Dear editor,
I commend the Vatican for reaffirming the attempted ordination of women as a ``grave crime.”At first sight it may seem that the demands of radical feminism in favor of a total equality between men and women are extremely noble and, at any rate, perfectly reasonable.
However, this kind of emancipation of women signifies that sexuality is no longer rooted in anthropology; it means that sex is viewed as a simple role, interchangeable at one’s pleasure. Logically this means that the whole being and the whole activity of the human person are reduced to pure functionality.
Women, who are creative in the truest sense of the word by giving life, do not ``produce," however, in that technical sense valued by a society that worships at the foot of efficiency.
Ultimately, the emancipation proffered by radical feminists results only in women conforming themselves to a culture of production that seeks nothing but profit and power.The Catholic Church holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons.
These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and his living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church.
In calling only men as his Apostles, Christ acted in a completely free and sovereign manner. In doing so, he exercised the same freedom with which, in all his behavior, he emphasized the dignity and the vocation of women, without conforming to the prevailing customs and to the traditions sanctioned by the legislation of the time.
There are countless other ways that women might serve the Church which are no less faithful to the Gospel. In fact, Pope John Paul II has stated in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis that ``The greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven are not the ministers but the saints.”
Paul Kokoski Hamilton, Ontario, Canada opinion@koreatimes.co.kr