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Ireland’s former president, Mary McAleese, has accused Pope Francis of “misogynistic drivel”.
McAleese’s comment followed an interview Francis had with a US-based Jesuit magazine last month. Women are not being deprived by being denied the right to become priests, he told America magazine last month.
Emailing Francis via the Vatican, McAleese pulled no punches in her response to the interview.
“It was reassuring and gratifying to observe the utter impenetrability of the reasons you offered, their ludicrous lack of logic or clarity, in short the fact that you offered just more unlikely misogynistic drivel,” she wrote.
“So nothing new then and nothing to fear.
“Thank you for giving us something to laugh at. If you ever come up with a serious and credible reason please do not hesitate to let us know.
“Meanwhile keep rambling on. It is such fun and the fun has almost gone out of faith! Best wishes and renewed thanks. She added her qualifications in canon law to her signature.
In the interview, Francis explained the call of women to priesthood was a theological problem.
“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.
“And why can a woman not enter ordained ministry? It is because the Petrine principle has no place for that,” he explained.
“That the woman does not enter into the ministerial life is not a deprivation. No. Your place is that which is much more important and which we have yet to develop, the catechesis about women in the way of the Marian principle.”
It would pose a theological problem if a woman felt called to be a priest, Francis said.
“We amputate the being of the Church if we consider only the way of the ministerial dimension of the life of the Church. The way is not only (ordained) ministry.”
The “Petrine” (from Peter) principle is that of ministry.
“But there is another principle that is still more important, about which we do not speak, that is the Marian principle, which is the principle of femininity in the church, of the woman in the Church.”
There was also a third way, “the administrative way,” Francis said.
“It is something of normal administration. And, in this aspect, I believe we have to give more space to women.” At the Vatican “the places where we have put women are functioning better”.
Francis went on to summarise his explanation, saying:
“So there are three principles, two theological and one administrative.
“The Petrine principle, which is the ministerial dimension, but the Church cannot function only with that one.
“The Marian principle, which is that of the spousal Church, the Church as spouse, the Church as woman.
“And the administrative principle, which is not theological, but is rather that of administration, about what one does.”
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