Preface

Women Priests in the Catholic Church?
by Haye van der Meer, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1973, pp. 3
Republished on our website with the necessary permissions

The text of this book —originally a dissertation at the University of Innsbruck in Austria —was completed in the summer of 1962. The author regrets very much that he is not in a position to completely rework it at the present time. Since 1962 much has happened, much has been published, and in a number of aspects theological thinking has progressed further, not only in the area of our topic, but in others as well. Unfortunately these advances could not be incorporated into either the German or English printed editions of the typescript manuscript, which was constantly being requested from the Innsbruck archives. Nevertheless the author ventures to publish the old text, being encouraged to do so by many who have read it; only with this encouragement does he do so, for he is aware of the many things that are missing. He can only hope that his collection of material and his reflections can nevertheless be a help to others in the theological analysis of the problem of the priesthood of women.

Haye van der Meer, SJ

Amsterdam, 1973

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The seventeen-page bibliography in the original German edition of this book has been omitted here. It was felt that the review of the English-language literature in the Translators' Foreword was thorough and more up-to-date, and that the French- and German-language publications forming the bulk of the bibliography would be of lesser interest, and largely inaccessible, to the readers of this edition.

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