THE
P RTAL
May 2019
Joanna Bogle: gender and freedom
W hat is
Male and
female
Page 4
the significance of our being born male and female?
For members of the Ordinariate, this is a subject much
pondered. The question of whether or not Christianity can include
women priests formed a major part of the debates and discussions
that led to a journey into full communion with the Catholic Church.
In recent years, of course, the whole issue of the
two sexes has slithered into complete absurdity, with
massive official promotion of the notion that no
differences between male and female exist, and that
one can “transition” from one to the other. Attempts
to enforce this bizarre idea in the public sphere and
to crush open debate about it have been funded by
you and me: our taxes have been used to give grants of
money to lobby groups promoting “transgenderism”.
A teacher has been punished for greeting a group of
young female pupils as “girls”. A Catholic writer found
the police on her doorstep because she used what was
deemed to be the wrong pronoun in a discussion.
na
wri tes
male Christ,
body and soul, human and divine person. The
priest’s maleness reminds us with Nicea: “ Credo
in unum Deum, PATREM omnipotentem . . . . ”
This is a subject that is of much greater importance
than many had first thought: like so much else in the
unfolding drama of the Church’s life, it has more yet
to teach us. As John Henry Newman observed and
taught, doctrine develops over time. We understand
more and more as the centuries unroll. We know that
Christian priesthood is male: as the doctrine is studied,
we will come to understand more about why. And the
discussion could and should be an enriching one,
nourished by free debate, study, reading, and prayer.
This horrible nonsense has pushed an authentic
discussion about the reality of male and female into
But, in ways that were not imagined in 1992, we may
the background. We need to restore it to its rightful
find that the discussion may take place in very difficult
place, which is an important one.
conditions: speakers banned from university premises,
In 1992, when the Church of England officially people fearful of open debate in case it risks the loss
broke with the Christian centuries and voted for the of a job. The atmosphere around any discussion about
ordination of women priests, a Catholic commentator male and female is currently poisonous, with angry
noted that the basis of this was a form of Gnosticism, lobbyists ready to pounce, and Christians genuinely at
an ancient heresy sometimes known as “Angelism”. risk of punishment for expressing profound truths.
This is the idea that what matters is the purely spiritual
Courage, goodwill, humour and kindliness are
– that our bodies are a sort of encumbrance, that we
can will ourselves to be what we ought and want to all going to be needed – qualities we once liked to
be, that the fleshly reality of our biology should be think were part of a common heritage in Britain,
set aside when we seek true religion. Michael Novak learned through grim experiences of inter-religious
(First Things, Dec 1992) pointed out that this is persecution and cruelties. Oremus.
simply incompatible with the incarnate God, who
You are invited to join the
chose our very human flesh to reveal to us the truths
about his reality.
Rosary Fellowship
“The priest’s maleness is a reminder of the
central role played in our salvation by the
sacramentality of human flesh - not flesh-in-
general, but male flesh. “This is my body,” he says
in the place of Christ, the male Christ. “This is
my blood.” It is not an angel we eat and drink,
not spirit, not a (disembodied) person: but the
For full details and an application form
please contact Br Robert Augustine at:
The Retreat of Our Lady and St Benedict,
63a Wells Road, Walsingham NR22 6DX
[email protected]
01328 820130
Please could clergy bring this initiative to the attention of any of
your people who do not have access to this publication