Probing The Politics of Difference: What's Wrong with an All-Male Priesthood?

Though it is often taken for granted that feminists necessarily must condemn the exclusion of women from the Roman Catholic priesthood, the author demonstrates that the “politics of difference,” if pursued consistently, reopens this question. International feminist arguments for honoring gender diff...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gudorf, Christine E. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell 1999
In: Journal of religious ethics
Year: 1999, Volume: 27, Issue: 3, Pages: 377-405
Further subjects:B John Paul II
B Feminism
B Discrimination
B Priesthood
B Roman Catholicism
B Motherhood
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Summary:Though it is often taken for granted that feminists necessarily must condemn the exclusion of women from the Roman Catholic priesthood, the author demonstrates that the “politics of difference,” if pursued consistently, reopens this question. International feminist arguments for honoring gender differences, the teachings of John Paul II concerning women, and Catholic social justice teachings, taken jointly, suggest that the current Catholic exclusion of women from the priesthood is unjust not because the reservation of a social role to a single sex is inherently unacceptable, but because of the asymmetry in power between the roles accorded men and women in the governance of the Catholic Church. To be just, sex-specific reservation of roles must meet the criteria of balance, proportion, power, and particularity.
ISSN:1467-9795
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religious ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/0384-9694.00024