Labels and Priestesses

I don't trust people who make a big deal of not liking labels. You know the type:

"Oh, I don't like labels, it just simplifies what I believe, etc., etc."

In the matter of how one lives one's faith, a professed avoidance of labels invariably means that the label-hater is a heretic.

"Oh, I would never call myself orthodox or obedient or blah blah blah woof woof woof woof...[discourse on how labels stamp out nuance, so forth and so on]" generally can be translated into "well, I am uncomfortable with being lumped into the category of Cafeteria Catholic, but really I am one."

I recall reading one well-loved and generally orthodox writer (who objects to labels) say that while she upheld the teachings on ordaining women, she could still see some sort of future where the church did ordain women. I suppose when she looks at her radical feminist crystal ball she can also see a future when billy goats give birth to whales, too.

I have a good label for this person: heretic. If the pointy hat fits...

If one is too cowardly to wear the label orthodox, faithful, etc., then let him wear his sanbenito.

Of course the whole reason that I got to thinking about labels and heretics was thinking about the evil of ordaining women. I have decided that of all the evils in the world, none is so great as the movement to ordain women.

All the holocausts, genocides, abortions, sodomy, Communisms, and New Left folk anthems are really the sort of evil that one must assume, given man's fallen nature. They really are straightforward sorts of evil: one succumbs to pride, envy, etc. to the point that it consumes the person, and then one does gravely evil things to bring about some sort of crude remedy.

There is a cure for all of this, although it is lengthy and designed to work with our Free Will, with the full understanding that our free will has some nasty habits. The cure is Grace, which finds its way to us through the sacraments.

Now, the evil of going out and killing a people because of their eye color is bad. No one but a lunatic will defend this sort of business. But it is pretty much a straightforward sort of evil: A kills B and B's folks kill A and A's folks... and so on. Rage, revenge, human, all too human. The cycle can be broken by the Gospel and a life lived in the Sacraments.

So, what better way to perpetuate all the evils of the world than to attack the heart of the sacraments: namely the sacramental priesthood. Of course, following the human, all too human way, Pride, Envy, Greed, all of the Seven figure in. First the priesthood is seen strictly in terms of Power, thus Envy gets a foot in the door. Then comes Pride, as seen in the PBS documentary on the Holy Father, where some woman was in tears talking about her unfulfilled vocation. On and on.

But the real danger is that striking at the priesthood strikes at all the sacraments.

Of course Protestantism struck at the priesthood, but by openly wanting to abolish it and the sacraments, it became very clear what the agenda was. It is really pretty straightforward: Satan uses Pride to strike at God's Church through the tool of the Protestant revolutionaries. But you know who is on whose side. After a few natterings to the contrary, it was quite clear that the heresiarch Luther was not interested in changing the Catholic Church, so much as he was in changing the Scripture and starting his own church.

No one can seriously claim that Henry VIII had any interest in reforming the Roman Curia. Rather, like a proto-Andrew Sullivan, Hank Tudor was all about service to his sex-life (imagine the father of the church of Gene Robinson!), masked in his concern for a male heir.

However, the suburban liberals who want to see women in alb and stole are not claiming to want to start a new church (although it sure would be easier if these persistant heretics just went off and joined a heretic church), but want to strike at the heart of the Catholic Church, the only Church that contains the totality of Truth.

As such these people must be resisted with every ounce of our energy. I would go so far as to say that fighting those who wish to ordain women is the top priority in the world today. And we must start by calling heretics heretics, even if they "object to labels!"

Posted by erik at July 5, 2004 3:39 PM | TrackBack