Women Priests and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Heresy
COMMENTARY
Women Priests and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Heresy
FATHER JERRY POKORSKY | APRIL 6, 2023 | 9:34AM EDT
https://cnsnews.com/commentary/father-jerry-pokorsky/women-priests-and-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-heresy
Italy, Tuscany, Florence, Basilica di Santa Maria Novella.Coffered barrel-vaulted chapel surrounding the Holy Trinity. (Photo by Fotografo\Agenzia\Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
The “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) heresy undergirds the LGBTQ agenda and the promotion of female ordination. The diversity component stresses our differences more than unity (family, tribal, national, or religious). The equity component is unachievable because there will always be differences in physical and intellectual abilities and opportunities. The inclusion component is unintelligible. Why does it exclude pro-life Christians, for example?
The DEI heresy views man as a “ghost in a machine” with interchangeable parts. The various forms of sexual debauchery derive from the heresy. Church teaching is realistic: Man is an embodied spirit. Our masculine and feminine attributes express who we are.
Within the context of sound doctrine (based on Scriptures, Sacred Tradition, and Magisterium), theologians are free to speculate under the watchful eye of the Church. The study of theology – like Mary’s pondering of the Angel Gabriel’s greeting – deepens our understanding of God’s revelation.
Let’s consider a rebuttal of the DEI ideology based on the Catholic theology of "sacramental sexuality."
The Incarnation rescues us from the DEI heresy that separates our bodies from our souls. In His Person, Jesus reconciles God and man. Saint John reinforces the unity of body and soul and heavenly compatibility with earthly realities: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” (Jn. 1:14)
Our bodies express our souls. The separation of body and soul at death is unnatural and is the consequence of sin. God restores the fullness of our created nature with the reunification of body and soul during the resurrection of the dead at the end of time. We encounter God through the “matter and form” of the Sacraments. Catholics do not denigrate God’s good creation.
Our body has an indispensable communal or “nuptial” meaning. The “community of persons” is inherent in the revelation of the creation of man: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Gen. 1:27) “Man” is an indispensable theological term that includes “male and female” in union with each other. Their love is faithful, exclusive, and open to children. Catholic communion, equal dignity, and complementarity extend universally to the culture and society.
Adam mediates God’s love to Eve. Men and women share equal dignity as images of God, and their masculinity and femininity are complementary. In Genesis, Eve conceives a child: “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, ‘I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.’” (Gen. 4:1) Eve recognizes her child as a gift from God, and Adam mediates God’s love. His mediation is spiritual (his love for a woman as his wife) and physical (his physical embrace as a male). The marital embrace is sacramental: an outward sign of God’s love as mediated by a man.
The child is God’s gift through Adam. As Eve recognizes the child as God’s gift through Adam as the Father’s “go-between,” she rejoices in her child but does not presume ownership. She actively receives the love of God through Adam’s marital embrace. She recognizes her child as a child of God and His gift to her and Adam. Humbly recognizing Adam's role as mediator prevents treating children as selfish possessions – or even disposing of them in abortion.
Fatherhood: Jesus expands the meaning of fatherhood without denying its physical attributes. He joins Adam’s physical fatherhood with Divine Fatherhood. “Call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.” (Mt. 23:9) Adam’s fatherhood – physical and spiritual -- participates in the Fatherhood of God. A man who violates God’s Fatherhood through immorality – abusing his sexuality or his wife or children -- relinquishes his right to identify as a father until he converts.
Motherhood: Eve does not say concerning her child, “My body, my choice.” She doesn’t possess her children, and she doesn’t exclude Adam from their lives. With Adam as a “go-between” or mediator of God’s love, the parents acknowledge their humble roles as good stewards of God’s gifts in loving communion. Their children are, above all, begotten of God and destined for heaven. Parental masculinity and femininity together reflect God’s abiding love for His children.
Male and female traits intersect up to a point. The love of a woman also mediates the love of God. But the mediation of Eve is distinctly different from the mediation of Adam in the marital embrace. Adam actively receives the love of Eve but according to the holy ensemble of the same marital embrace. Eve, not Adam, conceives a child. Adam mediates human life according to the specific pattern of God’s creation.
A mother nurtures her child with distinctly feminine attributes, and a father also cares for a child in his masculinity. But a father cannot sustain a child as a mother feeds her child at her breast. The first word a child usually learns is "momma." Psychologists suggest the GPS default voice is female because an unborn baby first hears its mother's voice. Eve nurtures human life according to the specific pattern of God’s creation.
God created us as body-soul composites. Our bodies express who we are. We communicate our behavior as males and females with the family as the bedrock of society. Female ordination denies the nuptial character of God’s Covenant and spiritually mutilates men and women.
As we recognize the nuptial dignity of male and female as God created us, we advance on the tranquil path of Catholicity (rather than “diversity”), complementarity (instead of “equity”), and communion (an “inclusion” that marries heaven and earth).
