Woman graduates from priests’ course

She is the first Maltese woman to graduate from a University course designed for aspiring priests but Alessandra Dee Crespo does not dream of challenging the Church’s policy on female ordination.

“I never felt I am missing out on something by not being given the chance to be a priest,” she says, pointing out priesthood is a matter of service not power or domination over the Church.

Ms Crespo, 39, is chancellor of the Church Appeal Tribunal that deals with annulment cases in Gozo, Malta, Libya and Gibraltar. Having worked for two decades within the Church, she decided to challenge herself and delve into the five-year full-time course in sacred theology, previously only followed by seminarians on their way to becoming priests.

“It was an exhilarating ride,” she says.

Vibrant with youthful energy, she takes pride in having blasted through a glass ceiling and was particularly pleased when the dean of her faculty told her she had “made history” on graduation night.

The course, she says, deepened her understanding of the Church. It showed her it was “alright to question and to doubt” and that theology tries to answer “why, and not how, the world was created”.

Being the only woman was not a big deal, she says, adding that working within the Church makes her used to male-dominated “ecclesiastical circles”.

“It was never an issue for me. After all, the Faculty of Theology is full to the brim with women studying theology in various courses.”

Ms Crespo does not believe the Church’s decision not to ordain women priests devalues women and says her opinion matters within the Church. “In not ordaining women priests, the Church is not limiting us. It is recognising our unique role in the Church,” she says, pointing out she never felt like a “second-rate member”.

“The presence and the role of women in the life and mission of the Church remains absolutely necessary and irreplaceable. We are definitely not less holy, less intellectually capable, less pastorally sensitive or less capable of leadership than men. We are capable of all this but we are invited to exercise them differently.”

She points out the Maltese Church tribunals were among the first local structures at law to appoint women judges and chancellors, long before the Maltese civil courts. “So the Church is not as fusty as she is painted to be. She does get a lot of bad press, some of it is justified, but we must also give credit where it is due.”

Ms Crespo argues priesthood is often misconstrued in terms of domination, power and exultation but should be understood in terms of service, love and sacrifice. “There are more than enough opportunities for both men and women in the Church to exercise these qualities outside of the priesthood.”

However, she says there are aspects of the Church that make her feel ashamed, namely the recent child abuse scandals.

But believing her Church membership is “another kind of citizenship”, she draws parallels between how the Maltese can be exasperated at the many failings of society but still refuse to give up their citizenship.

She describes the Church’s 2,000-year history as “imperfect”, “sometimes glorious, sometimes shocking”.

“Sometimes, I literally force myself to read about (the Church’s sins) in the media. But, in spite of its many human failings, I cannot miss the real consolations of the Church in light, because of her shadows. The revolutionary thing is not leaving her but to love her all the more,” she says.