It's distressing that a post about the propriety or even possibility of female clergy turns out to be some kind of attack bait. But, well when I think of the number of people who, not knowing that I'm in the Church, tell me in all earnestness what "those Catholics" believe -- which has nothing to do with any kind of reality, I've decided that there's just something about the Church that irritates people -- kind of the way Catholics used to irritate me, kind of the way Paul was irritated by those awful Christians. All this anger just might be mere prelude to something wonderful.
Somehow it seems a propos to note that 30 years ago I ran a beach ministry (no! Really! - wonderful summer job!) in Freeport, Texas. Almost daily some guy would ask me how many people I'd saved that day. And I always answered, "Not a one! If anybody got saved today, Jesus saved 'em. I sure didn't." My opinion hasn't changed since I joined the Church. Jesus saves. We might disagree about how, and some of those disagreements might be very important. But it's IHS that does the saving, if any saving is being done.