Last Sunday was Mother's Day. It was also the Eighth World Day of Prayer for the Ordination of Women in the Catholic Church. Very fitting indeed. Since "God is not only our Father, but also our Mother" (Pope John Paul I, reaffirmed by Pope John Paul II in 1999), why then are there only "fathers" in the ordained ministry?
Who represents the maternal face of God? Many women for a long time have known that their presence was missing in the ordained ministries. St Therese of Lisieux, now a doctor of the church, was among them.
She felt acutely the pain of exclusion from ordination and did not believe it was God's will. "God will take me at an age when I will not have had time to become a priest . . . If I could have been a priest, it would have been at this ordination that I would have received Holy Orders. Well, so that I would regret nothing, God is allowing me to be ill . . . and I shall die before I have exercised my ministry."
This was in 1897. In May 1962 a courageous Swiss woman, Gertrud Heinzelmann, was inspired to make a bold move. She made an official request to the preparatory Commission to the Second Vatican Council, asking for equality for women at all levels of church life.
This was followed by a book, co-written with five others and entitled We Won't Keep Silent Any Longer! Women Speak Out To The Vatican II Council. Of course, no women were allowed to speak at the council. By special favour a handful were allowed in - only to listen.
All this started a debate within the church as to why women were excluded from ordination. On examination, the majority of scripture scholars (including the Pontifical Biblical Commission in its 1975 report) and theologians couldn't find much solid ground once the sediments of cultural prejudice were shifted.
On the other hand, the Vatican authorities were fearful of change. In the early 1970s Paul VI had conceded that this was "a new question" in the light of the "rediscovery" of the equality of women and men after centuries of presumed female inferiority and subordination.
However, the old answer still prevailed: "No". And more recently it has even become "No, never!"
Probably the greatest failure and the greatest injustice were for the church authorities to refuse to engage in honest, respectful, prayerful dialogue with women who believed they had a call from God to ordination and to communities who supported them.
The case for women's ordination was solemnly declared closed without the authorities having engaged in any listening - hardly the way to discern properly. Even the bishops were never allowed to discuss it at their general synods.
The exclusion of women from ordination is now defined as belonging to the deposit of faith and included in the loyalty oath of parish priests on induction in some dioceses in Ireland and Germany.
And yet the Spirit blows where She wills . . . who can stop Her? In 1996 the movements for the ordination of women which had sprung up on the five continents came together in Women's Ordination Worldwide (WOW).
On June 29th this year its first international conference will be held in Dublin. The theme is "Now is the Time: A Celebration of Women's Call to a Renewed Priesthood in the Catholic Church." All are welcome.
It is nearly 40 years since Ms Heinzelmann asked, Moses-like, for freedom for women in the church: the freedom to serve without the restrictions of obsolete sexist rules and regulations.
We have been wandering a long time in the painful desert created by the church authorities' intransigent refusal. It is only the faithful loving kindness of God which has sustained us in this hostile, repressive climate.
Now, a promised land is within sight. The Spirit beckons us forward. The church authorities warn us: "The church does not have the authority to ordain women." Was God ever asked?
Did God refuse? We do not believe that God would ever refuse the church what she so badly needs to fulfil her mission. However, what we do believe is that our leaders never asked God for this authority. A very different matter.
Why not start now as we are preparing for Easter. Let us ask in prayer for the wonderfully disturbing gift of women's ordination and wait in joyful hope for God's imaginative answer. After all, "with God, nothing is impossible". (Luke 1:37)
Ms Soline Vatinel is spokeswoman for BASIC (Brothers And Sisters In Christ) and for the WOW Dublin conference. e-mail: basic@indigo.ie Website: www.wow2001.org