"I have come to bring fire to the earth", says Jesus What is that fire of the 2013 Pentecost? That fire, might well be the Holy Spirit renewing the face of the Church as a woman.

I concur with Archbishop Andre Leonard of Brussels, when he says, that the " New evangelization will never be possible without women who are proud and happy to belong to the Catholic Church". Andre Leonard is the president of the Belgian bishops' conference and these words of his were given at the Synod on Evangelization in Rome in November of 2012.

Imagine, he says, the " NEW EVANGELIZATION WILL NEVER BE POSSIBLE, WITHOUT WOMEN who are proud and happy to belong to the Catholic Church." This has enormous ramifications for the on-going mission of the Church. Is anyone, especially at the Vatican, paying attention to this man's words? Probably not!

In vain, will the builders labor in Pope Francis's Vineyard, if he ignores the "women's issue". His goals and objectives for his Pontifical Plan will go for naught, I guarantee, if he dismisses the women's agenda. This "dismissing" is what I call the worst manifestation of clericalism. Ironically, Pope Francis has stated that "clericalism is a problem", but just as I feared, there is an aspect of clericalism, that Pope Francis, might well be blind to. I believe, the late Father Bernard Lonergan, referred to this blind spot as SCOTOSIS, in his major work, "Insight". That could be the topic of another blog, "The Scotosis of the Church".

Though, Pope Francis is seen by many, including myself, as a "sign of spring" for the Universal Church, he may be overlooking, indeed, deliberately ignoring certain aspects of the women's issue. This will create a major difficulty for the Church and could spell its final demise. The Pope had prayed that he would not become proud and do what he wants, and not what Christ wants. Disallowing women to exercise their gifts of teaching, preaching , and presiding is more than likely, not doing what Christ wants. Christ cannot bless the "work and mission" of the Church, while, there is such a pervasive clerical rebellion at hand. Such a SCOTOSIS! While Pope Francis, believes, the Church's mission, to the poor, is the priority, he must also recognize, the poverty of the poor, with the on-going stymied efforts of the Holy Spirit to bring the women into their full and equal partnership in ministry. Archbishop Leonard states:

""Without joyous women who are recognized for all of their qualities" and who are proud of belonging to the church, "there will be no new evangelization.".
He called on church leaders to "never hesitate to entrust more important roles to women in the life of the church. We must find new and strong ways to do this," he said.

Interestingly, Archbishop Leonard says that women must be recognized for all of their qualities. I wonder if some of those qualities, in his mind, are preaching, teaching, and presiding? No doubt, he is making reference if not to these gifts, at least, to women's abilities to organize and govern.

Archbishop Leonard says that church leaders must find new and strong ways to entrust more important roles to women. The link to the article about Archbishop Leonard and his comments at the synod is: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1204274.htm

One of the those new and strong ways, for women to be given more important roles in the Church, is being considered in Germany, with a possible diaconate for women, that is seen to flow from baptism. While this may not seem to raise women to the heights of greatness with the priests, I believe, we ought to accept the crumbs from the clerical table, because the Lord will no doubt create loaves of bread, with those crumbs. The link to this article is: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1302058.htm

A women's diaconate of this kind, that is, one that is understood to be a deepening of the call of the Royal Priesthood, might well set the Church on a course which is not only helpful to women, but, in fact, leads to the full empowerment of the laity, men and women.

Archbishop Leonard acknowledges that two-thirds of the Church's evangelizers are women. He says, ""Two-thirds of active members of the church are women," and the primary evangelizers are usually women, "however many women feel discriminated against by the church," .

Archbishop Leonard says that the PRIMARY EVANGELIZERS ARE USUALLY WOMEN! I ask then, why aren't women allowed to preach? They are indeed discriminated against by the Church, and this is what the Archbishop acknowledges.

There is no doubt in my mind, that the Lord wants the women, whom he has called and graced, with the charism of preaching and teaching, to be sitting as it were, on the proverbial hillsides", championing the New Evangelization. However, the Institutional Church can't see this, because?.....you got it.....SCOTOSIS!

Preaching is supposed to accompany presiding at Eucharist. It is my contention that our traditional understanding of "Holy Orders" and what that means for priestly ministry needs to be re-examined. The work of presiding ought to flow from baptism and our relationship with Christ. Please see the following link:. It is an article entitled: Celebrating the Eucharist without a Priest?, by Peter Trummer. The link is http://www.womenpriests.org/theology/trummer.asp

Peter Trummer is an unknown person to me, but it would appear from his article, that he has a theological background. He emphasizes that the clerical order has a monopoly on the ministry of the Eucharist, and this simply ought not to be the case. Presiding at the Eucharist ought to flow from our baptismal calling and from the lay people's faith and education. He says, as I have said, that, those who preside, ought to be chosen from the community, and installed by a bishop. However, this installation would not be understood in the way, that the reception of Holy Orders has been understood. The installation of lay persons is a " laying on hands" to denote a commissioning.

When all is said and done there is more to the New Pentecost than the empowerment of women. There is also a new evangelization, a new governance, and the emergence of a new laity. However, no aspect of this New Pentecost can be achieved without the women and their gift of feminine power, a power whose source is Jesus Christ.

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