As a Catholic woman preparing for lay ecclesial ministry and passionate about feminism, I have at various points in time pondered and struggled to understand the Church’s doctrine of the male-only priesthood. Shortly after America magazine published its October 2013 issue on “Women in the Life of the Church,” the University of Notre Dame held a forum that gathered many of its contributors. It was there that I heard Kathleen Sprows Cummings wisely say, “In asking why women cannot become priests, we are asking the wrong question.” Her words left a strong impression on me, particularly as she expressed the need within the Church to ask different questions, ones that will open new doors and windows instead of ones that lead to closed doors.

Some of these questions are:

How do we speak about women in the life of the Church?
Do women offer anything unique within the Church?
How do we respond to women who feel limited in leadership opportunities within the Church?
How do we challenge clericalism and abuses of power?
If Catholic doctrine on ordination prompts us to explore women’s roles in the life of the Church, then where does that leave lay men?

Before we can explore the question of women in the life of the Church, we must first examine our ecclesiology, or theology of the Church herself. The way in which we understand the Church affects the ways in which we understand the roles of individuals within the Church. Two of the four major constitutions of the Second Vatican Council articulate the nature and mission of the Church. The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) describes the nature and identity of the Church, or the Church ad intra. The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes) describes the mission and engagement of the Church in the world, or the Church ad extra. 

The Church, understood as the mystical body of Christ, has the “saving purpose” of communicating divine life to the world (Gaudium et Spes 40). She participates in the mission of Christ, as do all of her members. By virtue of our baptism, each of us shares in Christ’s threefold mission of priest, prophet, and king. The way in which we participate in these three munera differs based on our state of life. Regarding priesthood in particular, the Church speaks of both the baptismal priesthood, that of all believers through the Sacrament of Baptism, and the ministerial priesthood, that of men ordained as priests through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Looking to the first, the laity participate in the priesthood of Christ by offering the things of ordinary life to God for transformation, consecrating the world to God, and “work[ing] for the sanctification of the world” (Lumen Gentium 31). The ministerial priesthood can be understood as a narrowing of that fundamental offering to God: within the liturgy, priests offer bread and wine, fruit of the earth and the work of human hands, to become consecrated into the body and blood of Christ.

[T]he laity participate in the priesthood of Christ by offering the things of ordinary life to God for transformation

In explaining why the dignity of women is not compromised in reserving the ministerial priesthood to men alone, the magisterium points to the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. John Paul II emphasizes this in his Apostolic Letter on Reserving the Priesthood to Men Alone (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis). He writes:

“the fact that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, received neither the mission proper to the Apostles nor the ministerial priesthood clearly shows that the non-admission of women to priestly ordination cannot mean that women are of lesser dignity, nor can it be construed as discrimination against them.” (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis 3)

Here, the magisterium speaks to the dignity of all women in relation to that of Mary. In his Apostolic Letter on the Dignity and Vocation of Women (Mulieris Dignitatem), John Paul II affirms that “Mary is ‘the new beginning’ of the dignity and vocation of women, of each and every woman” (11). It is with this in mind that we can look to Mary as one who gives us a distinct theology of woman, for she speaks to the uniqueness of the female and the way in which females uniquely bear the image of God. In order to help us explore what Mary offers to our understanding of Church, we will turn to a theologian whose writing on the priesthood delves into the meaning of Mary in relation to Peter and the Apostles. 

The Marian Principle: Mary as Symbol of the Church

In Priestly Spirituality, Hans Urs von Balthasar discusses Mary and Peter as symbols within and of the Church. Looking first to Mary, Balthasar reflects upon the nature of Mary’s fiat. Her “yes” is universal from the perspectives of both its Abrahamic origin and final end in what Christ’s death and resurrection accomplish for humanity. It brings to maturity “the entire faith of the Old Covenant . . . in preparation for the reception of the final promise and fulfillment of God” (Balthasar 36-37). In Mulieris Dignitatem, John Paul II recalls the teaching of the Second Vatican Council regarding the Marian principle: “in the hierarchy of holiness it is precisely the ‘woman’, Mary of Nazareth, who is the ‘figure’ of the Church. She ‘precedes’ everyone on the path to holiness; in her person ‘the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle’” (27). Mary is the Mother of God; she nurtures and raises Christ in both a physical and spiritual sense, and she is intimately bound with the fate of her Son, who introduces it to her.

[Mary's] “yes” is universal from the perspectives of both its Abrahamic origin and final end in what Christ’s death and resurrection accomplish for humanity.

Mary is not only Mother of Christ, she is also Bride. Balthasar establishes this intimate relationship between Christ and Mary, who will become Mother of the Church, through an exploration of what happens to both at the foot of the Cross. Jesus, who had been distancing himself from Mary throughout the course of his public ministry, now “withdraws from her entirely and foists another son on her instead” (Balthasar 45). The two are joined their experiences of abandonment, Jesus from the Father, and Mary from him. Mary offers her Son back to God, thereby “embrac[ing Christ’s sacrifice] with him, since she does not revoke her Yes (fiat) but remains faithful to it to the last” (Balthasar 49). Such a universal motherhood is implicit in her first motherhood in saying “yes” to the whole of the Christ-child and his mission.

Here, Balthasar’s theological anthropology sheds light on the relationship between Christ and Mary as Church at the Cross. Lumen Gentium says the blood and water which flow forth from the side of Christ symbolize the inauguration and the growth of the Church in the world (3). Present in Mary’s universal fiat, the Church proceeds from the side of the new Adam. Balthasar writes that this “perfect accompanying of the ‘man’ by the companion is precisely what God the Creator desired to give the first Adam and God the Redeemer to the second” (47). Thus, Mary, Mother of the Church in bearing Christ, becomes the Church, the Bride of Christ. The communion of Christ and the Church is manifested in the mutual relationship of Christ and Mary, the mother of the Church. It is “on the Cross [that] the absolute relationship - transcending the sexual - between man and woman is brought to light, whereby the man can and must be at once child and bridegroom, the woman at once mother and bride” (Balthasar 48). 

The Relationship between Mary and Peter as Symbols of the Church

The Church is a single entity, encompassing the ministries of both Mary and Peter. Present in its beginnings with Mary, the Church takes a visible and public form in the person of Peter, the rock on whom Christ builds the Church. The visible institution of the Church is “made concrete in and through men in real and sacramental symbolism - by the Twelve, with Peter in their midst as the rock upon whom the edifice is built” (Balthasar 51). While Peter is usually associated with the papacy, Balthasar’s reflections upon Peter-Church refer to the mission of the twelve Apostles, of whom Peter was a representative. For him, Peter represents “the foundation of the priesthood” (Balthasar 37). Regarding the relationship of Peter to the Twelve, Balthasar writes that Christ’s promise to Peter assumes the prior call of the men to leave everything and follow Christ. Peter’s identity must be given to him, and he accepts this mission from a situation within the Marian Church. He is, just as all succeeding priests are, dependent upon the Church for his vocation. The holiness of priestly ministry, then, is never to be viewed apart from the “Marian spirit holiness,” a point to which documents on the ministerial priesthood speak to in sections on devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary (Balthasar 61). 

[Peter] is, just as all succeeding priests are, dependent upon the Church for his vocation.

Looking to the figures of Mary and Peter as found in Gospel accounts, Christ is the means by which the two are united. Balthasar reflects upon the role the beloved disciple, whom he associates with John. Standing at the foot of the cross, Jesus entrusts the disciple to Mary and Mary to the disciple. Taking Mary into his house, the disciple “shelters the Ecclesia Immaculata” and as her new son, “acknowledge[s] her motherhood over him and those like him” (Balthasar 61). The unity of Mary and Peter is something that is also recognized in Scripture in the book of Revelation, which images “the two sides of the Church in perfect unity” in that “the spotless Bride of the Lamb [...] is at the same time the Holy City, with the twelve foundation stones upon which are inscribed the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Balthasar 57).

Christ is the origin and source of the fruitful love and service of both Peter, serving In persona Christi capitis, in the person of Christ the head, and Mary the Church. There is a unity to the two symbols as there is a unity and mystery to the Church as the Body of Christ. Balthasar notes, “the unity of the Church is rooted, like the unity between Mary and Peter - between Jerusalem as bride and the geometrically constructed city built on the foundation stones of the apostles - entirely in the mystery of the economic and, ultimately, the immanent Trinity” (62). God exists in three Persons and those Persons are unique yet at the same time mutually indwell one another. In the same way, Mary and Peter as symbols of the Church are united in Christ, their origin and source.

A Theology of Woman

When looking to Peter as an image for the Church, we often think of the ministerial priesthood: there is a uniqueness to Peter’s office and in Christ’s choosing twelve men as apostles. At the same time, we recognize the wider notion of baptismal priesthood. Both men and women, clerical and lay, participate in Christ’s priesthood in ways that are appropriate to their states of life. Here, the image of Mary offers insight into both the dignity and vocation of women and the life of the Church at large through her relationship with Christ. 

Mary, in her femininity, bears the image of the Church and is thus an image for all women and men, including those men who are ordained. When placed in relationship to the Petrine principle, the Marian principle – a theology of Woman – illumines the particular role of the laity within the life of the Church. She opens herself to receive the Word of God, offers a complete gift of herself, and bears Christ to the world. As the Mary-Church finds her source in Christ’s sacrifice, so too are the laity equipped to go out into the world through reception of Christ in the Eucharist, the sacrifice of which is performed by the priest who stands In persona Christi capitis. As Mary participates in Christ’s sacrifice in the offering of her Son, so too do the laity participate in the offering of the bread and wine on the altar. And Mary’s “yes” is so complete that she quite literally bears God to the world. So, too, are the laity sent forth from the Eucharistic table to bear Christ to the world, in and through the ordinary aspects of daily life and work.

When placed in relationship to the Petrine principle, the Marian principle – a theology of Woman – illumines the particular role of the laity within the life of the Church.

Mary is an exemplar of what it means to be Church. Therefore, revitalizing the language and meaning of the Marian Principle might be useful in articulating theologies on the dignity and vocation of women and, by extension, the laity. Placing the Marian and Petrine principles in conversation with one another offers insight into the ways in which these theologies are lived and practiced. It is to the practical implications of the Marian and Petrine principles in the Church that we will turn in part two.