The Silence We Keep: A Nun's View of the Catholic Priest Scandal by Karol Jackowski Read Free Book Online

cleaning up after. Given the strict traditional roles for men and women in biblical times, we can assume that if the community was gathering for worship in a woman’s home, she would be in charge of everything. And at the table of Christ, the leader, the one who presides, is always the one who serves, most likely women.
    I see every good reason to believe that women shared equally in all ministries of the early church, including what we think of as priesthood. In his letter to the Romans, Saint Paul commends most highly “our sister Phoebe who is a deaconess” (16:1) and “Junia…outstanding among the apostles and in Christ evenbefore I was” (16:7). As co-workers and associates in ministry, men and women both preached the Gospel, founded house churches, and built Christian communities in every town they visited. Christians in the early church were committed to partnership in doing the work of the Gospel. The whole Christian community became an apostolic church in the beginning—one, holy, and apostolic—as the Catholic creed professes. Even with the persecution of Christians that went on simultaneously with all the missionary work, this was, indeed, the divine birth of the People of God, with a new heaven and a new earth, a new vision of church and priesthood unlike any this world has seen.
    Not only did the early Church develop strongly as a “discipleship of equals,” but we also know that within the Christian community, most in its priesthood were married. The Twelve were all married men and remained so, as did the early priests and bishops for centuries. Contrary to popular Catholic belief, in the beginning of the church there were always married priests. Virginity became advocated so fervently by Saint Paul (and many others) because in those days many believed literally that Jesus was returning soon. The end was near. And there was so much work to be done and so little time, especially for marriage and a family. Even so, everyone in the early church lived, as Paul recommended, “the life assigned to them by God.” Everyone in the early church, married or not, shared in the priesthood of Christ. Quite clearly the priesthood of Christ has nothing to do with marital status, sex, or gender. In the beginning of the priesthood, all really were “one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 4:28).

    If you begin to think that this was heaven on earth and pure joy to the world, think again. Those who lived in Christ suffered everything gladly and did find a peace on earth that surpassedordinary understanding. Everyone knew they were disciples of Christ by the way they loved one another, and in that regard it was heaven on earth. And they did bring joy to the world. But the early Christians still lived in the same world that crucified Christ and hated the Jesus Movement. The world was no less male dominated after the resurrection, and the only ones whose minds and lives were changed profoundly were those of the disciples, those in the Movement. If anything, the religious tensions that existed before Christ’s death only intensified after: Christians continued to be persecuted and killed by religious and civil leaders all over for their revolutionary beliefs.
    Some of the tensions that arose with the rapid growth of Christianity are those that come with every strong countercultural movement, especially if the movement is counter to male domination all over the world and counter to male gods everywhere. Equality and inclusiveness, the heart and soul of the Jesus Movement, are not only banned by divine law in patriarchy, but they’ve also condemned as evil by their God. After the resurrection, it became increasingly difficult for the Christian community to maintain its divine laws of equality and inclusiveness. And given that there’s so little support for either today, you can imagine how forbidden both were, two thousand years ago all over the Middle East.
    By the first century, patriarchy was already established as divine law and