Guest opinion: Catholic women priests served church before, can do so now | The News-Press | news-press.com

by John W. McNally  He is secretary of the Catholic Call to Action Conference of Southwest Florida. He lives in Estero

Scripture scholars now realize that Jesus did not ordain anyone, and that the first bishops and priests to serve the church were installed long after Jesus had left the Earth. They probably came to be as a result of the destruction of the Jewish temple in 76 A.D. and the consequent demise of the Jewish priesthood. At any rate, the Bible indicates that Jesus thought women and men were equals and should be treated as such.

Our Catholic bishops today like to characterize themselves as successors of the apostles. However, most of the apostles were dead and gone before we ever had any bishops in our church….

Dorothy Irvin, a local scholar, has done a lot of research in Rome and early Christian sites and located engraved inscriptions which depict women as bishops and priests. And up until the ninth century, women were being ordained as deacons.

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The citation below regarding Ms. Irwin is taken from:  http://www.cbeinternational.org/?q=content/chicago-one-day-speakers

Dorothy Irvin (ThD) has a pontifical doctorate in Catholic theology from the University of Tuebingen, Germany, with specialization in Bible, Ancient Near Eastern studies, and archaeology. She has taught theology at several Catholic universities; published a book on the Old Testament and a commentary on the three Sunday Scripture readings for the entire three-year lectionary cycle; and contributed articles to books, journals, and encyclopedias. She has been on the staff of an archaeological project in Jordan for nineteen years. Most recently, she has begun presenting, in the form of annual calendars, her work on the archaeological documentation of women in the early church who were deacons, priests, and bishops.

Conference Topic: Women Ministers in the Early Church: The Archaeological Documentation with visual presentation
A major reason against women as head pastors is that we have no history of them serving as such in the early church. They are a modern innovation, and therefore suspect! But is this true? The archaeological material begins about the time the New Testament canon was being completed; it includes frescoes, mosaics, sculpture, and tomb inscriptions (in Latin and Greek) attesting to women as synagogue leaders, prophets, stewards, deacons, presbyters, and overseers