To preface this letter, I'm going to say that I have never done this before and therefore am a Viewpoint virgin. However, I cannot hold my thoughts in any longer for fear of unleashing them upon random passersby. I can't have that on my conscience.
In his Feb. 6 Letter to the Editor "Pope deserves a break," Kyle Tennant spewed enough incendiary comments for me to write a kitschy tell-all memoir a la Mommie Dearest. Although I could write about the fact that the Church, as a community of believers, needs to be in touch with the needs of said community (i.e. third-world poverty, among a laundry list of other concerns), I'm going to instead focus solely on Mr. Tennant's observation about the dwindling number of priests. This is a concern, but it has an obvious solution: Allow the ordination of women priests. Shocker! I'm sure this concept just opened a can of worms on the Notre Dame community, but it seems fairly simple. By allowing the ordination of women priests, the populace that has the potential to be priests doubles. That's math. Also, the ordination of women priests allows for women to enter the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, thereby having an ability to offer their insight onto matters of faith.
I have never once heard a valid reason why women cannot be priests. Ever. I sincerely doubt that having a penis allows men to perform baptisms, and having a uterus prevents the ability to perform the last rites. The argument against the ordination of women priests generally devolves into an argument about tradition. Tradition is important; however, I feel that blanketing an entire issue under this word is just an excuse to exclude a group of individuals from having authority. Lots of traditions prevalent in the past are no longer in practice, such as saying the mass in Latin. However, blatant discrimination upon the grounds of sex (which tends to be frowned upon in most circles) is still a practice of the Church. I may not be the most religious person on the planet, but I will concede that I would be more willing to be an active Church-goer if the church became truly Catholic by including all the people in its community.
Patrick Bears
junior
off campus
Feb. 6