The Pope rules out feminist theology

Telegraph ^ | 03/01/08 | Malcolm Moore

[TigerLikesRooster]

The Pope rules out feminist theology

By Malcolm Moore in Rome

Last Updated: 2:17am GMT 01/03/2008

The Vatican has cracked down on feminist interpretations of the liturgy, ruling that God must always be recognised as Our Father.

In a move designed to counter the spread of gender-neutral phrases, the Holy See said that anyone baptised using alternative terms, such as "Creator", "Redeemer" and "Sanctifier" would have to be re-baptised using the traditional ceremony.

The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith said yesterday: "These variations arise from so-called feminist theology and are an attempt to avoid using the words Father and Son, which are held to be chauvinistic."

advertisementInstead, it said that the traditional form of "Father, Son and Holy Ghost" had to be respected.

The alternative phrases originated in North America and started to become popular only in the past few years.

The new phrases are particularly popular in the Church of England. It was recently reported that guidelines to bishops and priests advised them to avoid "uncritical use of masculine imagery".

The Catholic Church and the Church of England are split over feminist issues.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and the Pope, met in Rome last year, but admitted that the ordination of women priests was a "serious obstacle" to closer ties.

The Pope, who wrote the latest ruling, has been a strong opponent of feminism in the Catholic Church.

In his book, The Ratzinger Report, he wrote: "I am, in fact, convinced that what feminism promotes in its radical form is no longer the Christianity that we know; it is another religion."

Rosemary Radford Ruether, a professor of feminist theology at the Graduate Theological Union in California, said that among "liberal" Catholics, the Pope "is not our Pope".

The Vatican said anyone baptised under the feminist terms could invalidate their marriage. Cardinal Urbano Navarrete, who wrote a formal commentary on yesterday's ruling, gave warning that anyone who attempted to baptise someone with a gender-neutral form would be penalised. "It is seriously illegitimate and unjust," he said.

Monsignor Antonio Miralles, a professor at the Pontifical Holy Cross University, said the new baptism "subverts faith in the Trinity" because it does not make the relationship between the three persons clear. "God is eternally Father in relation to His only begotten Son, who is not eternally Son except in relation to the Father."

Meanwhile, the Pope also spoke out against gay marriage and abortion before his first trip to the United States before Easter. He praised Americans who respected the "institution of marriage, acknowledged as a stable union between a man and a woman".

[kalee]

Rosemary Radford Ruether, a professor of feminist theology at the Graduate Theological Union in California, said that among “liberal” Catholics, the Pope “is not our Pope”.

Then womyn you are not Roman Catholic.

[tlb]

With all due respect to the Pope, he is clearly wrong on this one. God is obviously female.

If God was a male, would he have designed men with only enough blood to operate his brain, or his wallywally, but not both at the same time? Certainly not. Ergo God is a woman, with a sense of humor. QED

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

WTH is feminist theology? I need to get out more often. Never heard of it. Some kind of subset of liberation theology?

[horse_doc]

WTH is feminist theology?

They like to kid themselves that they are hip, and cutting edge. But this is really just a 21st Century version of Asherah worship (goddess worship). Any Jew circa 900 B.C. would recognize it instantly.

It isn't limited to Catholics. Heck, there's even a nominally Lutheran church out in San Francisco that holds a "goddess rosary" every Wednesday night.

And a nominally Presbyterian church here in Austin supports someting called, "The Asherah Project" - it masquerades as a teen pregnancy prevention program, but is really just a way for old bull dykes to get access to young girls (after the abortion, of course).

[mtntop3]

Amen.

[the invisib1e hand]

hmm. can’t wait to see the Reuter’s interpretation of this.

[the invisib1e hand]

Reuters. runaway apostrophe alert.

[the invisib1e hand]

Then womyn you are not Roman Catholic.

And that settles that.

Furthermore, the Roman Catholic Pope is not the leader of the Church of Wicca.

[SuziQ]

The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith said yesterday: "These variations arise from so-called feminist theology and are an attempt to avoid using the words Father and Son, which are held to be chauvinistic."

I'm always amused at the women who, when praying, don't use the male pronoun for God. They will interject "God" instead of "he", and it's hilarious, and extremely annoying, to hear them try to be so PC.

When someone argues that God is neither male nor female, I usually respond that Jesus taught us to call God, "Father", and far be it from me to try to correct Him.

[SuziQ]

Heck, there's even a nominally Lutheran church out in San Francisco that holds a "goddess rosary" every Wednesday night.

Now there's a new one; I didn't even know that Lutherans prayed the Rosary!

[horse_doc]

Now there's a new one; I didn't even know that Lutherans prayed the Rosary!

They don't. And they don't worship Asherah, either.

But I guess that anything goes in San Francisco.

Here's a link. Prepare to barf, repeatedly.

http://www.herchurch.org/

[Salman]

Oh my. The Pope is Catholic.

Shocking! :)

[wastedyears]

Liberals can be Catholic?

[pbear8]

WTH is feminist theology?

Paganism

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Next!