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Published: May 14, 2009

“Can you ordain a hermaphrodite?”

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.

Macy’s lecture, entitled “A Higher Calling for Women? Historical Perspectives in the Catholic Church,” was given at Benton Chapel on the Vanderbilt campus. The university’s news service described the lecture this way: “The very idea of the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church is dismissed by many as contrary to basic church doctrine. Gary Macy, the John Nobili, S.J. Professor of Theology at Santa Clara University, says historical evidence is overwhelming that for much of the church’s history, the ordination of women was a fact.”

Macy has held his post at Santa Clara University since September 2007. Before that, he taught at the University of San Diego for 29 years. “During his years in San Diego, Dr. Macy published several books and over twenty articles on the theology and history of the Eucharist and on women’s ordination,” says the Santa Clara University web site. Among his books is The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination, published in 2007.

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, said Macy, 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.

From the standpoint of history, said Macy, women’s ordination is a matter of historical fact, though he conceded the theological issue is a separate question. Nonetheless, he said, “By the end of the 12th century, the debate was over.”

The 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.”

To illustrate his trouble with the idea that women are metaphysically different from men, Macy posed the question, “Can you ordain a hermaphrodite?” He answered his own question by suggesting that, if a hermaphrodite were biologically more male than female then, yes, a valid ordination could occur. But, he said, if the person were more female than male, ordinations “don’t take.”

During a question-and-answer session following his hour-long lecture, Macy was asked if he was “hopeful” about the future role of women in the Church. “I’m very hopeful,” he said. “I’m fairly optimistic” because there is “a new structure emerging” within the Church. “I have no hope any longer that any change will come from the bishops or from the papacy,” said Macy. “But that’s ok. It didn’t come from them in the past; it doesn’t have to come from them now. And, once the change takes place, you know what they’ll say, ‘This is the way we’ve always done it.’”

Macy noted that 80 percent of the jobs in parishes are now held by laity, and that of those lay positions, 80 percent are held by women. Of ordained priests, he said, “They’re disappearing.”

“The Holy Spirit is alive and well,” said Macy. “And what She wants, She gets.”

Vanderbilt University has posted a podcast of Macy’s lecture and the question-and-answer session. To hear it, Click Here.

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