Catholic symbols help make us present to God so that we can receive the gifts that God desires to give us. God is incarnational and by the power of the Holy Spirit, God pours something of God's very self through the opening that the symbols create, entering through them to touch us, heal us, guide us.

Because the Church restricts the priest symbol to the male form alone, it prevents the Body of Christ from experiencing the full range of encounter that God is perpetually offering us. This intentionally narrowed encounter produces a misunderstanding of God---who God is, what God desires, and how God calls humans into relationship with God and one another. ​

This leads to misunderstanding that justifies and perpetuates the ungodly oppression of women both in the Church and world. To put it simply, a lopsided priest symbol facilitates lopsided encounter with the living God, and lopsided encounter produces a lopsided world where women can only be understood as a second order of creation that is not fully human and worthy of subjugation.

​Until women are fully participating in the symbolic life of the Roman Catholic Church, it will not be able to better understand God's nature and God's desires for the world.  The Church will continue to sin abominably against God, sanctifying and perpetuating the very injustice and devastation that God is eager to transform.

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proper discernment

Excluding a particular group of people from leadership on this or that basis significantly hinders the Church’s ability to discern and receive God's self-communication and gifts. The natural outcome of improper discernment is oppression. By welcoming women into full participation in the Church, the Church can better discern the ongoing invitations from God. The Church will gain a more full understanding of what it means to be human, how to be in relationship with one another, and what it means to be stewards of creation.​

better formation

A Roman Catholic Church with the full participation of women will provide far healthier formation for Catholics. The Church is currently forming 1.4 billion Catholics in an erroneous theology of the human person that oppresses girls and women, and creates a world in opposition to God's desires of flourishing for all creation. Imagine, instead, a Church where women and girls are embraced as fully human, where their gifts are fully welcomed at every level, and where all people-- especially men and boys--are taught to value women and girls as true peers and partners in the co-creation of life with God. 

EFFECTIVEness​ IN MISSION

The Roman Catholic Church is growing fastest in Africa, India, and other parts of Asia. If women can be priests, then women can be ordained as bishops. Imagine this global church with its vast resources being co-led by African women, Indian women, Asian women. These leaders will bring critical perspectives, produce much-needed theology, and likely re-order priorities, which will help the Church be more effective in mission at every level. This Church will also be far better positioned to discern how to make reparations for it's ungodly participation in slavery and colonization.