An Altar of Division in the Catholic Church

Toward the late 1950s, my mom had purchased a cardboard replica of a Church altar for my brother Paul. While he played the role of priest, my twin-sister Pat, and I acted as two parishioners attending mass. Of course, we both also wanted to play the role of priest, but I still remember my brother, Paul, telling us, “you are girls, you can’t be priests.” After Paul finished playing priest, Pat and I would resume that role. A milk-bone pitcher was perfect, it even resembled a chalice, and inside of it was Necco Wafers, which closely resembled the size and shape of the Communion hosts. Wow! were we ever ahead of the times.

Nothing Ever Changes.

Moving ahead to our present moment in time, everything has changed for women, with new evidence of women’s actual roles in our Church; although, in stark reality, nothing has changed for women with Rome’s continuation of its sedentary inaction of doing nothing at all. Just where did Jesus say that women could not assume the roles of deacons, priests, or bishops?

The Compass of Past Presence

Echoing throughout our Church’s history is the compass of past presence. Yet, over the compass of time, within that same past presence has been the virtual disappearance of women’s actual service to our Church. It is very much akin to the phrase, “out of sight, out of mind.” This fact has turned for all practical purposes, into a secret buried virtually in perpetuity over the centuries of time.

Rekindling the Compass of Past Presence

Let us indeed rekindle the compass of past presence to unearth the actual foot-prints of men and women’s roles within our church’s actual history. First, we uncover the men’s footprints, finding married apostles and yes, even married popes. The women’s footprints bring alive their equal positions of being deacons, priests and bishops. The answer to our present-day Priest / Shortage/ Communion Issue is right there in front of our eyes, has been hiding in plain sight.