Inter Insignores

With the changes transpiring in the world today, the question of equality, the movement towards change of mentality because cultures and peoples are experiencing mutability of society, and the attitude that promote new things because there are traditions that are no long applicable to the current scheme of things especially in the society. With these encroaching attitude and ideas into the Church and challenging the Church's position on the ordination of women, the Church seeks to reiterate with great fidelity and sincerity its unbroken tradition and fidelity to its identity since the beginning of its existence. On October 15, 1976 Pope Paul VI commissioned the Doctrine of the Faith to write a letter for the Catholic Church to clarify and answer the controversal issue of ordination of women in the priesthood. The Congregation came up with Inter Insigniores which is translated as "among the noteworthy" to lead the Church the clarifying note of a growing concern and controversy. There are 6 points elaborated in the document:

1. Unbroken Tradition- The Catholic Church upholds that she feels having "no right" to change what Jesus Christ began when He chose to have 12 Apostles with Him to continue His ministry. The document outlines the reason for its controversy emergence: first is Gnosticism, which was a heretical group considered by the Church in the first century which admitted women in the priestly functions in the society and religion; second is the modern thought which has the difficulty of "admitting" and it also "rightly rejects." Thus, the letter expresses two important things whenever a controversy emerges: first, the Church is becoming more firm in saying that she has nor right to change, intervene, and break the Church's tradition; second, the more this tradition is under attack, the more the Church desires "to conform to the model left her by the Lord."

2. Attitude of Christ- The tradition of only men are admitted to the priesthood by the Catholic Church derives from the identity of Christ who truly God and truly man where all the mind of God emanates for us to learn and where all attitudes we imitate for daily undertaking exudes. The priesthood of Christ and the preference of male ministers are: a) was not an act that was based on cultural antecedents but it was done by a divine choice; b) was based on the proper role of men and women in the things that matters to God. Jesus had women following Him during His public ministry. He broke the cultural walls of animosity between Gentiles and Jews by attending to the woman at the well, the Syrophoenician woman, and the woman caught in adultery. He allowed women to be first witnesses of the resurrection and made them the first to announce the paschal message; c) was as sign of new path towards the Kingdom. To these men, with the leadership of Peter where the "keys" to the Kingdom was entrusted. Even the Blessed Virgin Mary who surpassed the office of the Apostles, to her it was not given the "keys" to the Kingdom of Heaven it is because each has a role to fulfill in relation to the Kingdom.

3. Ministry and Practice of the Apostles- The bridge between the succeeding centuries and Christ were the Apostles. We expressed and trust in the tenets, the creed, the ministry, and the teachings of the Apostles. One of the important teachings of the Apostles was the capacity to be faithful to the teachings and attitudes of Christ in whom they were all witnesses. Inter Insigniores says: "The apostolic community remained faithful to the attitude of Jesus towards women. Although Mary occupied a privileged place in the little circle of those gathered in the Upper Room after the Lord's Ascension (Acts 1:14), it was not she who was called to enter the College of the Twelve at the time of the election that resulted in the choice of Mathias: those who were put forward were two disciples whom the Gospels do not even mention. "

4. Permanent Value- If there is a thing which is among other things that is an immutable value with Christ and the Apostles, it would be the tradition of men in the priesthood. There are three things that are directly involved here: first, it is the Magisterium of the Church which teaches things that can be mutable and immutable. This keeps the value of the hierarchical nature of the Church. We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit who is at work in a collective leadership. The document says: "In the final analysis it is the Church through the voice of the Magisterium, that, in these various domains, decides what can change and what must remain immutable. When she judges she cannot accept certain changes, it is because she knows she is bound by Christ's manner of acting. Her attitude, despite appearances, is therefore not one of archaism but of fidelity: it can be truly understood only in this light." Second, the Church acknowledges minor and major roles in the function of evangelization. During the time of St. Paul, women took some important roles in the Church but this did not mean that everything has to be changed according to the cultural and social sensibilities. The priesthood was one of the major roles that cannot be changed. The document in fact says: "Adaptations to civilizations and times therefore cannot abolish on essential points, the sacramental reference to constitutive events of Christianity and to Christ himself." Third, it is in conformity to God's plan. The ordination of men to the priesthood is normative in character and it is likewise an unbroken tradition that draws back its history in Christ.

5. Priesthood in the Mystery of Christ- The ministerial priesthood has to be seen in the light of faith. This faith involves the mystery that lies beyond the choice and proposal of admitting women to the priesthood. The document explains: a) in persona Christi- the priest who stands in persona propria and in persona Christi belongs to the realm of sacramental signs. "The Christian priesthood is therefore of a sacramental nature: the priest is a sign, the supernatural effectiveness of which comes from the ordination received, but a sign that must be perceptible18 and which the faithful must be able to recognise with ease. The whole sacramental economy is in fact based upon natural signs, on symbols imprinted on the human psychology: “Sacramental signs,” says Saint Thomas, "represent what they signify by natural resemblance.”19 The same natural resemblance is required for persons as for things: when Christ's role in the Eucharist is to be expressed sacramentally, there would not be this “natural resemblance” which must exist between Christ and his minister if the role of Christ were not taken by a man: in such a case it would be difficult to see in the minister the image of Christ. For Christ himself was and remains a man." b) in persona ecclesiae- the sacramental sign of the priest who stands also in the name of the Church is dependent on the theology of in persona Christi. And so, it is asserted, since the priest also represents the Church, would it not be possible to think that this representation could be carried out by a woman, according to the symbolism already explained? It is true that the priest represents the Church, which is the Body of Christ. But if he does so, it is precisely because he first represents Christ himself, who is the Head and the Shepherd of the Church. The Second Vatican Council used this phrase to make more precise and complete the expression in persona Christi. It is in this quality that the priest presides over the Christian assembly and celebrates the Eucharistic sacrifice “in which the whole Church offers and is herself wholly offered.” The tradition of men ordained to the priesthood retains the value of faith in all arguments against it. Faith could answer the controversy.

6. Priesthood in the Mystery of the Church- The controversy of ordination of women towards the priesthood cannot just be answered in mere social and cultural levels. The ministerial priesthood can be explained by virtue of faith and divine revelation. The document clarifies: a) The Church is a society that is different by virtue of its nature and structure compared to other societies. The Church is not a democratic society. It is hierarchical in nature with the guidance of the Spirit. "Thus one must note the extent to which the Church is a society different from other societies, original in her nature and in her structures. The pastoral charge in the Church is normally linked to the sacrament of Order; it is not a simple government, comparable to the modes of authority found in the States. It is not granted by people's spontaneous choice: even when it involves designation through election, it is the laying on of hands and the prayer of the successors of the Apostles which guarantee God's choice; and it is the Holy Spirit, given by ordination, who grants participation in the ruling power of the Supreme Pastor, Christ (Acts 20:28). It is a charge of service and love: “If you love me, feed my sheep” ( Jn.21:15-17)." b) the Church does not look at the controversy on the ordination of women from the perspectives of human rights, societal changes, and equality of sexes but from the eyes of faith, Tradition, and Divine Revelation. c) Vocation can never be reduced to a personal attraction- It might be an argument that some women had felt that they are called to the priesthood. The discernment of a vocation is includes a knowledge and faith in the history of the Church. It includes the love for the Church. The document clarifies: "It is sometimes said and written in books and periodicals that some women feel that they have a vocation to the priesthood. Such an attraction however noble and understandable, still does not suffice for a genuine vocation. In fact a vocation cannot be reduced to a mere personal attraction, which can remain purely subjective." d) the sacrament of baptism makes us realize that we called to missionaries for the Church. In baptism we received equally the grace of new life but functions variedly in the Church. "It therefore remains for us to meditate more deeply on the nature of the real equality of the baptized which is one of the great affirmations of Christianity; equality is in no way identity, for the Church is a differentiated body, in which each individual has his or her role. The roles are distinct, and must not be confused; they do not favour the superiority of some vis-a-vis the others, nor do they provide an excuse for jealousy; the only better gift, which can and must be desired, is love (1 Cor 12-13). The greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven are not the ministers but the saints."