Letter of Kieran O’Mahony to the Tablet
Has the Holy Father made a mistake in not permitting the ordination of women, even initially only to the diaconate? The exclusion of women from ministry can be traced not only to tradition but also to an erroneous reading of the evolution of “church” and its ministries. In common with many other biblical scholars, I would affirm the following. Firstly, the historical Jesus encountered very few non-Jews.
For the past week the media have been full of the altercation between the judge and the Christian Brothers. I have been saddened by the whole affair. Sad, of course, for the many people whose lives were damaged by various forms of abuse at the hands of certain brothers.
But also sad for the brothers themselves, the majority of whom did not abuse anybody, but gave great service in their schools, and opened up possibilities for generations of young men, especially in the second half of the last century.
In the almost fifteen years now since I was suspended from ministry as a priest, I have regularly complained about the lack of due process in the dealings with my case, and also the fact that there was no appeals process. Now I discover that I was wrong. There is an appeals body in the Curia. It is known as the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, and it is an established body within the Vatican, and one of its functions is to deal with cases of the removal of a priest’s ministerial faculties.
