A small group of Catholic women from Austria and Germany are reported to prepare themselves for ordination by Bishop Peter Hickman of the Ecumenical Old Catholic Community in California. It is sad indeed. For, if they execute their intention, they are obviously making a mistake. No priest is ordained for his or her own sake, however valid one's inner call or spiritual aspirations may be. A priest is a minister ordained to serve people, and is ultimately chosen by the community of faith to which the person belongs. The ordaining bishop represents the ecclesial dimension of the Church and a 'rogue bishop' who is not even acknowledged by the official Old Catholic Church will fail in this respect.

The situation is even more tragic because bishops threaten the women with excommunication.  Canon Law is on the side of these bishops, but is justice? We are talking about women who have served their parishes for many years, who have studied theology which made them realise that the Church's arguments for excluding women are not valid, who believe the Church should be woken up by some prophetic action. A majority of thinking Catholics will feel their sympathies lie with the women, knowing that the mistake they commit is caused by a more grievous wrong on a deeper level.

It reminds me of an incident that happened during the infamous ten-month massacre of soldiers known as the Battle of Verdun. The battle cost over 700,000 casualties. Historians agree that there could be no justification for these ferocious losses from a strategic point of view. On the 1 May 1916 General Robert-Georges Nivelle became commander-in-chief on the French side. He had earned the reputation of being a merciless basher who favoured frontal attacks. He chose General Mangin, knicknamed 'the slaughterer', to be his right-hand man. On 15 July these men ordered a fruitless infantry charge against machine guns that left 30,000 French dead and wounded. A small group of 40 men rebelled. Others followed their example. It led to defiance and mutiny in the French army. It is the sequel to this insurrection that haunts me.

French High Command was alarmed by reports of mutiny. They instigated an investigation and found that the soldiers had many just grievances. Nivelle and Mangin were dismissed and replaced with General Pétain. Restrictions were put on what could be demanded of  infantry, leading, so historians tell us, to a lessening of brutal war abuses. But the 40 men who had had the courage to stand up and protest were executed for having disobeyed orders and caused a mutiny. It is here that my sense of justice feels cheated and mauled. Is it not Nivelle and Mangin who should have been made to face a firing squad?

We all know the gruesome stories of men and women deported to Australia for stealing a loaf of bread or a pound of meat during the grinding poverty that accompanied the industrial revolution.  Property needs to be protected, but how could people be expected to live without food? Eighteenth-century slaves in Haiti and Cuba who rebelled against their appalling conditions were unceremoniously hanged. Was human freedom not their fundamental right? But it was the owners who had the law on their side. I have never been able to unravel the morality of such conflicts. What may be wrong on one level, seems to be completely right on another. Those who were criminals, rebels and dissenters in the eyes of the law heralded the tide of social reforms that were required by justice.

Now I do not want to compare Church leaders to ruthless World War I generals or eighteenth-century slave owners. I am just speaking in parables, as Jesus used to do, to make a point. What drives people to rebel in all such human tangles?  I believe it is the lack of hope when they know they are facing the loss of life or identity. In extreme situations people respond with acts of despair. And let us not underestimate the depth  of isolation, loss of  self-respect, even denial of  their Christian dignity which some women experience at being barred from the priestly ministry just because they are women. What may lead to extreme steps is the lack of any hope.

From private discussions with bishops and priests I know that many are open to, or even sympathetic to, the cause of women's ordination. They feel the question should at least be aired in discussion. But why do they not say this in public? It is no use to think or say "a new pope will surely bring a new approach", when we do not have the courage to say so in public. There are people who need such reassurances. No one can live without hope. Those with a wider perspective of the Church's history, who have seen some popes condemn what a later popes recommend, know that reforms are usually contested before they are implemented.  I for one believe women will be ordained in the Catholic Church. Now is not the time  to strangle hope.

18 February 2002