No Women Need Apply!

The Holy See wants the big Catholic story of 2024 to be the Synod.  I am just Ho-Hum about it.  I didn’t follow much of it.  Pre-Synod, it was made clear that the role of women in the Church was not on the agenda.  Basically, the question of women priests was a non-starter.  But that involves so much more than the Mass and sacraments.

In our life time, we won’t look up at Mass and see anything but a man celebrating the Mass.  But that is not all it means to eliminate women as priests.  Besides being ministers of sacraments, it precludes women automatically from any role that requires priesthood.  There are a few in the Church, very important ones. 

As a Canon Lawyer dual degreed in civil law, I cannot aspire to be a Judicial Vicar, the person who rules a Tribunal in a diocese.  That is not working out for them and so many Diocesan Tribunals have inaugurated the position of  “Director of the Tribunal”.  I could do that if I did all the heavy lifting and the “real Judicial Vicar” signs off on the Director’s work, without note, without attribution.  Practically all the Tribunal Directors I know are women.  Face it, with the dearth of priests we are facing, it’s a very good thing that there are women willing to take on this thankless (for them) work.  I won’t even go into how poorly paid they are.

I cannot be a Judge in many cases.  I cannot be the lead judge in those cases involving a three judge panel. Again, I can do all the work and get no credit.  Marriage/Annulment cases are not beyond lay people serving as judges but that is usually when a Tribunal is desperate for those worker bees. Then the diocese will jump through all hoops of technicalities to meet staffing needs, that in the end, the Bishop must approve.

According to Canon 1421 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law: "Only a priest can act as a judge in a case of a penal matter. A layperson, however, can serve as a judge in cases other than penal cases, as long as they meet certain qualifications."

Think about that, the Judge in a priest’s sexual abuse of a minor case has to be a priest!  Anyone but me see something wrong with this picture?  I have advocated in many penal cases and the Diocesan Review Boards make a big show of allowing women on that Board.  This is a group that makes recommendations to a Bishop in a sexual abuse cases, which he is not required to accept.  But when it comes to the Trial, the real deal in these cases, only priests need apply for Judgeships. 

So to sum up, I cannot, because I am female and a lay person,  serve my Church as a Judicial Vicar, a Judge, Pastor, Bishop, Archbishop, Cardinal, Pope,  Chaplain, Vicar General, Exorcist or Papal Legate, for sure.  And really that is just a tip of the iceberg.  There is Cardinal Ranjith in Sri Lanka who just banned all females from serving as altar servers.  I was a Mass Lector in my parish for thirty years before Pope Francis said that was ok!

I would be happy if our Church could open the role of Judicial Vicar or Judge to allow lay people to serve in all canonical roles.  I don’t have a vocation to be a priest like many women believe they have.  But I would be a good Judicial Vicar and Judge.  But that’s off my Church’s (Synod) agenda.  Though small, it would be a good step forward.