The Evidence is There for Women Priests - Therese Koturbash

frescoes Found in Priscilla’s Catacombs in Rome restored in 2013 reveal what could have been women priests in the early Christian church. The female pictured in this fresco has her arms outstretched as if holding Mass.

On All Souls’ Day 2019 Pope Francis celebrated mass in Priscilla’s Catacombs in Rome. This is significant for in these catacombs are ancient frescoes depicting women performing sacramental ministry in the early Church. Early women priests and deacons? Some scoff saying they are nothing of the like and cannot be used to support the case for women’s ordination.

Woman priests or deacons or not, the images are a sign that women were leaders in the early Church and that as things progressed a cork was put in the bottle for development of women's ministries while those for men were allowed a natural historical progression.

I find so frustrating the insistence that there must be precise historical evidence before moving forward with ordination of women. The fact is that Jesus did not ordain anyone yet the development of sacramental ministry performed by men was permitted to progress.

The evidence from the society and culture of the time of the early Church, along with writings of the early Church Fathers, make clear how much prejudice against women was in their thinking. Whether they ever saw women as equals or not, many of these early men failed to experience conversion to the way that Jesus modeled inclusion of women in his ministry.

There are so many signs of this all through his story. His is the only genealogy that names women. His birth is prophesied by a woman, Anna. He comes into the world as a human without the direct contribution of any 'male matter.' (It was a Virgin birth -- from a contribution point of view, as between man and woman, there is more woman in Jesus than man). There is the Samaritan woman at the well, arguably the 1st woman apostle. The only people who anoint him during his life are women. Anointing is a sacramental ministry. Then of course the first apostle to announce the Good News of the Resurrection -- a woman, Mary Magdalene.

From my point of view, while historical evidence of women's early leadership strengthens the case for ordination of women, the lack of historical evidence for anything about men has never stopped their progress in the architecture of the Church.

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Therese Koturbash, BA, LLB, GDCL served as Canadian Delegate to Women’s Ordination Worldwide from 2008 to 2013. For all five of those years, she was elected member of WOW's four person International Leadership Circle. She has also been the National Coordinator of Canada's Catholic Network for Women's Equality. Today, Therese serves on WOW’s Communications Team and is a volunteer with WOW member group, Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research. Her paid work is as a family attorney.