Inside
NCR
Perhaps another bishop or two,
somewhere in the world, has secretly ordained a woman.
The one we know of, though, was ordained in the secrecy of an
underground church during the desperation caused by the extremes of the Cold
War in Czechoslovakia. One gets the sense that this was not so much an act of
defiance as it was an accomplishment of holiness. So there is an unexpected
calm threading through the report beginning on page 36, an exclusive first look
at Miriam Therese Winters book on the ordination of Ludmila Javorova.
This book, to be published next month, is the vehicle Javorova has chosen to
tell her story. Previously she has been almost silent about the matter. When
our Rome correspondent, John Allen, visited Javorova in her apartment in the
southern Czech city of Brno in 1999, she would speak only in general terms. One
explanation that she said could be used and appears in Allens book,
Cardinal Ratzinger: The Vaticans Enforcer of the Faith, was that
her ordination was not a feminist statement but rather a strategy for the
pastoral care of women jailed by the communists.
Bishop Felix Davidek, who ordained Javorova, had been imprisoned
himself and was held in a place where the exercise yards for men and women were
separated by only a wall, Allen writes. Davidek would say Mass while
walking around the yard, jumping up and shouting the words of consecration over
the wall so the women could hear. He realized this was inadequate and wanted to
prepare a small number of women to administer the sacraments in prison, on the
assumption that some of them, since they were active in the underground church,
would eventually be arrested.
What next? It is an intriguing situation. The bishop is dead. The
woman simply offers her story, perhaps another step along the way.
Anyone interested in learning more
about the program run by Fr. Gerard Valavan for poor children in Bangalore,
India (see photo on page 11), can contact him at
jeevdaya@blr.vsnl.net.in.
Ive known Rabbi James Rudin
for more than 15 years. He has spent years working to understand the Christian
reality and has given enormous energy to bridging the ancient divides between
Judaism and Christianity. So I dont take lightly his caution about the
anti-Semitism he detects in the popular culture (see page 20).
Pro sports figures who spout their religious convictions over the
airwaves make me cringe. Often they represent Christianity in the most
infantile manner, apparently tutored in the faith by those more interested in
rubbing elbows with stardom than serious explication of scripture and theology.
Now we learn that some athletes are being tutored in hate, digging up
long-discredited characterizations of Jews and Judaism.
If religion has become such a large part of athletes lives,
perhaps the pro franchises should pay more attention to the team chaplains and
what theyre teaching.
-- Tom Roberts
My e-mail address is troberts@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, May 11,
2001
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