Archbishop missed this one, big time

I listened with great interest to the interview of Archbishop Blase Cupich by Carol Marin, of Channel 11 on "Chicago Tonight" on Feb. 1. The Archbishop is clearly a confident, thoughtful, modulated, warm, even humble man, who answered all questions directly and succinctly.

But, as a Roman Catholic woman, I shook my head once again when he addressed the issue of women being ordained to the priesthood. This is still a non-starter for the Roman Catholic patriarchy, and the surety of its position is forwarded by this new leader of the Chicago Archdiocese.

What I find so disingenuous of the archbishop is his reference to the real issue in priesthood being power. Implied in his remark is that women, who wished to be ordained, would be infected with it, and aspire to priesthood because of it.

Whatever I might find as flaws in perception and practice of priesthood, what the archbishop said is a denial that the call to priesthood is a call to service. He missed that one big time. His elevated sense of engaging a power issue in priesthood is a diversionary tactic. And, no matter how it is sliced, this is an insult to our gender, our intelligence, our maturity and our wisdom.

One might hope that the fact that the archbishop has sisters would lead him to recognize deeply the equality of genders, each being made in the fullness of the image of God. And further, that in the sign of Baptism, male and female, are called to be priests.

Judith C. Heikes

Glen Ellyn