Recovering Catholic

“Women Can’t Image Christ”? Why the Hell Not!?

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / 2 Comments

It’s been a minute since I’ve gone head-to-head with the Catholic Church, but the Vatican’s most recent statement forbidding women to be ordained as deacons has provided just the right amount of fuel to fan my flames of righteousness.

Before I get into the grisly details, let me start by saying this:

In no way, shape, or form, do I have any interest in being ordained by an institution defined by clericalism deeply rooted in misogyny; and to be honest, I’m a little suspect of women who would want to be ordained into that patriarchal/hierarchical power-hungry fraternity.

That being said, as a woman with a ministerial calling, who considers Jesus her teacher and who has modeled her own ministry on Jesus’ example. I am living proof that a vocational calling to serve is not limited to men. Further, there is scriptural proof that Jesus commissioned women to serve (Mary Magdalene) along with historical evidence of women in the early church who served as both deacons and in priestly roles.

Now let’s get to the grisly details. From the National Catholic Reporter: “A Vatican commission studying the possibility of female deacons reported that the current state of historical and theological research ‘excludes the possibility of proceeding’ toward admitting women to the diaconate.”  In other words, seven men voted against the ordination of women into the diaconate. The justification for this exclusion, stated in a commentary signed by retired Italian Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, was that “women cannot image Christ.”

WHAT?!

It’s one thing for the Church to use big-T tradition, and little t – tradition as it’s excuse for not ordaining women. It’s also a well-known and documented fact that the institution of the Catholic Church has done everything in its power to keep women down, holding women to different standards than men, scrutinizing women saints more ruthlessly than their male counterparts, ignoring and then demonizing the very women Jesus appointed to continue his ministry, etc. etc. etc. We have long known the Church to be a bastion of misogyny, despite their protestations.

Me thinkest they protesteth too much – and this recent statement proves it. In these words, the Church has finally laid bare the truth of their beliefs – women are less than, and therefore unworthy of imaging Christ.

It’s funny to me, really (funny ironic, and funny sad). Because despite everything I was taught and the promises that were made in my own ministerial training within the Catholic Church, I experienced directly the privilege men, especially priests, received in the Church. Men are held to lesser standards than women, afforded greater opportunities, and awarded with advancement and praise. I received the identical education and training as my male counterparts, yet they were rewarded with ordination. I, and my female co-horts were not. When I experienced scrutiny and harassment by the local self-appointed inquisition, the Church did not have my back, instead, it joined the bandwagon.  For the men, with whom I served, who were acting amorally, the Church just looked the other way.

Women have always been treated as “other” in the Catholic Church, but to say that women cannot “image Christ,” is just bad theology!

Isn’t “imaging Christ” exactly what we’ve been taught????? Isn’t this what we were told in twelve years of Catholic school? Isn’t this what scripture invites us to be and do? Aren’t we all called to “be Christ in the world?”

If this is no longer, or has never been true for women, then what’s the point? Why adhere to Jesus’ teachings? Why follow his example? Why “put on Christ” if it’s really only men who can image him?

In saying that women cannot image Christ, regardless of the call to be ordained, the Church has told millions of women throughout history who have called Jesus teacher, served in his name, been the Love he called us to be in the world, that we don’t matter.

And you know what, they’re right. We DO NOT MATTER –  to the Church. We never have. The Church has just pretended we matter because it is the women who have always done the work.

Maybe not anymore. In light of the knowledge of what the Church actually believes about women, maybe we should leave (I technically left long ago). Without those of us who “cannot image Christ,” the Church would collapse. And maybe that’s exactly what the Church deserves.

In the meantime, I still consider Jesus to be my teacher and Mary Magdalene my guide. I continue working on being the Love Jesus calls us to be in the world. I know that despite what the Church says, I am doing my best to “image Christ,” as are all the women I know who hold up Love as their purpose and mission, because the truth is, the Church does not have the power to deny what Christ has already ordained.

Finally, my official response to the Church – a big fat F-you!

I Write Banned Books

/ Lauri Ann Lumby / Leave a comment

With TexASS and FloriDUH leading the charge, the United States is once again having to confront the reality of a very vocal minority seeking to control what information and knowledge children have access to in the public areas of libraries and schools. 

In a recent study, it was determined that TexASS has banned more than 800 books in 22 school districts, closely followed by FloriDUH at 566 books banned across 21 districts. As an advocate of our constitutional right to freedom of speech (which to me implies freedom to read what I want), and as one who believes the decision to monitor a child’s reading lies in the hands of the parents, I am vehemently against banning books.  Furthermore, history has shown us that banning books is a tool of fascism, albeit an ineffective means of control.

That being said, I am proud to be an author whose books have been banned!  WHY?  Because the first thing thinking adults do when we learn of a book that’s been banned, is to go out and buy, and then read it!  We want to know what the fuss is about, while also giving the finger to those who attempt to control our access to information.

To my knowledge, my books have not been banned by any school districts or libraries. Instead, they have been condemned and therefore banned by the Catholic Church!  Could there possibly be a better endorsement than to have one’s book banned by the great and powerful Catholic Church!?   As a recovering Catholic, I consider this to be the best of all possible endorsements.

The presiding bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, for example, once told a friend and colleague that all of my books and anything I have created is forbidden to be used in his diocese. I laughed when I learned of this.  Then I wept for my friend who had spent a year attempting to get permission to teach my Authentic Freedom curriculum at her local parish. The bishop strung her along for a year before dropping this bomb. Apparently, the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her parish priest as a child wasn’t enough of a trauma. The bishop decided to heap on a bit more. (IMO, there’s a special place in hell for men like this!)

If the Church is willing to ban Authentic Freedom (a phrase inspired by Pope John Paul II himself!) for challenging the concept of original sin and providing people with the tools (inspired by the Catholic Contemplative tradition) to be free of the fears and compulsions that keep them from knowing they are LOVE, then you can bet they have banned my novel, Song of the Beloved – the Gospel According to Mary Magdalene.

Song of the Beloved shares the fictional (based in canonical and non-canonical scripture) story of Mary, called Magdalene, and places her in her rightful role as devoted student, companion, and partner to Jesus (yep – that Jesus!).  Mary, once healed of her childhood trauma, is depicted as an eager learner, and empowered leader in her own right, and the one Jesus ordained to continue his ministry. I may have also suggested that they might have been married and (ahem) had sex. Yeah….the Church would definitely ban this book if they’d read it.

Then there’s Only One – the Secret Teachings of Mary Magdalene, which among other things, proposes that Mary, called Magdalene may have had a hand in facilitating Jesus’ resurrection – as Jesus had done in raising Lazarus. Definitely blasphemy!   

Finally, there is Christouch. Christouch is my response to the United States Council of Catholic Bishop’s prohibition statement against Reiki. This prohibition was executed directly in response to my work (and other Catholic women like me) as a Reiki practitioner and inspired by the local diocese’s decision to lead the charge. In Christouch, I lay out the scriptural foundations of healing in the way that Jesus did, and the command he issued to his apostles to go out and heal. Christouch further provides a protocol for embracing that call to be a vessel of God’s healing and the foundational knowledge to further that calling. Christouch directly confronts the Catholic Church’s contention that only priests can be a vessel of healing through the laying on of hands. To this I say: READ YOUR SCRIPTURE!

In short, I believe we are gifted with a brain to reason and discern our own truth and to exercise that truth regardless of what institutional authorities might suggest otherwise. In my case, I say, “go ahead and ban my books, it just makes people want to read them.”

Lauri Ann Lumby

is a writer, author, educator, and mentor who has supported individuals in their journey toward self-actualization for over twenty-five years. Out of the Shadows is Lauri’s most recent and eleventh published work. 

You can reach Lauri directly at lauri@lauriannlumby.com.

Visit Her Amazon Store HERE.