Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1496720
4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 APRIL 2023 NEWS Opera onal Programme I – European Structural and Investment Funds 2014-2020 "Fostering a compe ve and sustainable economy to meet our challenges" Project part-financed by the Cohesion Fund Co-financing rate: 85% European Union Funds; 15% Na onal Funds CONNECTING THE DROPS EXPLORING WATER AS A CAREER CHOICE THE ENERGY & WATER AGENCY IN COLLABORATION WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF MALTA & MCAST INVITE YOU TO AN INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP ON This interactive masterclass will provide an opportunity for students and recent graduates to meet and learn from people working in the water sector. Interested in making your voice heard and to propose sustainable solutions? Join us to learn and contribute as we very much look forward to what will be proposed by the next generation. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN ATTENDING, KINDLY REGISTER BY CALLING 27772777 OR EMAIL ON INFO@EMCS.COM.MT THU 27 TH APRIL 2023 between 8:30 and 16:00 FRI 28 TH APRIL 2023 between 8:30 and 13:00 AT ESPLORA Married and female priests: A question On Easter Sunday JAMES DEBONO catches up with theologian Fr Rene Camilleri and Rev. Jimmy Bonnici, rector of the Archbishop's Seminary, to explore two issues openly discussed in the global church - priestly celibacy and the ordination of women ON the tenth anniversary of his election to the papacy, Pope Francis declared that "there is no contradiction for a priest to mar- ry." In an interview with an Argen- tinian news agency, he called priestly celibacy "a temporary prescription" and said that it's a prescription that could be re- viewed. But while the Pope has shown a degree of openness to the possi- bility of future change to the rules on celibacy, he was less open to the ordination of women. In another interview published in America Magazine in No- vember 2022, Pope Francis was directly faced with the question many Catholic women keep ask- ing. Kerry Webber, executive editor of the monthly magazine pub- lished by the US Jesuits asked the Pope: "Many women feel pain because they cannot be ordained priests. What would you say to a woman who is already serving in the life of the Church but who still feels called to be a priest?" His answer was unequivocal in excluding formal change on the matter. "And why can a woman not enter ordained ministry? It is because the Petrine principle (the doctrine on papal primacy based on Christ bestowing the keys of the kingdom to Peter) has no place for that," the Francis said. But the pope explained that there is another "theological" way in which women play a vital role in Church life. "The Church is more than a ministry. It is the whole people of God. The Church is woman. The Church is a spouse. Therefore, the dignity of women is mirrored in this way," the pope said. What has changed under Pope Francis according to Kate McEl- wee, the executive director of the Women's Ordination Con- ference, is that women are now being appointed to Vatican posi- tions without even making head- lines, cardinals and bishops are openly discussing the question of women's ordination and voices of women are at least being heard. "At least we have a pope who has shown he knows how to lis- ten every now and again." Fr Rene Camilleri: Let's be bold to let go of the baggage Fr Rene Camilleri believes that "if and when" the Catho- lic Church were to open up to women's ordination and opt to have celibate and married priests, Christianity would "be losing nothing of its essence". He also thinks that it is high time for clerics to stop reading and interpreting the Gospel and the Bible, from the standpoint of "a baggage that has been accu- mulating for centuries". Jesus himself, Camilleri notes, in his time "was bold enough to let go of similar baggage that was barring religion from re-generat- ing itself". According to Camilleri the Church today needs the same "boldness and wisdom" to move on with that historical discern- ment that has characterized it from time to time in crucial pas- sages. "Otherwise, it will keep insti- tutionally isolating itself from mainstream culture," he argues. He also warns that whenever any religion, including Chris- tianity, becomes fossilized and fails to discern between what is essential and what is accessorial, "it becomes suicidal and stops lis- tening to its God and reading the times". "Are we in all truth to believe that it really and essentially mat- ters whether the one who pre- sides over the community is male or female or married or celibate?" he asks pertinently. He also calls on the Church to debunk the myths which cloud the debate on these two issues "As long as the Catholic Church continues to believe that it is in the essence of faith that women be barred from being ordained and that priests take on celibacy as part of a package deal with or- dination, it will keep lacking the vision to safeguard authentic be- lief from cultural baggage." Moreover, he warns that it is futile to search for definitive an- swers on such issues in the gos- pels. "Where the essence of Chris- tianity is concerned, the Gos- pels only set the ball rolling and then it stands with the Church to respond to the times. This is what has happened in the early centuries when Christianity was Fr Rene Camilleri