IMNHO there can be only one tenable option. Do not restrict by gender.
But I think we should not make that decision because of complicated medical instances but because it is the right thing to do for all people.
My only concern is that we should not lose the desire to work for a restructure away from the patriachial structures to better ones. Ordained women should not need to conform to a patriachial system.
What the system should be I do not know, how we overturn centuries of male domination without rebounbing past a point of balance I do not know.
BTW IMNHO = In My Not Humble Opinion
Hmmmm...excellent question! From a purely sensible point of view I would hope that only those who are spiritually whole would be ordained. Historically, the Vatican seems to have focused more on the physical attributes of candidates than their spiritual ones, though, so no luck there. 
I think I will have to link to this post.
You bring up very valid questions. I am not sure of the answers to them myself, but I don't think women should be restricted from ministry, though I do understand the Catholic take on that a 'representative' of Christ who was male, should be male, but perhaps Christ himself said that law should change to the needs of the time and of Man I believe. Though I may be wrong there, but I thought I read that somewhere, though of course not in those exact words. If I can find that, I will post the reference.
What is gender but a label truly. There are those males who are in a male body but feel entirely female. I work with two such people.
Gender is such a grey area, I don't see how it can be so black and white, but that's just my opinion.
Great questions!
Very thoughtful and provocative post. Thanks!!
Great Post!
I ask the same question when it comes to the notion that marriage must be between a man and a woman.
By the way, I am a heterosexual male married to a heterosexual female, and a practicing Roman Catholic.
Nevertheless, this very question has always made me highly uncertain of Pope John Paul II's theological innovation of introducing the term "complementarity" into the non-infallible but authoratative Church doctrine.
It's not that I don't have a sort of intuitive sense that men and women are different (i.e. - try as I might, I can't bear a child). Nor is it that I entirely reject the whole notion of gender complementarity (I do sense that my wife completes me somehow).
But G-d seems to be saying through the way G-d created the world that gender complementarity is not absolute and inflexible, but more fluid and diverse and too complext to fit neatly into a dualistic scheme.
Canonically, I believe the Church already excludes "intersex" people, though I am not positive which canon is used to enforce the rule.
I know one such person who was turned away from several male orders and several orders of nuns. This person eventually became a Bhuddist, and the Bhuddists accepted "her" as a nun.
Personally, I think women can and should be ordained precisely because men and women are different in some complementarity way. If it is true that gender polarity somehow complete each pole, an exclusively male priesthood is incomplete.
But the question of "intersex" people raises the whole issue of gay marriage for me.
And the fact that the Catholic Church allows married heterosexuals to deliberately practice natural family planning is indicative that non-reporductive sex is considered morally licit where there is unitive love.
Thus, there is no more reason gays and lesbians cannot express unitive love than an infertile heterosexual couple - and the notion of complementarity, while somewhat valid, cannot be absolute.
I'm rambling, and probably preaching to the choir here.
Anyway....good post.
Peace!
That there are anomilies in nature does not make them the norm. That is why they are called anomilies.
Great post! If we learn only one thing from sex chromosome abnormalities, I hope it is that Christians shouldn't judge by external appearance. What might appear to be one way, could be totally another way. The good Lord knows not only the chromosomal makeup of His children, but He also knows their hearts. Let's leave the judgment to Him, and Him alone. To those with the spiritual gift of ministery....minister, and God bless you.
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