” gene therapy to change even that, I will remain who I am ontologically.
Also note how the woman’s decision to be ordained is phrased:
“The heart of me is so centered in the heart of God, I feel this is part of what I am meant to do in my life,” Doko said. “It’s who I am in my journey; not only to be Catholic but a Catholic woman priest.”
Who is this all about? It’s about Merlene. It’s not about service to others, not even an authentic call from God (which, incidentally, comes through His Church), but it’s about what she has decided she’s going to do.
Doko, 63, is part of an international organization called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. The group, which gained attention in 2002 when a sympathetic male bishop ordained seven women in Europe, wants to work within the church to bring about full equality for women.
Again, here is the reporter taking this group’s claims uncritically. She just accepts it as fact that the women do not have full equality in the Church. Of course the Church’s teaching has to be presented for evenhandedness, but whose version of that teaching is she using? It sounds suspiciously like something Womenpriests would say.
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