You have to wonder with some Catholic clergy if there is a single infallible teaching that they think can’t change, or if they are so used to waffling that they put caveats in even the most clear dogmas.
A curial official of the Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa, commenting to a newspaper on the prospect, has more waffles than an International House of Pancakes:
“As of the Holy Father’s statement several years ago, the ordination of women is not on the table,” said Monsignor Mark Duchaine, episcopal vicar of diocesan canonical services. “I would never say never; but by the same token, as it stands right now, I don’t see it.”
In the rest of his remarks, Msgr. Duchaine remains clear on the Church’s teaching and why women cannot be ordained, so why did he start out with the ambiguous “never say never”?
If, as he says later, the teaching is “clearly the divine will,” then never is never. The Will of God does not change and neither will this teaching.
“Never say never” is an interesting statement. Apart from being a cute folk aphorism it assumes that the word “never” is in fact meaningless – that never means rarely. It is really saying “ahh but the gods will do whatever they want and they are always changing their minds”.
It would have been much more consistent it the speaker had said “Today the will of Zeus is that he be served by priests – but who knows? – tomorrow he may desire only priestesses to make sacrifice in his temple”.
I used to hear, “nothing is impossible with God.” Very annoying.
The monsignor may be old enough to remember when, at the close of Vatican II, his superiors broke the news to him about the limited use of the vernacular, but was assured that the Roman Canon would “never” be changed from the Latin.
Yeh, the Church teaches there are Three Persons in the Most Blessed Trinity NOW, but who knows about tomorrow?! And Great Britain may be an island today, but who knows what tomorrow may bring? Maybe we’ll all wake up tomorrow and the moon WILL be made of green cheese, pigs WILL fly, and McBrien will join up with the SSPX. You never know! And if you hold the opposite view, you are just small-minded and limiting the all-powerful God. So there!
I have a very good, orthodox priest friend from the Sioux City diocese. It sounds like there are a great many problems there. Perhaps not so coincidentally, it is also the diocese that has been without a bishop here in the U.S. for the longest period of time, since Jan. 2004. Pray for the Catholics in this diocese (right next door to the diocese I reside in). They definately need your prayers.