I was recently reading an article about the Danube Seven. If you are not familiar with this group of ladies,  allow me to quote the Wikipedia link to give you the background;  ” The Danube Seven — Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, Adelinde Theresia Roitinger, Gisela Forster, Iris Muller, Ida Raming, Pia Brunner and Angela White (the last a false name given to the public by Dagmar Braun Celeste, the Austrian born former first lady of Ohio in the United States) — are a group of seven women from Germany, Austria and the United States who were ordained on a ship cruising the Danube river on 29 June 2002 by Rómulo Antonio Braschi, an Independent Catholic bishop whose own episcopal ordination was considered ‘valid but illicit’ by the Roman Catholic Church.^{[1]” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danube_Seven}

The article goes on to state that these women were subsequently excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church and the Vatican had a few words to say about the matter: “ Pope John Paul II wrote of the theological impossibility of ordaining women, arguing that the action is unfounded in holy scripture and absent from the church’s bimillenial tradition. Pope John Paul II maintained that it is ontologically impossible for the church to ordain women because the priesthood is a participation in the relational aspect of the Trinity which is dependent on a masculine nature.”

LIGHT BULB MOMENT!  It was then that I realized the real reason why women will never be ordained by the Roman Catholic Church.  Dissenters can blame the history of the church and its patriarchal hierarchy.  The church can point to the last supper and scripture and say that Christ intended the ritual to be performed by men.  Phooey on all of it!  The problem is that Christianity as a whole sees the Trinity as being masculine in nature.  Father, Son, Holy Spirit…all male.

So basically, some time during the birth of the Christian church, some guys got together and decided that the Holy Spirit was masculine. Oh wait, yes, it was called the  First Council of Constantinople.   The Bishops at the First Council of Nicaea (which predated Constantinople)  spent most of their time arguing whether “The Son” existed before the Father or was begotten of the Father.  They didn’t have time to discuss the Holy Spirit or the Trinity because it was more important to get a liturgical date for celebrating Easter.

Perhaps you are not as disturbed by this as I am, but their is a critical flaw in this view of the Trinity and it can be cleared up in the first TWO verses of the Bible, ” In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was^[a] on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” GEN 1:1-1:2, NKJV

According to this scripture there is God and there is the Spirit of God.  God creates, Spirit births.  God begat Jesus, the Spirit gave birth through the vessel of Mary. God, the Father: Holy Spirit, the Mother; Son, the Word made flesh.  It is how we are all created, it is how nature reproduces.  We are created in His/Her image.  It is so simple, yet the Church has spent centuries defending its masculine Trinity and actually contradicting its own language in an effort to keep the Trinity masculine.

Until Christianity can recognize the feminine aspect of God the Catholic Church will not ordain women.  I think I have a new mission…

Blessings,

Susan