Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: MNHCC@cunyvm.bitnet Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: ambitious women may approach the altar now ... Message-ID: Date: 2 Jun 91 05:14:05 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: City University of New York/ University Computer Center Lines: 36 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Brian, You say Blacks were not allowed into the Catholic priesthood until the last two or three centuries. That is contrary to fact. The early Church spread across North Africa and south at least as far as Ethiopia. Many bishops and theologians, such as St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the most influential theologians in the history of the Church, were from North Africa, as were several popes. The most famous was St. Victor I (189-199) who is best known for asserting the authority of the Bishop of Rome over the Bishops of Asia Minor in the Easter Question. After Muslims conquered North Africa and after the Coptic and Ethiopian Churches went into Monophysitism the question did not have much practical significance until Europeans started visiting sub-Saharan Africa. You say further that God sent the Messiah to Earth in a male-dominated area and in a male-dominated culture. God chose the Jews. If He had wanted to choose a matriarchal society for the birth of the Messiah, He could have done so. He probably would have had to create such a society, because so far as I know there is little if any solid evidence that there has ever been a truly matriarchal society, but He could have done that if He had wanted to. More to the point, the Church very quickly expanded beyond her Jewish base to encompass many Gentiles. Priestesses were not at all uncommon in pagan religions of the area. If Christians, who had ceased to observe large parts of the Jewish ritual law, had ordained priestesses, the pagan converts would have seen nothing unusual about it. Incidentally, you ask, "Is the Trent-ian teaching of 'God is indeed provable from natural science' infallible?" Where did the Council of Trent teach that? It seems highly improbable, both because the Council of Trent had more important matters to concern it--reforming the Church and countering the new doctrines of Protestantism--and because natural science was not a major part of society at that time. Perhaps you are thinking of the First Vatican Council's definition that the existence of God can be known by unaided human reason (NOT by natural science). Marty Helgesen