Well, Ed -
I'm in a difficult position defending the Catholic Church and its failure to ordain women or have married clergy in the Latin Rite ("Eastern Rite" Roman Catholics have married priests, but don't ordain women). I want to see those changes, and I've worked toward those changes all my adult life. Still, I'm not ready to leave the Catholic Church because I haven't gotten my way. Part of that is my belief that the Catholic Church is MY church as much as it belongs to every other Catholic. It isn't the Pope's church - he's just the CEO. The Catholic Church isn't ruled by majority vote or by executive authority - when it lives up to its ideals, it's supposed to be ruled by consensus. Consensus is very hard to form, and to change.

But I like the idea of consensus. I'll agree that achieving it is a slow process, and that it requires a lot of patience and tolerance. It's not something most people are used to or comfortable with, but I think it's a good ideal to strive for. And despite the attempt of authorities to make it otherwise, I think that for the most part, the Catholic Church has developed by evolution rather than by the imposition of authority. Try as it will, no authority has ever been able to establish complete control over the human heart.

As for your statement about appeasing older conservatives, what's distressing to me is that many of the most conservative members of the Catholic Church are far younger than I am, and the so-called "liberals" like me seem to be a dying generation. Younger voices in the Catholic Church seem to want the old-time control that Slag speaks of.

The Catholic Church is growing by leaps and bounds in places like Africa. It's a huge presence in South America, even though it is losing many members to the more conservative evangelical churches. It's also very strong in the Philippines, but quite conservative. I like the idea of belonging to a church that has vast numbers of members in Third World countries, even if those people don't quite buy into my middle-class American intellectual Catholic liberalism. It's a bit of struggle for me to be open to their conservative thinking and to attempt to maintain unity and consensus with them, but I think it's worthwhile.

Rapaire, I think it's safe to say that according to legend, Brigid of Kildare may have been a bishop or equivalent, or maybe she wasn't. I don't think you'll find solid evidence to prove one way or another, just as you won't find proof that Mary Magdalen was a bishop or apostle. That's what we need, though - some inspired woman leader of saintly character like Brigid to apply for ordination. Would the Catholic Church have refused ordination to Mother Theresa if she had requested it? People wanted her to be named a saint by acclamation - why not name her a priest by acclamation? Well, because she didn't ask for it.

But it will come. Watch people like Joan Chittister, a towering intellect and former Benedictine abbess who has promoted women's ordination for many years. Sooner or later, the Catholic Church will have a critical mass of strong, spiritual, credible women like Joan Chittister, and the policy will change. Another group to watch is the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, most notably the last Sister Mary Luke Tobin. It will be the strong, hard-working, credible women who will lead the Catholic Church to more equitable treatment of women. The strident women who scream for their "right" to ordination and perform their own ordinations, won't accomplish anything but the separation of themselves from the Catholic Church.

-Joe-