In Vatican newspaper, academic urges Pope Francis to ‘get beyond’ Petrine-Marian distinction
December 14, 2022
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CWN Editor's Note: Drawing on a distinction made by the Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, Pope Francis recently said, “Why can a woman not enter ordained ministry? It is because the Petrine principle has no place for that. Yes, one has to be in the Marian principle, which is more important.”
In an article in the Vatican newspaper, Marinella Perroni, a retired professor of biblical theology, responded, “Doesn’t the Marian-Petrine principle express an ideology and rhetoric of sexual and gender differentiation that has now been exposed as one of the covers for patriarchal privileges?”
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Posted by: Randal Mandock -
Dec. 14, 2022 1:37 PM ET USA
I never (maybe I did once in jest) use the abbreviation "LOL" in anything I write. But this time I must: LOL! As often happens, Pope Francis' examples and references come back to bite him. This business of assigning emotions (e.g., love) and genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) to dogmatic theology is comical. As a biblical theologian, I assume Perroni subscribes to the theory of the imprisoned Christ, imprisoned in a local religion of His age. God transcends religion and cannot be so boxed in.
