Should women be ordained as Priests in the Catholic church?

[NoFoolPrice]

I'm working on a paper for a religion class, the topic is "Should women be allowed to be ordained Priests in the Catholic church?" I am not Catholic nor am I religious, but after some thought I can find absolutely no reason that women should not be allowed to be Priests. I give some credence to the argument that it would break with tradition, yet if we never broke with tradition we would be living back in the stone ages and women would still be considered inferior to men. I do wonder if I am only seeing one side of the coin, though. Can anyone come up with a sound argument of why women should not be allowed to become Priests in the Catholic church?

[curlymae29]

Are you asking for opinion or are you asking for scripture reference?

[janelle]

If you want to find out what the church feels on the matter. Go to www.ewtn.com and look it up.

The church is not a democracy in spite of what some people in the USA think. So it doesn't matter what individuals think about it, the church will run the way it sees that fit into the gospels. Men have a calling and women have a calling from God.

Most in America see things from a freedom of expression point of view. We think of men and women as equal and the same. The church and the bible thinks of men and women as equal but different with different vocations important to each. Did God favor one sex over the other? I don't think so. We have different roles but they are equal.

[janelle]

Here's what I found.Priesthood - Reserved to Men

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In his Apostolic Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis (1994), the Holy Father Pope John Paul II, declared that “the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.” This definitive statement leaves no “wiggle room” for those who would like to continue debating the question. As the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made clear in 1995, the statement that the Church has no authority to ordain women as priests, is not merely a matter of Church discipline (which can be changed), but belongs to the deposit of faith (which cannot). “This teaching requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium 25, 2). Thus, in the present circumstances, the Roman Pontiff, exercising his proper office of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), has handed on this same teaching by a formal declaration, explicitly stating what is to be held always, everywhere, and by all, as belonging to the deposit of the faith” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Concerning the Teaching Contained in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis).

This Apostolic Letter alludes to the reasons given in the Declaration Inter Insignores, by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1976. They include, in addition to the testimony of Scripture and Tradition, the example of Christ, who though counter-cultural in many respects, continued Israel’s tradition of a male priesthood in reserving the Office of Apostle to men. That the Apostles did not regard this as a divine oversight is evident from the fact that they themselves ordained only men. And so the Church has continued this Sacred Tradition down to the present.

The question why women can't be ordained priests is often confused with the issue of equality. The Holy Father has made it clear that men and women (as far as their sex is concerned) are equal before God (e.g., Mulieris Dignitatem 6). But equality isn't identity. Men and women have different though complementary functions. Priesthood is a male function, for the reason that a priest is an icon of Christ, and Christ is male. The maleness of Christ is an important sign of His relationship to the Church, His Bride. As in nearly all cultures a man takes the initiative in winning a wife, so Christ took the initiative in winning souls and establishing His Church. For this reason, marriage is a “mystery” or sacrament of the Church (Eph 5:32).

St. Paul develops this theme in his parallel between a local church and the family. A "bishop" (or "overseer," which applied to both bishops and priests in NT times) is expected to keep his own family in order, "for if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how can he care for God's church?" (1 Tim 3:5) Male headship in the family is an axiom of both Scripture and Tradition, and if the Church is the Household of God, and Christ is Head of the Church, then His headship in the Church can be represented only by men.

However, lest it seem that God has honored men above women, we should recall that of all created beings, including the hierarchy of Angels, God raised a Woman to the highest place, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Though she was not an Apostle, she was made Queen of the Apostles, Queen of Angels, Queen of the universe, and the Mother of her own Creator.

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[curlymae29]

Janelle expressed my feeling in such a wonderful way. I was wondering how I could say it without sounding weird.

Most in America see things from a freedom of expression point of view. We think of men and women as equal and the same. The church and the bible thinks of men and women as equal but different with different vocations important to each. Did God favor one sex over the other? I don't think so. We have different roles but they are equal.

This is my opinion.

[hsnovel]

If women aren't used by God to bring forth His word, no matter what name they are----pastor, priest, apostle, bishop, prophetess----then why did he use a woman to bring forth Jesus? Jesus was God's word in person. I promise I can back this up with scripture. Also, how would God allow all of those great women leaders on tv to prosper and preach His word if he wasn't pleased with them? God is no respector of person. Believe that!

[hsnovel]

I go to a church that the main leader in the church is an apostle, just like Paul. Our apostle is a WOMAN and she is black. Our church is very multicultural and I have seen with my own eyes the miracles that God has used her to perform to show His people that He is real. It's just that many woman do not want to answer the calling because apostles have to walk through hell practically and back just to fulfill God's purpose. I thank God everyday for her and that she answered His call and held her head up and said "Yes Lord, whatever you will have me to do, I will do it."

[janelle]

Men and women have different though complementary functions. Priesthood is a male function, for the reason that a priest is an icon of Christ, and Christ is male. The maleness of Christ is an important sign of His relationship to the Church, His Bride. As in nearly all cultures a man takes the initiative in winning a wife, so Christ took the initiative in winning souls and establishing His Church. For this reason, marriage is a “mystery” or sacrament of the Church (Eph 5:32).

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In the Catholic church we think of the church as Christ's bride so it would be wrong to ordain women to represent Jesus on earth because women cannot be the bride to the church. It's that simple.

In other faiths they do ordain women and we have a woman minister coming to our church to talk on miscarriages and the mourning process. She will be talking in a Catholic church to our members who have had miscarriages and she will be welcome. Different religion, different practices. We accept those practices but we still will not ordain women in the Catholic church for the above reason.

We all need to accept each other's way of worshipping. That is being open minded. It may seem strange until you hear the explaination for doing things the way churches them.

[fidellma]

I believe that the man is to submit to God and the woman to her husband. That isn't politically correct but it's what I believe the bible says.

A biblically submissive woman isn't enslaved by her role in the church, she if freed by it. A woman has a special role in the family and the church and there are distinct rules for the selection of a male pastor too. Not every man can meet the criteria. I don't believe it is biblical to blur the distinctions between those roles.

I believe that women should not have authority over men in church. It isn't that God loves us less but that He, in His wisdom, set certain roles for the genders because He knows what works best. He designed us, after all.

I used to belong to two different denominations that had women pastors and I never felt right about it, in my spirit, not even as a child. We go to the Lutheran (MO synod) now and have a male pastor.

[curlymae29]

fidellma and janelle...

Thank you. You are doing such a wonderful job with this. In this age and time it is so hard to express this issue in such a loving and beautiful way. You are expressing what is in my heart but unable to put to words without sounding offensive.

[ckerr4]

I tend to agree more with hsnovel on this issue. I think it would, of course, break with modern tradition, but would that necessarily be a bad thing? I have known many strong women in the Church, who have led and ministered, and done everything but become priests. I've known many nuns, and several of them said that if they had been allowed to become priests, they would have. I know some that wouldn't have, but some would have. They felt that call to leadership, but were prevented by the earthly constricts of an institutional religion. At school, we had Mass usually once a week, but we had many prayer services - always led by one of the nuns. They were not deficient in any way. I even know a woman who left the "convent" (her order was not cloistered, but she left the order) because she simply was not satisfied with the role to which she was relegated. She had so much more to offer. She can actually do more as a lay person! And still, she's not allowed to minister many rites to people, simply because she is female.

It may sound trite, but there is nothing about a woman that makes her less than a man. Of course men and women are different. But there is nothing about a woman that makes me feel she could not attend to my spiritual needs, or the spiritual needs of a congregation. It is done in other sects, why not Catholicism? Please, there's no need to post articles - I know "why" - I know why according to the Catholic Church, lol, believe me. It just does not seem fundamentally right to me. We trust women with the spiritual care of our children in Catholic schools, often in youth groups, in various church ministries, sometimes in RCIA, they can be eucharistics ministers, they can do everything but perform rites and Mass. It's as though, "we'll use you for all the menial, everyday things, but then for the really important thing - man." I know that it is ALL important, but it does seem to keep women relegated to a certain, less-important role.

I think that women have so much more to offer than they're being allowed to give.

[curlymae29]

Actually I'm not Catholic and I am approaching this as Christianity as a whole. I try not to approach subjects as a Baptist issue, a Catholic issue, a Church of Christ issue, etc. Hope that's alright!

[janelle]

I don't know why women think what they do in working with children and teaching them and leading them to what is right is less important than a man's job. Most women know they have the most important job in the world doing this.

Personally, I think the feminists have messed up women with the equality in pay bit. Mothers know the pay for having children is the love they get in return. Much better than any paycheck. Our country is so materialistic. The church isn's materialistic in the roles it has for people.

Priests do not get a big paycheck. They take a vow of poverty and live on what little pay the church gives them. These men don't see a paycheck as their worth. They are paid back by serving God and the happiness derived from that. I'm sure they dont think, "look at me, I'm so much better than Sister Elizabeth cause I am up here and I can give the sermon and communion. HUH? The priest is not who the parishioners are focused on anyway. We are focused on God and worshipping Him. If one doesn't understand worship then they do not know this. The priest is just a stand in for Jesus. A representative. Like pitch hitting for the boss. They are not the boss. LOL
And men who are Deacons in the church are not priests and cannot do as much as a priest does. Those men don't have a problem with that as far as I know of in serving instead of being the priest.

Maybe some nuns get the feeling that they really want to be birth mothers and leave the convent. They can do this and get out of their vows with a dispensation. If they want to be the priest then I think they are looking at things upside down. Some can't take obedience in the right spirit. Jesus was obedient until the end. They do not want to answer to anyone but if they get married they will learn wives are obedient to their husbands and husbands are obedient to their wives.

If they feel their talents are being wasted then they can find an order that will put their talents to good use. From teaching to being a doctor. A missionary to anything you can think of in serving the Lord and His people. It's just sad that one would think, if I am not the one in charge then I'm not as good. Jesus let lowly man be in charge of Him when He was going to the cross and He did not complain.

[ckerr4]

But why is a person not good enough to be a stand-in for Jesus simply because that person is female? That is what I am getting at. It isn't a matter of money or even of power. It is a matter of recognition of worth and God-given ability. A woman could be Jesus' representative on earth, just as a man is. Sure she can be any number of other things, and she can know that anything she else she does is worthy, but to say that she cannot be Jesus' representative because she is female - that to me says that females are missing something that makes them worthy enough for the job. And that simply cannot be true.

It's not always that a woman wants to be the person in power. I am sure that the nuns I know would be aghast that you would suggest that. They had power enough as members of their orders, as principals of their schools, as heads of committees within the Church, etc. However, what if they truly felt their calling was to administer various Holy Rites to people, and that this was a calling from God? The only thing preventing them from this calling would be a human institution, the Church, not Jesus himself. Administering Rites, celebrating the mystery of the Mass, that isn't about being in power or earning money, not for men or women.

[janelle]

The church teaches us that each one of us has God inside of us. When I look at you I am suppose to see Jesus in you. "What you do to the least of these, you do to me". So I am suppose to see Jesus in you when I look at you and your worth and value as a human striving to get to heaven. We all are stand-ins for Jesus. When we help our neighbors or do any good here on earth we are stand-ins for Jesus and are doing His work for Him as though He was here.

I can administer communion to people in care homes and the homebound and have. I have been a eurcharistic minister.

The explaination for only men being priests is on my earlier explaination taken from the EWTN web site. Jesus's bride is the church. A woman cannot be the husband and the church her bride. That works in other demominations but not the Catholic church. It's set up that way in the bible from the theologians (including women) of the church studied and concluded.

From EWTN---
Men and women have different though complementary functions. Priesthood is a male function, for the reason that a priest is an icon of Christ, and Christ is male. The maleness of Christ is an important sign of His relationship to the Church, His Bride. As in nearly all cultures a man takes the initiative in winning a wife, so Christ took the initiative in winning souls and establishing His Church. For this reason, marriage is a “mystery” or sacrament of the Church (Eph 5:32).
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It is set up just like a marriage is set up. A man--husband, A woman--bride. It's as important as a marriage. And we have all seen how disastrous marriages have become because people don't want that kind of unit anymore. They want single parents doing both roles. Makes it hard and it is bad for children (us) when the lines become fuzzy.