CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP

Christian Leadership

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Discussion and Analysis2

History4

Women Religious5

Feminist Theologians7

Conclusion9

Christian Leadership

Introduction

The Roman Catholic Church is one, perhaps the major, expression of Catholic Christianity. However, it is important to note that members of the American Catholic Church, the Old Catholic Church, Women-Church Convergence, and other such groups exist even though the term Catholic is often used synonymously, albeit in error, with Roman Catholic. Each of these groups is part of the larger Catholic tradition insofar as they have roots and ties with the Catholic community. But each has some distinctions as well; for example, the Old Catholics split from Rome over papal infallibility. The important point is that Catholic is a generic term, and Roman Catholic is a particular term. Of course the Roman Catholic Church does not necessarily recognize these groups as Catholic just as these groups do not recognize Rome as central.

The Roman model of church is hierarchical and dualistic. Its structure is top-down, with a small group of ordained men called clergy making decisions for the vast rest of the community, which is referred to as the laity. Because no women have yet been validly and licitly ordained as priests according to the rubrics of the Roman church, though some call themselves Roman Catholic Women priests, all women are lay. Likewise, most men, including men who belong to religious congregations as brothers (not priests), are also laity (Weaver, 1993).

This bright line between clergy and laity is at the heart of the question of leadership in Catholicism. It means that regardless of the talents, training, and willingness to serve of others, only men who become part of the clericus, that is, the caste of those ordained, are eligible for the highest leadership positions (pope and cardinals) and are able to make local decisions in dioceses and parishes (bishops and priests). Such men are expected to be celibate and work in a hierarchical structure with priests reporting to bishops and bishops to the Vatican.

The only exception to this model is that about a hundred men who were ordained as Anglican (Episcopalian in the United States) or Lutheran clergy have been received into the Catholic clergy ranks even though they are married. This is typically because they oppose the ordination of women or take other conservative positions in their denominations of origin and feel more in line with Roman Catholicism.

Discussion and Analysis

The lines of clerical power are so tightly drawn that not even women in religious congregations, nuns or sisters as they are usually called, are autonomous. They do not always have the final say on the leaders they elect, the use of their own property, or the ways in which they conduct their daily life and ministry. All of that is regulated by male authorities from the Vatican. In several incidents—for example, when several dozen women religious signed an ad in The New York Times in 1983 favoring open discussion among Catholics on abortion—the Vatican has obliged the leaders of the nuns to enforce the Roman Church's will on individual ...