PATRIARCHAL HIERARCHY OF THE FAMILY: A Constant Teaching of the Church
Original lecture presented at the John Paul II Pontifical Institute on Marriage & Family, Wash. DC, March 1991; a rendition of which was subsequently published in The Wanderer, 1991. The final rendition of this essay appeared in Christian Order, December 2001.
(Introduction)
Even in today’s pervasive atmosphere of hyper-egalitarianism, the acceptance of the hierarchical structure of the Church’s magisterial priesthood remains the sine qua non for one claiming orthodoxy. That is, a very least any orthodox claimant’s credibility at least requires accepting of the Church’s teaching and ruling authority, no matter how ranging and otherwise incongruous other issues may be. But there is another God ordained hierarchical structure that is part and parcel of the orthodox corpus. Like its ecclesial counterpart, it is patriarchal; but unlike ecclesial patriarchy being the lowest common denominator of orthodoxy, this patriarchy is that which is the most divisive of orthodox concepts. For there is nothing that so contradicts the contemporary ethos of hyper-egalitarianism as that of the patriarchal hierarchy of the family: the teaching that prescribes a man’s spiritual and juridical headship over his wife and children.
(Preternatural State)
Contrary to the wishes of most contemporary theologians, Christ did not come to eradicate the patriarchal order, but to elevate it, just as He elevated and restored marriage as a whole to its original preternatural understanding.[1] Indeed, the preternatural familial state as recorded in Genesis is unintelligible without the understanding of its patriarchal principle. Adam is placed among creation as "the image of God," thus becoming His very representative. "Just as powerful earthly kings, to indicate their claim to dominion, erect an image of themselves in the provinces of their empire where they do not personally appear, so man is placed upon earth in God's image as God's sovereign emblem."[2] Adam's commission to name the animals is also significant. "The superiority of man over the beasts is shown by his naming them (GN 2:19-20). In the ancient world to give a name was a sign of authority."[3] Adam authority over Eve was also indicated by his twice naming her, both before and after the Fall. "This at last is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh! This is to be called woman, for this was taken from man.” (GN 2:23) "The man named his wife ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of all those who live.” (GN 3:20) And it was Adam alone who, as patriarchal representative, was called to by God after the couple had eaten of the tree. "And they hid from Yahweh God among the trees of the garden. But Yahweh called to the man. 'Where are you?' he asked." (GN 3:9) Indeed, Adam's negligence in protecting and guiding Eve that resulted in her encounter with the serpent, and his subsequent following of her lead, are the primal sins, respectively, of omission and commission against patriarchy and its order.
Most importantly in gleaning the patriarchal significance of the creation account is the Church's doctrinal understanding of it. The Church's pivotal dogma of original sin is predicated on Adam's patriarchal status before the Fall. It is from Adam alone that original sin is incurred. "If anyone asserts that the transgression of Adam injured him alone and not his posterity, . . . let him be anathema."[4] If only Eve had sinned, then only she would have experienced the consequences of that sin. But when Adam sinned—as patriarch, head, and representative of the human race—the consequences affected all his descendants, the entire human race.
In seeming answer to all those Christian socialists who would advance their utopian fantasies by portraying humanity before the Fall as classless and totally egalitarian, St. Thomas Aquinas addressed the issue as to "Whether in the state of innocence man would have been master over man?” He answers, "The condition of man in the state of innocence was not more exulted than the condition of the angels. But among the angels some rule over others; and so one order is called Dominations. Therefore, it is was not beneath the dignity of the state of innocence that one man should be subject to another."[5]
Indeed, the principle of patriarchy permeates the entirety of Hebrew culture and spirituality. From the absolute social and spiritual rule of the ancient patriarchs, to Abraham's covenant made in the name of his posterity, to the institution of the Israelite priesthood, to the specifically male duty of study and prayer, to the ministerial role of the father in the religious services of the home, the principle of patriarchy has characterize the
full span of Hebrew salvation history and spirituality. So too, the “merits of the fathers" is an ancient concept, predating and much repeated in
rabbinical literature, that stresses the continual blessings of the patriarchs. An example of this is Moses, who himself is acting as an intercessor,
evoking the past merits of the fathers in behalf of the Israelites when they fell to worshipping the golden calf: "Let the storm of thy anger pass;
pardon Your people's guilt! Remember Thy servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.” (EX 32:12-13) St. Paul, who as a youth studied under one of the
great teachers of the law, Rabban Gamaliel, also employs this concept when he speaks of the Jews as still loved by God, loved for "the sake of
the Fathers.” (RM 11:28)
(Ancient Paganism)
Just as the truth of the matter is quite the opposite of the contention that Christ’s restoration and elevation of marriage did away with patriarchy, so too is it a diametrical falsehood that the nascent Church was merely aping the culture of her times when she advanced the teaching of patriarchy and the submission of women. Indeed, as the Church expanded into gentile society she found herself in a morally decaying milieu much like that of the 20th century West, where an “atmosphere of paganism, a tendency toward egalitarianism, and an ascendancy of feminism"[6] pervaded. Pope Pius XII, summarized the domestic disintegration of the pagan milieu into which Christianity was born as follows: "In the [ancient] Roman world, notwithstanding the respect and dignity surrounding the mother of the family, she was withal according to ancient law, juridically subject to her husband or paterfamilias, who had supreme power in the home. But with the passing of the centuries, the laws of the ancients concerning the family fell into disuse; their iron discipline disappeared, and women became practically independent of the authority of the husband. Doubtless there remained shining examples of excellent wives and mothers, imitators of the matrons of old, . . . but opposed to such irreproachable personalities there arose in vivid contrast the ever growing number of women, especially of high society, who fled disdainfully from the duties of motherhood to give themselves rather to occupations and to play a part till then reserved to men alone. At the same time, as divorce multiplied, the family began to disintegrate, and womanly affections and behavior deviated from the straight path of virtue to such an extent that it drew from Seneca the bitter lament: 'Does there now remain any woman at all who is ashamed to break her marriage . . ., when they divorce to remarry, and marry only to divorce?'"[7]
Pius XII then goes on to conclude: "To reestablish in the family that hierarchy indispensable for unity and happiness, and at the same time to restore the original and true grandeur of conjugal love, was one of the greatest undertakings of Christendom."[8] Hence, contrary to those who claim that St. Paul was merely reiterating cultural principles of his time, he was in fact witnessing against the currents of his time when he set out to reestablish and elevate the patriarchal hierarchy of the family.
(Church Teaching)
Pope Pius XII states in the same allocution that "the Christian concept of matrimony which St. Paul taught to his disciples of Ephesus, just as he did to those of Corinth, could not be clearer or more forthright: 'Let women be subject to their husbands, as the Lord: because the husband is head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church . . . . [sic] As the Church is subject to Christ: so also let wives be to their husbands, in all things. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church and delivered Himself up for her . . . [sic] let everyone of you in particular love his wife as himself: and let the wife fear her husband.' (EPH 5:22, 25, 33) What is this doctrine and teaching of Paul if not the teaching and doctrine of Christ? The divine Redeemer came thus to restore what paganism had overthrown."[9]
Elsewhere in sacred scriptures the preeminent epistles of St. Peter and St. Paul are quite clear on the teaching of hierarchy of the family as indicated from excepts of their pastoral letters. The Prince of the Apostles gives Christian women an example of their proper relationship with their husbands: "The holy women of the past . . . hoped in God and were tender and obedient to their husbands; like Sarah, who was obedient to Abraham, and called him her lord.” (1PT 3:5-6) And the Apostle admonishes women to "be gentle, and do as their husbands tell them" (TT 2:5) and reminds his flock that just as "Christ is the head of every man, man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ.” (1COR 11:3)
As Pius XII noted, the Christianization of the Greco-Roman world infused that society's ancient patriarchal structure with new vigor. Since the writings of the Church Fathers, which like the decrees and definitions of the Church, were prompted primarily by controversy they, as a result, do not include detailed doctrinal defenses of patriarchal hierarchy of the family; for this principle was a given both of natural law and divine revelation. Their writings do, however, speak of the Christian spirit of this hierarchy, where a wife is subjected to her husband through the bonds of love rather than coercion. St. Chrysostom, commenting on "that each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife fear her husband," and specifically on whether or not fear excludes love, remarks: "The wife is a secondary authority; let not her then demand equality, for she is under the head; nor let him despise her for being in subjection, for she is the body; and if the head despises the body it will itself also perish . . .. For she that fears and reverences, loves also; and she that loves, fears and reverences him as being the head, and loves him as being a member, since the head itself is the member of the body at large. Hence he [Christ] places the one in subjection the other in authority, that there may be peace; for where there is equal authority there can never be peace; neither where a house is a democracy, nor where all are rulers; but the ruling authority must of necessity be one."[10]
St. Ambrose, often quoted out of context as advocating against patriarchy, first admonishing women bear with their husbands, for "it is right that he whom the woman enticed to do wrong should assume the office of guide, lest he fall once more because of feminine instability," goes on to admonish husbands to treat their spouses not as slaves but as wives: "Get rid of your obstinacy when your gentle consort offers you her love. You are not her master, but a husband. You have not acquired perchance a handmaid, but a wife. God designed you to be a guide to the weaker sex, not a dictator."[11] St. Ambrose elsewhere elaborates on the Fall: "She was first to be deceived and was responsible for deceiving the man. Wherefore the Apostle Paul has related that holy women have in olden times been subject to the stronger vessel and recommends them to obey their husbands as their masters."[12]
St. Augustine refers to the duties and nature of the hierarchical order in The City of God: "Domestic peace is the well-ordered concord between those of the family who rule and those who obey . . .. Order is the distribution which allots things equal and unequal, each to its own place . . .." St. Augustine goes on to elaborate on the domestic order: "And this is the order of this concord, that a man, in the first place, injure no one, and, in the second, do good to everyone he can reach. Primarily, therefore, his own household are his care, for the law of nature and of society gives him readier access to them and greater opportunity of serving them . . .. This is the origin of domestic peace, or the well ordered concord of those in the family who rule and those who obey. For they who care for the rest rule—the husband the wife, the parents the children, the masters the servants; and they who are cared for obey—the women their husbands, the children their parents, the servants their masters."[13]
In its summation of fifteen hundred years of Church teaching, the Roman Catechism restated the doctrine of the patriarchal hierarchy of the family in these strong and unequivocal words: "Again, and in this the conjugal union chiefly consists, let wives never forget that next to God they are to love their husbands, to esteem them above all others, yielding to them in all things not inconsistent to Christian piety, a willing and ready obedience."[14]
The holy magisterium of the Church continued to affirm this teaching after the post-reformational cataclysmic upheaval of Western civilization. Pope Leo XIII, who witnessed the final dismantling of the ancien regime and the beginnings of the feminist movement, staunchly stated: "The husband is chief of the family, and the head of the wife. The woman, because she is flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, must be subject to her husband and obey him."[15] A half century later Pope Pius XI, who witnessed a triumphant feminist movement gain both the right to vote and the acceptance from both the secular and Protestant realms for its other banner issue of artificial contraception, citing the teachings of St. Paul, St. Augustine, and Pope Leo XIII proclaimed: "Domestic society being confirmed, therefore, by this bond of love, there should flourish in it that 'order of love,' as St. Augustine calls it. This order includes both the primacy of the husband with regard to the wife and children, the ready subjection of the wife and her willing obedience, which the Apostle commends . . . ."[16] And finally, during the earth shaking and societal shattering days of World War II, Pope Pius XII exhorted a gathering of newly-weds wives to adhere to the clear teaching of the Church on the hierarchy of the family: "Every family is a society; every well ordered society needs a head; every power of headship comes from God. And so, too, the family you have founded has a head, invested with authority by God: authority over her who has been given him as a companion to constitute the nucleus of this family, and over those who with the Lord's blessing will come to swell it and make it happy, like young shoots from the bole of the olive."[17]
(The Principle of Christian Patriarchal Hierarchy)
Intimately connected with the principle of patriarchal hierarchy of the family are both the sacramentality of marriage and the foundation of ecclesiology. The Catechism of Trent states that "when Christ our Lord wished to give a sign of the intimate union that exists between Him and His Church and His immense love for us, He chose especially the sacred union of man and wife . . . . That Matrimony is a Sacrament of the Church, following the authority of the Apostle, has always held to be certain and incontestable." This dual doctrine first enunciated by the Apostle in Ephesians 5, provides the Church with the basis for the hierarchy of marriage: "Give way to one another in obedience to Christ. Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of the wife; and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything. Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy. He made her clean by washing her in water with a form of words, so that when he took her to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church, because it is his body--and we are its living parts. For this reason, a man must leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one body. This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to Christ and the Church. To sum up; you too, each one of you, must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife reverence her husband." (EPH 5:21-33)
The Catechism of Trent goes on to teach that the phrase "this mystery has many implications, undoubtedly refers to Matrimony, and must be taken to mean that the union of man and wife, which has God for its Author, is a Sacrament [which is the Latin translation of the Greek word mysterion or "mystery"], that is, a sacred sign of that most holy union that binds Christ our Lord to His Church. That this is the true and proper meaning of the Apostle's words is shown by the ancient holy fathers who have interpreted them, and by the explanation furnished by the Council of Trent. It is indubitable, therefore, that the Apostle compares the husband to Christ, and the wife to the Church; that the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church."
Pope Pius XII comments as follows on the inseparable Pauline dual doctrine of the matrimonial sacrament and the hierarchy of the family: "In raising to the dignity of a sacrament marriage between baptized persons, Christ conferred on husband and wife an incomparable dignity, and gave to their union a redemptive function. When he affirms that wives must be subject to their husbands like the Church to Christ, St Paul establishes a very clear difference between husband and wife, but at the same time, he illustrates the power of what joins them one to the other, and which renders indissoluble the bond of union."[18]
Hence, the sacramentality of marriage and the principle of familial hierarchy are intrinsically connected with one another, forming, as it were, a dual doctrine. To attempt to excise the principle of familial hierarchy from the body of Church teaching would require a radical reevaluation of the sacramentality and nature of marriage itself, which was developed doctrinally in integral union with the principle of familial hierarchy.
The Christian marital traits of indissolubility and exclusivity are those that render it both unique and a sacrament. Both traits take as their principle the Pauline prototype of Christ and the Church and the expression of it in the relationship of man and wife. The indissolubility of marriage, which was commanded by Christ, is supported thus by the Catechism of Trent: "And truly, if marriage as a Sacrament represents the union of Christ with His Church, it also necessarily follows that just as Christ never separated Himself from His Church, so in like manner the wife can never be separated from her husband in so far as regards the marriage-tie.” And exclusivity drives from Christ's union with the Church, which is one, and is alluded to in St. Paul's quote of Genesis, "and the two will become one flesh." Those of a feminist bent who would like to do away with the Ephesians 5 passage in order to do away with wifely submission should keep in mind that this is the selfsame passage that is the basis for indissoluble monogamous marriage (which is surely the greatest historical advance of women, and, indeed, has raised them up as no theory of emancipation has ever done). If it were possible to delete the doctrine of patriarchal familial hierarchy from the corpus of Church teachings then the matrimonial doctrine on exclusivity, indissolubility, and the sacramentality of marriage itself, would need to be reconstructed from their very first principles.
(Certitude of Teaching)
Thus the sacramental understanding of marriage requires that it keep its character as a typification of Christ and the Church. This in itself would seem to render the hierarchical familial order of marriage an immutable characteristic of an orthodox theology of marriage because hierarchy is integral to the prototypical relationship of Christ and the Church. In addition, the Church has stated with its greatest authority and certitude (de fide pronouncement) that original sin was transmitted to the entire human race through the actions of one man, Adam. Thus the Church bases this pivotal dogma of original sin—since it can be said to be the very raison d'etre of the Church and Christ's redemptive sacrifice—on Adam's patriarchal headship over the entire human family; Adam is the first father. Hence this pivotal dogmatic statement is dependent on the crucial spiritual reality of patriarchy in the preternatural state. The teaching of patriarchal authority then can be classified at least as a teaching pertaining to the Faith, and as such to be held as "theologically certain" (sententia ad fidem pertinens, theologice certa). Though Adam's patriarchal authority is obviously not conveyed entirely to each father of a family, but proportionally, the fact that Christ came to restore the original ideal of marriage would include the restoration of familial patriarchy and hierarchy. Where Adam as the universal father had an authority that extended to all his descendants, that is the entire human race, each father would proportionally have an authority over his own descendants, that is his own family; with, of course, taking into account the universal ramifications of Adam's primary patriarchy that singularly established man's inherited spiritual disposition.
So too, the holy magisterium has continued to reiterate and define the doctrine of the patriarchal hierarchy of the family for nearly two thousand years. That this doctrine has been both universally promulgated and universally accepted is witnessed to by its constant derivation from the Church's exegesis of Holy Scripture; by its promulgation by the Church Fathers; by its clear and forceful inclusion in the universally promulgated, and perennial Roman Catechism issued by the dogmatic Council of Trent, and from which all subsequent catechisms till the post-Vatican II era were derived; and by its repeated teaching in doctrinal encyclicals and utterances of the popes.
Due to the foregoing promulgations of the doctrine of the patriarchal hierarchy of the family, it appears that this teaching has enjoyed for the vast majority of the Church's existence the status of a universal moral teaching and been accepted as such by both the hierarchy and the faithful. As such, it would seem to follow that this teaching is infallible. This status of infallibility would derive from the ordinary magisterium[19] of the Church which Vatican II explains thus: "Although the individual bishops do not enjoy the prerogative of infallibility, they do, nevertheless, enunciate the doctrine of Christ infallible when, even dispersed around the world but preserving the bond of communion between themselves and with the successor of Peter, they concur on one judgment as having to be held definitively, while authentically teaching on faith and morals." [20] According to the 1917 Code of Canon Law, ordinary teaching infallibility incurs when one of the following is displayed: "[1] The Bishops exercise their infallible teaching power in an ordinary manner when they, in moral unity with the Pope, unanimously promulgate the same teachings on faith and morals. [2] The [First] Vatican Council expressly declared that also the truths of Revelation [i.e. Holy Scripture] proposed as such by the ordinary and general teaching office of the Church are to be firmly held with 'divine and catholic faith.' The incumbents of the ordinary and general teaching office of the Church are the members of the whole episcopate scattered over the whole earth. [3] The agreement of the Bishops in doctrine may be determined from the catechisms issued by them . . . . [4] A morally general agreement suffices, but in this the express or tacit assent of the Pope, as the supreme head of the Episcopate, is essential."[21] The doctrine of the patriarchal hierarchy of the family appears to fit all four means, though only one is required, for designating a teaching infallible in an ordinary manner (the issuance of the promulgation of the Catechism of Trent, a universal dogmatic catechism, that was also universally promulgated by the episcopate, would suffice for the third means).
The wording of Vatican's II statement taken by itself, and as formulated by post-conciliar theologians, produces a slightly different emphasis on the requirements for ordinary infallibility, but with the same affirmative results in regards to the teaching on the patriarchal hierarchy of the family: "It must be clear that they are teaching it definitively, as something which must be held. Therefore, one must ascertain 1) what exactly is being taught; 2) whether the Pope and bishops are all (i.e. moral unanimity) teaching it; and 3) what degree of certitude they are attaching to their teaching."[22] In regards to the Catechism of Trent teaching the first two requirements are fulfilled: it is clear what is being taught, and it is being taught in a definitive manner. The third requirement also appears to be fulfilled due to the wording of the Catechism of Trent's teaching: "Again, and in this the conjugal union chiefly consists, let wives never forget that next to God they are to love their husbands, to esteem them above all others, yielding to them in all things not inconsistent to Christian piety, a willing and ready obedience." (Emphasis mine) The constant exegesis of Ephesians 5 and the numerous reiteration of the popes that teach patriarchal hierarchy as a Catholic moral imperative also appear to fulfill the requirements for ordinary infallibility. In his landmark encyclical on Christian marriage, Casti Connubii, Pope Pius XI specifically characterizes the teaching on patriarchal hierarchy as an unchangeable law of God: "This order [i.e. "the primacy of the husband over his wife and children, and the ready submission and willing obedience of the wife"[23]] was constituted by an authority higher than man's, that is, by the authority and wisdom of God Himself, and neither the laws of the State nor the good pleasure of individuals can ever change it."[24] Such an authoritative statement in a papal encyclical addressed to all the bishops of the world lacks neither clarity, nor definition, nor certitude, nor universality.
(Harmony of Hierarchy)
Sin is the source of all chaos, for it is a rebellion against God's established order. As such sin is the cause of familial discord. Harmony is defined by St. Thomas Aquinas as "an effect of charity, which does not necessarily imply unity of opinion, but of wills." Hence familial harmony depends not on unity of opinion, an often rare and tenuous commodity between man and woman, but upon a unity of wills. This unity of wills and the ensuing harmony can only be complete in a hierarchical order. The establishment of the hierarchy of the family fosters a harmony and openness between man and wife that is made possible by the absence of infighting and power struggles. Since the familial hierarchical structure does not admit of politics or consensus opinion, the man as head of the family is not threatened by, indeed welcomes, his wife's input, or creativity, or even her difference of opinion, because his authority is irrevocably established. And the wife need not be unbecomingly aggressive in a ceaseless struggle for power, but rather may employ her unique feminine qualities to influence and strengthen her husband in his decision-making.
In a time when the family must be united as never before, it is the harmony of hierarchy that unites the family as nothing else can. In referring to St. Paul's delineation of the relationship of Christ and the Church as it applies to man and wife, Pope Pius XII again provides insight into the blessings of the hierarchical order: "He has shown how firm command and respectful, docile obedience can and should find forgetfulness of self and a generous, reciprocal giving in active and mutual love. From these sentiments, then, let there spring and grow that domestic peace, the fruit of order and affection, which St. Augustine defines as: ordinata imperandi obediendique concordia cohabitantium (the harmonious union of authority and obedience among those who live together). This must be the ideal of your Christian family."[25]
1. Matthew 19; Mark 10.
[2]. Gerhard von Rad, Genesis, 3rd rev. ed. (London: SCM Press, 1972), p.60.
[3]. John L. McKenzie, S.J., Dictionary of the Bible, (Milwaukee, The Bruce Publishing Company, 1965), p.12.
[4]. Decrees of the Council of Trent, Session V, June 1546.
[5]. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Pt. I, Q. 96, Art. 4.
6. K. Barth.
[7]. Pius XII, "Allocution to Newly-Weds," September 10, 1941, para. 74.
[8]. Ibid., para. 78.
[9]. Ibid.
[10]. St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians, Homily XX, ver. 26.
[11]. Saint Ambrose, Six Days of Creation: Five, Chapter VII, sec. 18-19. While some have sought to use Ambrose's sentence "You are not a master, but a husband" as evidence that a Church Father did not support patriarchal hierarchy, it is clear that in context he is far from dissenting from that doctrine, stating two sentences later that the husband was designed by God to be the guide of the weaker sex. So too, as per the passage referenced in endnote 10, Ambrose clearly accepts that St. Paul recommends that wives "obey their husbands as their masters." Indeed, elsewhere Ambrose is quite explicit in his view of a certain male superiority: "Although created outside of Paradise, that is in an inferior place, man is found to be superior, whereas woman, created in a better place, that is to say, in Paradise, is found to be inferior." (Paradise Chapter IV, sec. 24) While this passage is apt to be misconstrued as denying the intrinsic equal worth and dignity of women, it nonetheless puts an end to the opposite and even wilder misconstruing that St. Ambrose with his single sentence is an opponent of patriarchal hierarchy.
[12]. Saint Ambrose, Paradise, Chapter IV, sec. 24.
[13]. St. Augustine, The City of God, bk. 19, chp. 14.
[14]. Ibid., The Sacrament of Matrimony; "On the Duties of a Christian Wife."
[15]. Leo XIII, Arcanum, Encyclical letter, 10 Feb. 1880.
[16]. Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, Encyclical Letter, 1930.
[17]. Pius XII, op. cit., para. 82.
[18]. Pope Pius XII, Allocution to the World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations, September 29, 1957.
[19]. In proposing a teaching of faith or morals as one to be held by all the faithful, the totality of the Bishops, in union with the Pope, exercise infallibility both in an extraordinary manner, when they are assembled in a general council, and in an ordinary manner, when scattered over the earth.
[20]. Documents of Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 25.
[21]. Codex Juris Canonici (1917), Canon 227. This definition is from the Code of Canon Law that was in force from 1917-1983. The new Code's reference is much briefer.
[22]. James T. O'Connor, The Gift of Infallibility (Boston, Daughters of St. Paul, 1986), p. 106.
[23]. Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, December 31, 1930; para. 26.
[24]. Ibid.; para. 77.
[25]. Pius XII, Allocution to Newly-Weds.
Original lecture presented at the John Paul II Pontifical Institute on Marriage & Family, Wash. DC, March 1991; a rendition of which was subsequently published in The Wanderer, 1991. The final rendition of this essay appeared in Christian Order, December 2001.
(Introduction)
Even in today’s pervasive atmosphere of hyper-egalitarianism, the acceptance of the hierarchical structure of the Church’s magisterial priesthood remains the sine qua non for one claiming orthodoxy. That is, a very least any orthodox claimant’s credibility at least requires accepting of the Church’s teaching and ruling authority, no matter how ranging and otherwise incongruous other issues may be. But there is another God ordained hierarchical structure that is part and parcel of the orthodox corpus. Like its ecclesial counterpart, it is patriarchal; but unlike ecclesial patriarchy being the lowest common denominator of orthodoxy, this patriarchy is that which is the most divisive of orthodox concepts. For there is nothing that so contradicts the contemporary ethos of hyper-egalitarianism as that of the patriarchal hierarchy of the family: the teaching that prescribes a man’s spiritual and juridical headship over his wife and children.
(Preternatural State)
Contrary to the wishes of most contemporary theologians, Christ did not come to eradicate the patriarchal order, but to elevate it, just as He elevated and restored marriage as a whole to its original preternatural understanding.[1] Indeed, the preternatural familial state as recorded in Genesis is unintelligible without the understanding of its patriarchal principle. Adam is placed among creation as "the image of God," thus becoming His very representative. "Just as powerful earthly kings, to indicate their claim to dominion, erect an image of themselves in the provinces of their empire where they do not personally appear, so man is placed upon earth in God's image as God's sovereign emblem."[2] Adam's commission to name the animals is also significant. "The superiority of man over the beasts is shown by his naming them (GN 2:19-20). In the ancient world to give a name was a sign of authority."[3] Adam authority over Eve was also indicated by his twice naming her, both before and after the Fall. "This at last is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh! This is to be called woman, for this was taken from man.” (GN 2:23) "The man named his wife ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of all those who live.” (GN 3:20) And it was Adam alone who, as patriarchal representative, was called to by God after the couple had eaten of the tree. "And they hid from Yahweh God among the trees of the garden. But Yahweh called to the man. 'Where are you?' he asked." (GN 3:9) Indeed, Adam's negligence in protecting and guiding Eve that resulted in her encounter with the serpent, and his subsequent following of her lead, are the primal sins, respectively, of omission and commission against patriarchy and its order.
Most importantly in gleaning the patriarchal significance of the creation account is the Church's doctrinal understanding of it. The Church's pivotal dogma of original sin is predicated on Adam's patriarchal status before the Fall. It is from Adam alone that original sin is incurred. "If anyone asserts that the transgression of Adam injured him alone and not his posterity, . . . let him be anathema."[4] If only Eve had sinned, then only she would have experienced the consequences of that sin. But when Adam sinned—as patriarch, head, and representative of the human race—the consequences affected all his descendants, the entire human race.
In seeming answer to all those Christian socialists who would advance their utopian fantasies by portraying humanity before the Fall as classless and totally egalitarian, St. Thomas Aquinas addressed the issue as to "Whether in the state of innocence man would have been master over man?” He answers, "The condition of man in the state of innocence was not more exulted than the condition of the angels. But among the angels some rule over others; and so one order is called Dominations. Therefore, it is was not beneath the dignity of the state of innocence that one man should be subject to another."[5]
Indeed, the principle of patriarchy permeates the entirety of Hebrew culture and spirituality. From the absolute social and spiritual rule of the ancient patriarchs, to Abraham's covenant made in the name of his posterity, to the institution of the Israelite priesthood, to the specifically male duty of study and prayer, to the ministerial role of the father in the religious services of the home, the principle of patriarchy has characterize the
full span of Hebrew salvation history and spirituality. So too, the “merits of the fathers" is an ancient concept, predating and much repeated in
rabbinical literature, that stresses the continual blessings of the patriarchs. An example of this is Moses, who himself is acting as an intercessor,
evoking the past merits of the fathers in behalf of the Israelites when they fell to worshipping the golden calf: "Let the storm of thy anger pass;
pardon Your people's guilt! Remember Thy servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.” (EX 32:12-13) St. Paul, who as a youth studied under one of the
great teachers of the law, Rabban Gamaliel, also employs this concept when he speaks of the Jews as still loved by God, loved for "the sake of
the Fathers.” (RM 11:28)
(Ancient Paganism)
Just as the truth of the matter is quite the opposite of the contention that Christ’s restoration and elevation of marriage did away with patriarchy, so too is it a diametrical falsehood that the nascent Church was merely aping the culture of her times when she advanced the teaching of patriarchy and the submission of women. Indeed, as the Church expanded into gentile society she found herself in a morally decaying milieu much like that of the 20th century West, where an “atmosphere of paganism, a tendency toward egalitarianism, and an ascendancy of feminism"[6] pervaded. Pope Pius XII, summarized the domestic disintegration of the pagan milieu into which Christianity was born as follows: "In the [ancient] Roman world, notwithstanding the respect and dignity surrounding the mother of the family, she was withal according to ancient law, juridically subject to her husband or paterfamilias, who had supreme power in the home. But with the passing of the centuries, the laws of the ancients concerning the family fell into disuse; their iron discipline disappeared, and women became practically independent of the authority of the husband. Doubtless there remained shining examples of excellent wives and mothers, imitators of the matrons of old, . . . but opposed to such irreproachable personalities there arose in vivid contrast the ever growing number of women, especially of high society, who fled disdainfully from the duties of motherhood to give themselves rather to occupations and to play a part till then reserved to men alone. At the same time, as divorce multiplied, the family began to disintegrate, and womanly affections and behavior deviated from the straight path of virtue to such an extent that it drew from Seneca the bitter lament: 'Does there now remain any woman at all who is ashamed to break her marriage . . ., when they divorce to remarry, and marry only to divorce?'"[7]
Pius XII then goes on to conclude: "To reestablish in the family that hierarchy indispensable for unity and happiness, and at the same time to restore the original and true grandeur of conjugal love, was one of the greatest undertakings of Christendom."[8] Hence, contrary to those who claim that St. Paul was merely reiterating cultural principles of his time, he was in fact witnessing against the currents of his time when he set out to reestablish and elevate the patriarchal hierarchy of the family.
(Church Teaching)
Pope Pius XII states in the same allocution that "the Christian concept of matrimony which St. Paul taught to his disciples of Ephesus, just as he did to those of Corinth, could not be clearer or more forthright: 'Let women be subject to their husbands, as the Lord: because the husband is head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church . . . . [sic] As the Church is subject to Christ: so also let wives be to their husbands, in all things. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church and delivered Himself up for her . . . [sic] let everyone of you in particular love his wife as himself: and let the wife fear her husband.' (EPH 5:22, 25, 33) What is this doctrine and teaching of Paul if not the teaching and doctrine of Christ? The divine Redeemer came thus to restore what paganism had overthrown."[9]
Elsewhere in sacred scriptures the preeminent epistles of St. Peter and St. Paul are quite clear on the teaching of hierarchy of the family as indicated from excepts of their pastoral letters. The Prince of the Apostles gives Christian women an example of their proper relationship with their husbands: "The holy women of the past . . . hoped in God and were tender and obedient to their husbands; like Sarah, who was obedient to Abraham, and called him her lord.” (1PT 3:5-6) And the Apostle admonishes women to "be gentle, and do as their husbands tell them" (TT 2:5) and reminds his flock that just as "Christ is the head of every man, man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ.” (1COR 11:3)
As Pius XII noted, the Christianization of the Greco-Roman world infused that society's ancient patriarchal structure with new vigor. Since the writings of the Church Fathers, which like the decrees and definitions of the Church, were prompted primarily by controversy they, as a result, do not include detailed doctrinal defenses of patriarchal hierarchy of the family; for this principle was a given both of natural law and divine revelation. Their writings do, however, speak of the Christian spirit of this hierarchy, where a wife is subjected to her husband through the bonds of love rather than coercion. St. Chrysostom, commenting on "that each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife fear her husband," and specifically on whether or not fear excludes love, remarks: "The wife is a secondary authority; let not her then demand equality, for she is under the head; nor let him despise her for being in subjection, for she is the body; and if the head despises the body it will itself also perish . . .. For she that fears and reverences, loves also; and she that loves, fears and reverences him as being the head, and loves him as being a member, since the head itself is the member of the body at large. Hence he [Christ] places the one in subjection the other in authority, that there may be peace; for where there is equal authority there can never be peace; neither where a house is a democracy, nor where all are rulers; but the ruling authority must of necessity be one."[10]
St. Ambrose, often quoted out of context as advocating against patriarchy, first admonishing women bear with their husbands, for "it is right that he whom the woman enticed to do wrong should assume the office of guide, lest he fall once more because of feminine instability," goes on to admonish husbands to treat their spouses not as slaves but as wives: "Get rid of your obstinacy when your gentle consort offers you her love. You are not her master, but a husband. You have not acquired perchance a handmaid, but a wife. God designed you to be a guide to the weaker sex, not a dictator."[11] St. Ambrose elsewhere elaborates on the Fall: "She was first to be deceived and was responsible for deceiving the man. Wherefore the Apostle Paul has related that holy women have in olden times been subject to the stronger vessel and recommends them to obey their husbands as their masters."[12]
St. Augustine refers to the duties and nature of the hierarchical order in The City of God: "Domestic peace is the well-ordered concord between those of the family who rule and those who obey . . .. Order is the distribution which allots things equal and unequal, each to its own place . . .." St. Augustine goes on to elaborate on the domestic order: "And this is the order of this concord, that a man, in the first place, injure no one, and, in the second, do good to everyone he can reach. Primarily, therefore, his own household are his care, for the law of nature and of society gives him readier access to them and greater opportunity of serving them . . .. This is the origin of domestic peace, or the well ordered concord of those in the family who rule and those who obey. For they who care for the rest rule—the husband the wife, the parents the children, the masters the servants; and they who are cared for obey—the women their husbands, the children their parents, the servants their masters."[13]
In its summation of fifteen hundred years of Church teaching, the Roman Catechism restated the doctrine of the patriarchal hierarchy of the family in these strong and unequivocal words: "Again, and in this the conjugal union chiefly consists, let wives never forget that next to God they are to love their husbands, to esteem them above all others, yielding to them in all things not inconsistent to Christian piety, a willing and ready obedience."[14]
The holy magisterium of the Church continued to affirm this teaching after the post-reformational cataclysmic upheaval of Western civilization. Pope Leo XIII, who witnessed the final dismantling of the ancien regime and the beginnings of the feminist movement, staunchly stated: "The husband is chief of the family, and the head of the wife. The woman, because she is flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, must be subject to her husband and obey him."[15] A half century later Pope Pius XI, who witnessed a triumphant feminist movement gain both the right to vote and the acceptance from both the secular and Protestant realms for its other banner issue of artificial contraception, citing the teachings of St. Paul, St. Augustine, and Pope Leo XIII proclaimed: "Domestic society being confirmed, therefore, by this bond of love, there should flourish in it that 'order of love,' as St. Augustine calls it. This order includes both the primacy of the husband with regard to the wife and children, the ready subjection of the wife and her willing obedience, which the Apostle commends . . . ."[16] And finally, during the earth shaking and societal shattering days of World War II, Pope Pius XII exhorted a gathering of newly-weds wives to adhere to the clear teaching of the Church on the hierarchy of the family: "Every family is a society; every well ordered society needs a head; every power of headship comes from God. And so, too, the family you have founded has a head, invested with authority by God: authority over her who has been given him as a companion to constitute the nucleus of this family, and over those who with the Lord's blessing will come to swell it and make it happy, like young shoots from the bole of the olive."[17]
(The Principle of Christian Patriarchal Hierarchy)
Intimately connected with the principle of patriarchal hierarchy of the family are both the sacramentality of marriage and the foundation of ecclesiology. The Catechism of Trent states that "when Christ our Lord wished to give a sign of the intimate union that exists between Him and His Church and His immense love for us, He chose especially the sacred union of man and wife . . . . That Matrimony is a Sacrament of the Church, following the authority of the Apostle, has always held to be certain and incontestable." This dual doctrine first enunciated by the Apostle in Ephesians 5, provides the Church with the basis for the hierarchy of marriage: "Give way to one another in obedience to Christ. Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of the wife; and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything. Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy. He made her clean by washing her in water with a form of words, so that when he took her to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church, because it is his body--and we are its living parts. For this reason, a man must leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one body. This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to Christ and the Church. To sum up; you too, each one of you, must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife reverence her husband." (EPH 5:21-33)
The Catechism of Trent goes on to teach that the phrase "this mystery has many implications, undoubtedly refers to Matrimony, and must be taken to mean that the union of man and wife, which has God for its Author, is a Sacrament [which is the Latin translation of the Greek word mysterion or "mystery"], that is, a sacred sign of that most holy union that binds Christ our Lord to His Church. That this is the true and proper meaning of the Apostle's words is shown by the ancient holy fathers who have interpreted them, and by the explanation furnished by the Council of Trent. It is indubitable, therefore, that the Apostle compares the husband to Christ, and the wife to the Church; that the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church."
Pope Pius XII comments as follows on the inseparable Pauline dual doctrine of the matrimonial sacrament and the hierarchy of the family: "In raising to the dignity of a sacrament marriage between baptized persons, Christ conferred on husband and wife an incomparable dignity, and gave to their union a redemptive function. When he affirms that wives must be subject to their husbands like the Church to Christ, St Paul establishes a very clear difference between husband and wife, but at the same time, he illustrates the power of what joins them one to the other, and which renders indissoluble the bond of union."[18]
Hence, the sacramentality of marriage and the principle of familial hierarchy are intrinsically connected with one another, forming, as it were, a dual doctrine. To attempt to excise the principle of familial hierarchy from the body of Church teaching would require a radical reevaluation of the sacramentality and nature of marriage itself, which was developed doctrinally in integral union with the principle of familial hierarchy.
The Christian marital traits of indissolubility and exclusivity are those that render it both unique and a sacrament. Both traits take as their principle the Pauline prototype of Christ and the Church and the expression of it in the relationship of man and wife. The indissolubility of marriage, which was commanded by Christ, is supported thus by the Catechism of Trent: "And truly, if marriage as a Sacrament represents the union of Christ with His Church, it also necessarily follows that just as Christ never separated Himself from His Church, so in like manner the wife can never be separated from her husband in so far as regards the marriage-tie.” And exclusivity drives from Christ's union with the Church, which is one, and is alluded to in St. Paul's quote of Genesis, "and the two will become one flesh." Those of a feminist bent who would like to do away with the Ephesians 5 passage in order to do away with wifely submission should keep in mind that this is the selfsame passage that is the basis for indissoluble monogamous marriage (which is surely the greatest historical advance of women, and, indeed, has raised them up as no theory of emancipation has ever done). If it were possible to delete the doctrine of patriarchal familial hierarchy from the corpus of Church teachings then the matrimonial doctrine on exclusivity, indissolubility, and the sacramentality of marriage itself, would need to be reconstructed from their very first principles.
(Certitude of Teaching)
Thus the sacramental understanding of marriage requires that it keep its character as a typification of Christ and the Church. This in itself would seem to render the hierarchical familial order of marriage an immutable characteristic of an orthodox theology of marriage because hierarchy is integral to the prototypical relationship of Christ and the Church. In addition, the Church has stated with its greatest authority and certitude (de fide pronouncement) that original sin was transmitted to the entire human race through the actions of one man, Adam. Thus the Church bases this pivotal dogma of original sin—since it can be said to be the very raison d'etre of the Church and Christ's redemptive sacrifice—on Adam's patriarchal headship over the entire human family; Adam is the first father. Hence this pivotal dogmatic statement is dependent on the crucial spiritual reality of patriarchy in the preternatural state. The teaching of patriarchal authority then can be classified at least as a teaching pertaining to the Faith, and as such to be held as "theologically certain" (sententia ad fidem pertinens, theologice certa). Though Adam's patriarchal authority is obviously not conveyed entirely to each father of a family, but proportionally, the fact that Christ came to restore the original ideal of marriage would include the restoration of familial patriarchy and hierarchy. Where Adam as the universal father had an authority that extended to all his descendants, that is the entire human race, each father would proportionally have an authority over his own descendants, that is his own family; with, of course, taking into account the universal ramifications of Adam's primary patriarchy that singularly established man's inherited spiritual disposition.
So too, the holy magisterium has continued to reiterate and define the doctrine of the patriarchal hierarchy of the family for nearly two thousand years. That this doctrine has been both universally promulgated and universally accepted is witnessed to by its constant derivation from the Church's exegesis of Holy Scripture; by its promulgation by the Church Fathers; by its clear and forceful inclusion in the universally promulgated, and perennial Roman Catechism issued by the dogmatic Council of Trent, and from which all subsequent catechisms till the post-Vatican II era were derived; and by its repeated teaching in doctrinal encyclicals and utterances of the popes.
Due to the foregoing promulgations of the doctrine of the patriarchal hierarchy of the family, it appears that this teaching has enjoyed for the vast majority of the Church's existence the status of a universal moral teaching and been accepted as such by both the hierarchy and the faithful. As such, it would seem to follow that this teaching is infallible. This status of infallibility would derive from the ordinary magisterium[19] of the Church which Vatican II explains thus: "Although the individual bishops do not enjoy the prerogative of infallibility, they do, nevertheless, enunciate the doctrine of Christ infallible when, even dispersed around the world but preserving the bond of communion between themselves and with the successor of Peter, they concur on one judgment as having to be held definitively, while authentically teaching on faith and morals." [20] According to the 1917 Code of Canon Law, ordinary teaching infallibility incurs when one of the following is displayed: "[1] The Bishops exercise their infallible teaching power in an ordinary manner when they, in moral unity with the Pope, unanimously promulgate the same teachings on faith and morals. [2] The [First] Vatican Council expressly declared that also the truths of Revelation [i.e. Holy Scripture] proposed as such by the ordinary and general teaching office of the Church are to be firmly held with 'divine and catholic faith.' The incumbents of the ordinary and general teaching office of the Church are the members of the whole episcopate scattered over the whole earth. [3] The agreement of the Bishops in doctrine may be determined from the catechisms issued by them . . . . [4] A morally general agreement suffices, but in this the express or tacit assent of the Pope, as the supreme head of the Episcopate, is essential."[21] The doctrine of the patriarchal hierarchy of the family appears to fit all four means, though only one is required, for designating a teaching infallible in an ordinary manner (the issuance of the promulgation of the Catechism of Trent, a universal dogmatic catechism, that was also universally promulgated by the episcopate, would suffice for the third means).
The wording of Vatican's II statement taken by itself, and as formulated by post-conciliar theologians, produces a slightly different emphasis on the requirements for ordinary infallibility, but with the same affirmative results in regards to the teaching on the patriarchal hierarchy of the family: "It must be clear that they are teaching it definitively, as something which must be held. Therefore, one must ascertain 1) what exactly is being taught; 2) whether the Pope and bishops are all (i.e. moral unanimity) teaching it; and 3) what degree of certitude they are attaching to their teaching."[22] In regards to the Catechism of Trent teaching the first two requirements are fulfilled: it is clear what is being taught, and it is being taught in a definitive manner. The third requirement also appears to be fulfilled due to the wording of the Catechism of Trent's teaching: "Again, and in this the conjugal union chiefly consists, let wives never forget that next to God they are to love their husbands, to esteem them above all others, yielding to them in all things not inconsistent to Christian piety, a willing and ready obedience." (Emphasis mine) The constant exegesis of Ephesians 5 and the numerous reiteration of the popes that teach patriarchal hierarchy as a Catholic moral imperative also appear to fulfill the requirements for ordinary infallibility. In his landmark encyclical on Christian marriage, Casti Connubii, Pope Pius XI specifically characterizes the teaching on patriarchal hierarchy as an unchangeable law of God: "This order [i.e. "the primacy of the husband over his wife and children, and the ready submission and willing obedience of the wife"[23]] was constituted by an authority higher than man's, that is, by the authority and wisdom of God Himself, and neither the laws of the State nor the good pleasure of individuals can ever change it."[24] Such an authoritative statement in a papal encyclical addressed to all the bishops of the world lacks neither clarity, nor definition, nor certitude, nor universality.
(Harmony of Hierarchy)
Sin is the source of all chaos, for it is a rebellion against God's established order. As such sin is the cause of familial discord. Harmony is defined by St. Thomas Aquinas as "an effect of charity, which does not necessarily imply unity of opinion, but of wills." Hence familial harmony depends not on unity of opinion, an often rare and tenuous commodity between man and woman, but upon a unity of wills. This unity of wills and the ensuing harmony can only be complete in a hierarchical order. The establishment of the hierarchy of the family fosters a harmony and openness between man and wife that is made possible by the absence of infighting and power struggles. Since the familial hierarchical structure does not admit of politics or consensus opinion, the man as head of the family is not threatened by, indeed welcomes, his wife's input, or creativity, or even her difference of opinion, because his authority is irrevocably established. And the wife need not be unbecomingly aggressive in a ceaseless struggle for power, but rather may employ her unique feminine qualities to influence and strengthen her husband in his decision-making.
In a time when the family must be united as never before, it is the harmony of hierarchy that unites the family as nothing else can. In referring to St. Paul's delineation of the relationship of Christ and the Church as it applies to man and wife, Pope Pius XII again provides insight into the blessings of the hierarchical order: "He has shown how firm command and respectful, docile obedience can and should find forgetfulness of self and a generous, reciprocal giving in active and mutual love. From these sentiments, then, let there spring and grow that domestic peace, the fruit of order and affection, which St. Augustine defines as: ordinata imperandi obediendique concordia cohabitantium (the harmonious union of authority and obedience among those who live together). This must be the ideal of your Christian family."[25]
1. Matthew 19; Mark 10.
[2]. Gerhard von Rad, Genesis, 3rd rev. ed. (London: SCM Press, 1972), p.60.
[3]. John L. McKenzie, S.J., Dictionary of the Bible, (Milwaukee, The Bruce Publishing Company, 1965), p.12.
[4]. Decrees of the Council of Trent, Session V, June 1546.
[5]. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Pt. I, Q. 96, Art. 4.
6. K. Barth.
[7]. Pius XII, "Allocution to Newly-Weds," September 10, 1941, para. 74.
[8]. Ibid., para. 78.
[9]. Ibid.
[10]. St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians, Homily XX, ver. 26.
[11]. Saint Ambrose, Six Days of Creation: Five, Chapter VII, sec. 18-19. While some have sought to use Ambrose's sentence "You are not a master, but a husband" as evidence that a Church Father did not support patriarchal hierarchy, it is clear that in context he is far from dissenting from that doctrine, stating two sentences later that the husband was designed by God to be the guide of the weaker sex. So too, as per the passage referenced in endnote 10, Ambrose clearly accepts that St. Paul recommends that wives "obey their husbands as their masters." Indeed, elsewhere Ambrose is quite explicit in his view of a certain male superiority: "Although created outside of Paradise, that is in an inferior place, man is found to be superior, whereas woman, created in a better place, that is to say, in Paradise, is found to be inferior." (Paradise Chapter IV, sec. 24) While this passage is apt to be misconstrued as denying the intrinsic equal worth and dignity of women, it nonetheless puts an end to the opposite and even wilder misconstruing that St. Ambrose with his single sentence is an opponent of patriarchal hierarchy.
[12]. Saint Ambrose, Paradise, Chapter IV, sec. 24.
[13]. St. Augustine, The City of God, bk. 19, chp. 14.
[14]. Ibid., The Sacrament of Matrimony; "On the Duties of a Christian Wife."
[15]. Leo XIII, Arcanum, Encyclical letter, 10 Feb. 1880.
[16]. Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, Encyclical Letter, 1930.
[17]. Pius XII, op. cit., para. 82.
[18]. Pope Pius XII, Allocution to the World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations, September 29, 1957.
[19]. In proposing a teaching of faith or morals as one to be held by all the faithful, the totality of the Bishops, in union with the Pope, exercise infallibility both in an extraordinary manner, when they are assembled in a general council, and in an ordinary manner, when scattered over the earth.
[20]. Documents of Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 25.
[21]. Codex Juris Canonici (1917), Canon 227. This definition is from the Code of Canon Law that was in force from 1917-1983. The new Code's reference is much briefer.
[22]. James T. O'Connor, The Gift of Infallibility (Boston, Daughters of St. Paul, 1986), p. 106.
[23]. Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubii, December 31, 1930; para. 26.
[24]. Ibid.; para. 77.
[25]. Pius XII, Allocution to Newly-Weds.