In his May 20 "Your voice" column on church reform, Rich Leonardi stated: "The ordination of women is an ecclesial impossibility. It has been a closed doctrinal issue for 2,000 years."

However, few people know (including myself until just recently) that there were, in fact, female priests in the early church. To what extent they were sanctioned by the church is debatable, as the Christian Church was loosely organized in the first few centuries following the Crucifixion.

Most sources will say that the only "churches" that allowed female priests were pagan ones. This, of course, raises the question of what exactly made them churches.

But the fact is that it was declared by a council of the church in the fifth century that women were not to be ordained as priests. The fact that this declaration had to be made implies that female priests existed in some form.

And the fact that the declaration was made in the fifth century shows that the concept of female priests has not "been a closed doctrinal issue for 2,000 years," but rather was an issue that was disputed for some time, and decided upon merely 1,500 years ago.

No matter to what extent female priests existed in the early centuries or whether they were officially sanctioned by the earthly church, the fact that their exclusion was decided upon by a council of men shows us that this was not the decision of Jesus Christ, the founder and true head of the Christian church, but rather human leaders of the church who lived centuries after him.

It comes as little surprise that women were not excluded from the priesthood from the beginning when one considers that after the Resurrection, according to the Gospel of John, the first person the risen Christ appeared to was Mary Magdalene, whom Jesus then charged with carrying on the good news that all who believe in Christ shall have eternal life. (If this isn't one of the first ever descriptions of a priest's duties, what is it?)

So, by saying that "women are not called to be priests," does that mean called by God or called by the earthly church? That is one very important distinction that we mortals often forget about.

---

Steve Huffman of Clifton is a lifelong Catholic.

Want your voice here?

Send your column or proposed topic, 400 words or fewer, along with a photo of yourself, to assistant editorial editor Ray Cooklis at rcooklis@enquirer.com or call (513) 768-8525.