Wearing a Veil?
Wearing a Veil?
From INTER INSIGNIORES:
(Italics in the text by John Wijngaards)
19. Another objection is based upon the transitory
character that one claims to see today in some of the prescriptions of Saint
Paul concerning women, and upon the difficulties that some aspects of his
teaching raise in this regard. But it must be noted that these ordinances,
probably inspired by the customs of the period, concern scarcely more than
disciplinary practices of minor importance, such as the obligation imposed upon
women to wear a veil on the head (1 Cor. 11:2-16); such requirements no
longer have a normative value. However, the Apostle’s forbidding of
women ‘to speak’ in the assemblies (cf. 1 Cor. 14:34-35,1 Tim. 2:12)
is of a different nature, and exegetes define its meaning in this way: Paul in
no way opposes the right, which he elsewhere recognizes as possessed by women,
to prophesy in the assembly (cf. 1 Cor. 11:5); the prohibition solely concerns
the official function of teaching in the Christian assembly. For Saint Paul
this prescription is bound up with the divine plan of creation (cf. 1 Cor.
11:7; Gen. 2:18-24): it would be difficult to see in it the expression of a
cultural fact.
For the full text, see: INTER INSIGNIORES.
From the
Commentary by the Sacred
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the Declaration Inter
Insigniores:
66. On the other hand there are prescriptions in
Paul’s writings which are unanimously admitted to have been transitory,
such as the obligation he imposed on women to wear a veil (1 Cor. 11:2-16). It
is true that these are obviously disciplinary practices of minor importance,
perhaps inspired by the customs of the time. But then there arises the more
basic question: since the Church has later been able to abandon prescriptions
contained in the New Testament, why should it not be the same with the
exclusion of women from ordination?
67. Here we meet once again the essential principle that it
is the Church herself that, in the different sectors of her life, ensures
discernment between what can change and what must remain immutable. As the
declaration specifies, ‘When she judges that she cannot accept certain
changes, it is because she knows that she is bound by Christ’s manner of
acting. Her attitude, despite appearances, is therefore not one of archaism but
of fidelity: it can be truly understood only in this light. The Church makes
pronouncements in virtue of the Lord’s promise and the presence of the
Holy Spirit, in order to proclaim better the mystery of Christ and to safeguard
and manifest the whole of its rich content.’
For the full text, see: Official Commentary on INTER INSIGNIORES.
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