Moira Gray laments the Catholic Church is not a democracy.
("As a female, I am frustrated by the lack of democracy within the Catholic Church - Letters March 19).
However, this undeniable truth is precisely as it should be; not because the Church is an autocracy as both she and Harry Reid contend, but rather because it is a theocracy - headed by Jesus Christ himself.
This seems to be the source of the error made by many of those seeking female ordination - to misidentify the ordained clergy as masters rather than servants.
As early as the sixth century, Pope Saint Gregory I adopted the title "Servant of the Servants of God" (a title the successors of Saint Peter still carry) precisely in order to distinguish himself in humility from the Archbishop of Constantinople, John the Faster, who had started calling himself the "Ecumenical Patriarch".
Reservation of ordained ministry to men is attested to in all sources of Catholic authority - in Holy Scripture, in Sacred Tradition from the earliest days of the Church and in the repeated verdict of the Magisterium.
As recently as 1995 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reaffirmed yet again that the Church has no authority to ordain women priests, stating that it is not a matter of Church discipline as in the case of clerical celibacy (which can be changed), but rather of the deposit of faith (which cannot). The Pope as servant of Christ's Church can no more ordain a woman than Professor Stephen Hawking can change the laws of gravity so that objects fall up instead of down. It is entirely outside of his power and authority.
This is why Hugh McLoughlin does not voice an opinion when he says "women priests aren't going to happen", but rather is making a statement of fact. A fact which will be changed neither by Pope Francis, nor by time, nor by Ms Gray's enduring optimism.
Chris McLaughlin,
71b Braidpark Drive,
Giffnock
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