Priestly Ordination

The ongoing discussion about priestly Ordination is riven by the opposing passions of feverish enthusiasm and unrelenting disgust; and it shows no signs of abatement. The rapid implementation of the 1976 Episcopal Convention’s decision approving women’s Ordination fans the flames of these passions. And, because more than one Roman Catholic bishop in the U.S. and abroad is toying with the idea of a trial-balloon Ordination of a few Roman Catholic women, the controversy forces a renewed discussion of the differences that divide Christians. To recall what priestly Ordination entails for the various parties concerned will not necessarily create harmony. On the contrary, perhaps. But it should help us realize that although the different extremes in this battle about Ordination use the same term, they are actually talking about different things.

The two ancient Communions, Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, have traditionally and consistently taken great pains to preserve the precise and specifically theological meaning of the terms Ordination and priest that Christians gave them from the beginning. In these Communions, Ordination is a Sacrament, one of seven, each one specifically instituted by Jesus and unaltered in its substance since Jesus’ time. Ordination is the Sacrament by which the power of priesthood is conferred on a canonically suitable male candidate.

MM

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Malachi B. Martin

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The ongoing discussion about priestly Ordination is riven by the opposing passions of feverish enthusiasm and unrelenting disgust; and it shows no signs of abatement. The rapid implementation of the 1976 Episcopal Convention’s decision approving women’s Ordination fans the flames of these passions. And, because more than one Roman Catholic bishop in the U.S. and abroad is toying with the idea of a trial-balloon Ordination of a few Roman Catholic women, the controversy forces a renewed discussion of the differences that divide Christians. To recall what priestly Ordination entails for the various parties concerned will not necessarily create harmony. On the contrary, perhaps. But it should help us realize that although the different extremes in this battle about Ordination use the same term, they are actually talking about different things.

The two ancient Communions, Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, have traditionally and consistently taken great pains to preserve the precise and specifically theological meaning of the terms Ordination and priest that Christians gave them from the beginning. In these Communions, Ordination is a Sacrament, one of seven, each one specifically instituted by Jesus and unaltered in its substance since Jesus’ time. Ordination is the Sacrament by which the power of priesthood is conferred on a canonically suitable male candidate.