“Signs of the Times” appear calling for women’s ordination on feast of St. Mary Magdalene

Washington, D.C.: As the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of St. Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, a special “resurrection garden” of signs calling for women’s ordination and gender equality appeared on the grounds of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the  U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops.

Similar “gardens” sprung up outside the Catholic cathedrals in Chicago and Philadelphia. 

St. Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus’ closest followers and the first to see the risen Christ in the garden next to his tomb. His command to “go and tell” the disciples the news of the Resurrection makes her the first person commissioned by Jesus to proclaim the Gospel. 

Sadly, and outrageously, the Church has refused to follow Jesus’ example of radical equality, relegating women to “complementary” roles and a second-class status in the Church. The Church has also long tarnished the prophetic legacy of St. Mary Magdalene, describing her as a prostitute without any supporting Biblical evidence. 

A more correct analysis is offered by Jesuit Fr. James Martin: “Between the time Mary Magdalene met the Risen Christ at Easter and when she announced his Resurrection to the disciples, Mary Magdalene was the church on earth, for only to her had been revealed the Paschal Mystery.”

To continue to deny women a role in sacramental ministry and decision-making in the Church is a gross perpetuation of the sin of sexism. To fail to include women as equals in ministry as the Church re-imagines itself in a post-COVID-19 world is an act not only of limited imagination, but of cowardice. 

Photos of the “signs of the times” resurrection gardens can be seen here: