Sister Sarah Butler appointed a consultant to new Vatican office

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI chose two women religious from the United States to be consultants to the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization: Sister Sara Butler, who teaches theology at the University of St. Mary of the Lake Mundelein Seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago; and Sister Mary Lou Wirtz, the Rome-based president of the International Union of Superiors General.

Glad to see Sister Butler’s appointment. She has been part of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission. In 1978, she headed a task force of the Catholic Theological Society of America that came out in support of female priests. Later though further study she realized the errors of her previous support of women’s ordination and wrote a book called The Catholic Priesthood and Women: A Guide to the Teaching of the Church. I was impressed favorably with her book that went point by point against all the arguments in favor of women’s ordination and refuted them quite well.