Bless me, Mother ...

It's been kind of a slow church news week, so I haven't had much to comment on (complain about) this week.

My stint as a guest blogger on BustedHalo.com has been a bit more interesting. After a quick exchange on whether JPII deserved the monicker "Great" (me, no; opposite number, of course), we've moved on to women's ordination. And I must say, my "dialogue" partner has some incredibly interesting arguments for a boys-only club. And for a real treat, read "Colorado Catholic's" comment on my Jan. 18 post, " 'Subjected' sex?" CC suggested that I would understand the male-only priesthood if I would just stand naked next to my wife and look in the mirror. Uh huh. He then progresses to how sexual intercourse itself--missionary position, I assume--explains why only men can be priests, to which I have only one response: Gross!

Actually, I'm so bewildered by the logic being offered against women priests that I was driven to use the word "vagina" in a conversation with my mother, as in: "Mom, you won't believe this, but the other blogger thinks women can't be priests because they have vaginas." I've been disturbed ever since. A true lapse in mother-son decorum.

But the more I think about the whole thing, the stupider it seems to me. If Jesus suddenly appeared and handpicked a hundred candidates for ordination, I doubt that even half of them would be male. Of course, since Jesus never ordained anyone to begin with, he'd probably say something like, "Who the hell told you to invent priesthood anyway?"

Mary Magdalene and other the other female disciple and apostles (yes, Saint Paul names at least one!) must be rolling over in their graves.

Here's a link to the Busted blog if you've got time to kill...