WOMEN CHURCH WORLD

Readings by Rosa Lupoli

The issue surrounding ordained women's ministries

 La questione dei ministeri ordinati femminili  DCM-004
06 April 2024

Andrea Grillo, L'accesso delle donne al ministero ordinato [Women’s Access to Ordained Ministry],
  San Paolo Edizioni, 2024

I never imagined that the biblical, theological, and doctrinal framework upholding the “male reserve” for access to ordained ministry was built upon such precarious foundations. In his book, Andrea Grillo meticulously examines and deconstructs, from theological and systematic perspectives, the notion of the impossibility for women to enter ordained ministry. It's astonishing how John XXIII's receptivity to contemporary signs in 1963, acknowledging women's growing authority in public, political, and social spheres (which was a major concern according to St. Thomas Aquinas), was largely disregarded by subsequent ecclesiastical authorities. Even today, the issue of “male reservation” remains entrenched in a “non-discussion” mode, teetering on the brink of infallible definition by the pope. Grillo proposes a reevaluation of the shifting social landscape and a reconsideration of the perspective through which we interpret Jesus' choice of male apostles. He poses a crucial question: if there have been debates on the very words of transubstantiation, why has there been an absence of genuine critical discourse on this matter?

Rosa Lupoli is a Capuchin nun in Naples, abbess of the Santa Maria in Gerusalemme monastery known as the Trentatrè, founded by Blessed Maria Lorenza Longo

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