Can a hermaphrodite be ordained into the priesthood?

[Andrew49]

Santa Clara University theology professor says Church had long history of ordaining women that ended because of “virulent misogyny”. Gary Macy, a professor of theology at Jesuit-run Santa Clara University, told attendees at a Monday night lecture at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee, there is little room for historical doubt that women were ordained in the Catholic Church until about the end of the 12th century.

According to Macy, until about the mid-12th century, women were ordained as deaconesses, served as bishops, distributed Communion and even heard confessions. “Women were considered to be as ordained as any man… they were considered clergy,” he said.

By the middle of the 12th century a profound change occurred in the Church’s understanding of the concept of ordination, largely as a consequence of political considerations as the Church sought to protect its property from feudal lords by inventing “a separate clerical class.” Theologians came to view women as “metaphysically different from other people,” so that, by the mere fact of being female, women were considered incapable of being ordained. Canonists adopted the position, “Women were never ordained, are not ordained now, and can never be ordained,” said Macy. ..... he change in Church thinking on women’s ordination poses a dilemma for theologians, said Macy, because, if the ordinations of women during the first 1200 years of the Church were “not real,” then “the men weren’t ordained either.” .... He said the shift in thinking on the question occurred as the consequence of a “virulent misogyny” influenced by Aristotle, who held that “all women are mistakes.”

California Catholic Daily

The borderline case of hermaphrodites:

“As to a hermaphrodite, if he has a beard and always wants to engage in manly activities and not in those of women, and if he always seeks the company of men and not of women, it is a sign that the masculine sex predominates in him and then he can be a witness where a woman is not allowed, namely with regard to a last will and testament, and he also can be ordained a priest. If he however lacks a beard and always wants to be with women and be involved in feminine works, the judgment is that the feminine sex predominates in him and then he should not be admitted to giving any witness wherever women are not admitted, namely at a last will and testament, neither can he be ordained then because a woman cannot receive holy orders. ” - On Causa 27, quaestio 1, chapter 23, ad v. Women Priests

[Cato]

I'm not so sure that Aristotle said that all women are mistakes, to the best of my knowledge (and I stand open to correction) he said that women were malformed men. However, in fairness to him, he was trying to explain things based on his observations and very limited biology. And no, I don't think that he would in general have had a positive view of women.

Aquinas, however, who was primarily responsible for synthesizing Aristotle into Christianity, did assert that the souls of women were equal to that of men, and that after this life that men and women would stand before God as equals.

From the (early) Christian point of view women were inferior to men as a consequence of original sin. (Read Geneses) In the kingdom of God the original and innocent condition of humanity would be restored and the sexes would be equal again.

As to the hermaphrodite claim, I don't know, but I would guess not.

By the way the Catholic Church will not ordain physically handicapped people either. One must be a celibate, baptized male, but one must also be whole in body, to be considered for ordination.

[Cato]

I have just checked with a friend of mine who is a priest and he said no, they cannot be ordained. Ruled out by the whole-man thing refereed to above.

[skeptic]

women were not ordained pre 1200 . just sayin dont make it so .

and no , there was no Pope Joan

[Andrew49]

women were not ordained pre 1200 . just sayin dont make it so .

and no , there was no Pope Joan

The original study on women deacons, requested by Pope Paul VI, was suppressed. While that document remains unpublished, an article published in Orientalia Christiana Periodica in 1974 by then-commission member Cipriano Vagaggini concluded that the ordination of women deacons in the early church was sacramental. What the church had done in the past, he suggested, the church may do again. Other scholars, before and after Vagaggini, have reached similar conclusions, but the current document only refers to the debate and strenuously avoids concluding that women ever received the sacrament of holy orders.

What is unfortunately clear is that the new document is both carefully nuanced and fundamentally flawed by a need to prove its unstated point: that women never were ordained and never can be ordained. The study omits a large body of historical-theological evidence that women were sacramentally ordained. It also tries to argue that the diaconate’s participation in the sacrament of holy orders eliminates women, latching on to language that implies that the deacon, like the priest, is so configured to Christ that women are eliminated.

Catholic Women Deacons

[Ah Well]

The original study on women deacons, requested by Pope Paul VI, was suppressed. While that document remains unpublished, an article published in Orientalia Christiana Periodica in 1974 by then-commission member Cipriano Vagaggini concluded that the ordination of women deacons in the early church was sacramental. What the church had done in the past, he suggested, the church may do again. Other scholars, before and after Vagaggini, have reached similar conclusions, but the current document only refers to the debate and strenuously avoids concluding that women ever received the sacrament of holy orders.

What is unfortunately clear is that the new document is both carefully nuanced and fundamentally flawed by a need to prove its unstated point: that women never were ordained and never can be ordained. The study omits a large body of historical-theological evidence that women were sacramentally ordained. It also tries to argue that the diaconate’s participation in the sacrament of holy orders eliminates women, latching on to language that implies that the deacon, like the priest, is so configured to Christ that women are eliminated.

Catholic Women Deacons

Re the original document being unpublished .... presumably that's hidden/locked away somewhere in the Vatican then? .... a trawl of the Vatican Website re Archives hardly will bear any fruit even as to its existence methinks

[skeptic]

The 19th canon of Nicea specifiacally identifies deaconesses as not having recieved the laying on of hands . In the same council it lists mothers, sisters and aunts as being only acceptable to live with priests. No mention of uncles, brothers or fathers.