Which letter would you send to the pope?

"prance about the sanctuary"? Is that what deacons do?

Van Slyke's, a thousand times.

I think it's kind of shocking that Mr. Van Slyke would refer to altar service by women during Eucharist as "prancing about the sanctuary in clerical garb." His contempt for women is evident.

Van Slyke's most telling sentence:

"Having taught at undergraduate institutions, I can attest that the average young woman has no more interest in being a permanent deacon than the average young man."

"Having taught at undergraduate institutions..." says it all. Van Slyke's last paragraph in his open letter indicates a Catholic machismo that will warm Ratzinger's heart. joe yankech

Van Slyke's letter.

Van Slyke who?
Have you read what he wrote and the responses? What a bunch of Pharisee Temple Police!
Thank God they are statistically insignificant!

Your Holiness:
Congratulations on a most brilliant strategy! The more I continue to read the texts from the New Roman Missal http://www.usccb.org/romanmissal/, the more I see the genius behind your plan in directing the Opaque Voices of Vox Clara to make the English SO BAD next Advent, they'll be BEGGING FOR LATIN by Lent.
Excelsior!

"Millions of women have lived their Catholic faith and have made inestimable contributions to the Church without any desire to prance about the sanctuary in clerical garb."

So have millions of men.

Which one would I send? No contest; the orthodox one by Mr. Van Slyke.

Without a doubt, I would sign VanSlyke's letter. One of he reasons that the Episcopal Church is in schism is because of women's ordination. Ask the 55 young women who last summer entered traditional Dominican communities which letter they would sign.

Dear Pope,

Wazzup.

Hey, resign, ok?

But first reinstate the Reverend Father Roy Bourgeois MM and his brother Maryknoller, the Reverend Father Miguel D´Escoto, and HIS truly Sandinista brother the Reverend Father Ernesto Cardenal, and embrace the Reverend Father Tisa Balasuriya, begging of all their forgivenesses, and of all those to late in this life now to beg forgiveness, having gone on to their eternal reward,and of our Holy Mother Church, and the eternal damage done her for over a quarter century now, in the spirit of what we read in this Sunday past´s holy readings.

Ok?

Thanks, dude.
And cancel that whole santo subito thingie for he whom you owe it all, and replace that corrupted and unholy proceeding with canonization for Monsenor Romero and Ita Ford and Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan and Father Ellacuria and holy companions, and really truly Catholic saints like that.

And boot the entire College of Cardinals, replacing them all with people who truly love and know our Holy Mother Church, you know, like the Reverend Sister Joan Chittister OSB and the Reverend Father John Dear SJ, and your own old professor, Hans Kung.

For starters.

But above all else, dude,
RESIGN!

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Charles J. Scanlon

I'd go with Daniel van Slykes. I actually support women as deacon's but I found Zagano's letter to be insulting. Matriarchy, you know, parallels patriarchy when it comes to snarkiness. The more I read about it, the less I like th snarkiness and would like to see the issue more well documented and expressed. Otherwise, she just comes across as a Pope bashing matriarch.
Van Slyke captures this.

"Prance[ing] around the sanctuary in clerical garb" is for men alone?

While Ratz seems obsessed with liturigcal haute couture but I don't know many priests interested in fashion shows, liturgical or otherwise, and I doubt that is what is calling women to holy orders.

"without any desire to prance about the sanctuary in clerical garb.."
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How embarrassing! So, I suppose, because men aren't as occupied as women, they have the liberty "to prance about the sanctuary in clerical garb."

Surely, he is being sarcastic, or, does he really think so vacuously. A professor at Kennrick-Glennon Seminary? What does that say about priests coming from that seminary? The women I know can do more than one thing at a time without need of pomp and circumstance. What a condescending comment. The letter shames me as a man. I wonder how the pope will take it.

The latter.

I think there is room for both ordained men and women. Why are we so uptight? The Lord loves us all equally and doesn't think of one sex superior than the other. Our own insecurities and grasp for control and power have led us to this point. Discrimination is certainly nothing the Good Shepherd would support.

If I had to vote, I'd vote for Ms. Zagano as at least she is moving forward toward the meaning of the Gospel and in unity with the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Have no idea where Mr. van Slant is coming from other than the dysfunctional ideas of holding onto control and power.

Not, that is, until the young woman in question has been radicalized by professors such as Zagano and her like-minded colleagues, who dominate theology and religious studies programs in colleges and universities across the country
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So of course men who dominated theology and religious studies programs over the centuries have never radicalized their like minded colleagues? Amazing how blind patriarchal men and women can be when the boot is on the other foot!

I would sign on to Van Slyke's letter!

By virtue of possessing an I.Q. over 3, Van Slyke naturally.

Well Van SLyke has one thing correct, we observe the men who presently "prance around the sanctuary" with their dresses. Personally I would like to see women prance around the sanctuary in dresses, but that's just me.
But, let's stop this nonsense and be honest, there should be no more debate about the ordination of women. If we are brutally honest we can say, what's the problem we have been ordaining them for years!!!

Get real. I can't believe you actually gave van Slyke any acknowledgement in your column. He is nothing but a third-rate professor at a second-rate theological college. This is an attention grab to further his career in Benedict's new and improved restoration. His thinly veiled misogyny is painful to read, as well as his contempt for the gospel message.

It is too bad that the second person of the trinity was born in male form with male body parts. Had the second person been born in female form with female body parts, the men today would be correctly asserting their rights as the women are today. The divinty of Christ springs not from his human form or his human body parts; it springs from his spiritual essence, which could as well have been born in female form. Women today CAN stand in persona Chrisi!

Zagano's, but replacing "deacon" with "deacon and priest" in every instance.

Oh, and also "bishop" and "cardinal" while we're at it.

TRUTH “Changes Everything”
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If I were to write a letter to Pope Benedict XVI (and the bishops,) this is what I would tell them, “truth liberates from the bondage of error.”

The religious/cultural supposition that the female person, physically and psychologically derives originally from the male person, and is therefore beholden to him (“secondary”) in everything is a given of patriarchal faith as advanced in the Garden of Eden Creation Mythology.

Evolution history reveals that the separation of the sexes is a metagenetic process in which “femaleness” reproduced its kind by cell division and the within encoding of DNA. DNA coding evolved complexity mechanisms that tended toward greater mixing of phenotypical and genotypical outcomes by way of separating gametes (female and male) that insured greater potentials of differences, not sameness. If anything, the male sex is derived from the female.

The truth of informed evolution trumps the false presumption of “religious” history. Walter Brueggemann is right in his assessment: "Adam, that is, mankind, has a partner and mate, adamah, land. Humankind and land are thus linked in a covenantal relationship, analogous to the covenantal relationship between man and woman ... unfortunately, in our society we have terribly distorted relationships between man and woman, between adam and adamah, distortions that combine promiscuity and domination.... Likely, we shall not correct one of these deadly distortions unless we correct them both". [Bernard Evans & Gregory Cusack, Editors, "The Theology of Land", 1987, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota]

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977542405

Sylvester L. Steffen

Sorry, Van Slyke: women should be able to adopt this clerical anthem as well as men –

See the pretty girl in that mirror there
Who can that attractive girl be?
Such a pretty face
Such a pretty dress
Such a pretty smile
Such a pretty me!

I feel stunning
And entrancing
Feel like running and dancing for joy
For I'm loved
By a pretty wonderful boy