Why does the Roman Catholic Church still uses women as nuns?

Question

and Why do women support this? There have been women ministers but the Roman Catholic STILL PLACES WOMEN AT HE BOTTOM. Why can women only be nuns? We're smart too!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_religion

Search4truth just because I disagree with you doesn't mean I am a radical feminist. I do hold feminist views but I don't hate men. These Questions just need to be answered

Answer 1

The answers given are good Catholic answers: OPM, imacatholic, and pax vob... I can only say what a nun is. A nun is a virgin who dedicates her virginity to God. There are nuns who are Protestant also ... I think they may be Anglican or Orthodox. A woman who becomes a nun does not necesarily stop her formal education ... or, she may have had her formal education before becoming a nun. Either way, she may be a Principal of a School, a Scientist or Engineer (a classmate and now nun of my sister), a Professor, Head of a hospital, Abbess of a Convent, Founder of schools, whatever discipline that might impress you and the next fellow! What she will do, as part of her day, is Pray ... pray for you, pray on a schedule that may seem impossible even ... because it may entail getting up early in the morning, and her prayer is a deep prayer that works miracles. Whew! is what I say about nuns! I know that even when retired, they work tiresly to start Lay Programs in a Parish. They visit and pray with people. They are the quintessential Ministry Person of a Parish. Sometimes they are the Administrator of a Parish. One nun has just left our town, after starting a ministry to the Hispanic Community and she will now be working at the UN! And, not translating, mind you! When you are the woman who, as the woman at the well, finds a Man, like Christ who knows everything about her, and who only asks for a cup of water! Then you know what the Priest is for, who he is emulating! Jesus. The Priest has his job, and whatever his personal faults, one cannot take the power that is given Him away except the Bishop. He is ordained and he offeres the Mass in our name, and he administers the Sacraments. The Laity are now filling the roles that are needed, by Christ, by the Priests, to reach out to others, to be His hands. Women and Men both do these things. Women are aiding the Priest in roles during Mass, as acolytes, as extraordinary Eucharistic Ministers, as Lectors (Readers.) Please visit a Parish near you, and go to a Mass, and you will not find women who are abused or are made to be inordinately submissive to Adam. Jesus Christ is our Head. Part of being a woman, is that we came from a man. Read Genesis. We are supposed to be the helpmate, the one God brought from Adam's heart. That beginning tells what the natural relationship is between a man and a woman. It became unnatural, as the Genesis story unfolded. That is when they sinned, and God had to prepare the world for the Word, His Son, to come to it and show us how we must live in order to please the Father, His Father. Who would know how, unless He was the Son. Notice we needed a manGod, the counterpart to Adam, for a redeemer. When Christ died, he gave his Mother to John so that she would have someone to care for her ... and to give her comfort. This giving of Christ's Mother to John is an image of a Nun. The Virgin Mary in John's care. The Nuns are in the care of the Priesthood.

Make sure that when you are online and wish to learn about the Catholic Church, that you go to sites that are reputable, which have the Truth. You do not have to depend on Yahoo Answers for Answers about the Catholic Faith. www.catholic.com (Catholic Anwers) the USCCB site www.usccb.org ... and the list is very long, and they can be found at a nearest Parish website, too!

Answer 2

You are confusing different ideas. First, nuns are different from deacons, presbyters and bishops. They are female monks, not the Catholic equivalent of a Protestant minister.

Second, ideally any minister is seeking a "downwardly mobile career." Ministry, in it highest form, is to use a Greek word, kenotic or an emptying of oneself.

Nuns then hold the highest ministry in the Church, not the lowest, which is why they are so deeply respected. Like monks, they renounce money, sex and power to better serve God our Father, through the Son in the Spirit. You are not Catholic and so you obviously do not realize these are the women we must follow. Mother Theresa saved an estimated 600,000 people from death. Which do you think would be more important in Heaven, a pastor of a local church or someone who gives their entire life to God Most High so fully?

Finally, the principal of truth in the Catholic, Orthodox and Coptic Churches is that whatever was done during the apostolic period is the way it must be done for all time. There were no women clergy then, so there can be none now. It has nothing to do with thinking. Jesus was a radical, had he wanted to appoint a woman apostle he certainly could of, but he didn't and why he didn't is a mystery.

It may however have to do with persecution. I new a priest who lived under Soviet rule. When they first came to power they rounded up the priests, bishops and deacons and killed most of them. This prompted many men to join the priesthood, who were then killed. This continued until the men got the message that joining could be death. The Church survived through the women not the men because the Soviet government couldn't figure out who to kill among them. When you ordain someone they are a walking target, when the women conspire against you how do you figure out who to kill? He lived under persecution and it was the women acting underground that permitted the survival of the Church not the men who were in charge. If you ordained the women and the men, who would transmit Christ's Truth to the next generation. As an American or a European you don't see persecution and so you don't notice that a religion grown under persecution doesn't operate under the rules of a rich society.

Protestants can invent any doctrine they want and they do so all the time, there are 46,000 Protestant denominations with everything from snake handlers to pentecostals to methodists to Lutherans. The Catholic Church has survived by not changing the message.

Next time you see a nun, realize you are possibly in the presence of a holy woman and give due honor and maybe learn from her. She will likely teach you much.

Answer 3

It is not your Church. It is Christ's. If the reason isn't good enough for you that doesn't mean it's not the reason. Christ ordained only men - following His lead, we only have the authority to ordain men. Women bring physical children into the world; Men bring spiritual children into the next. There's a balance to The Catholic Church. Christ is the Groom, we are the Bride and the Mass is the marriage feast, where the priest stands in for Christ as an Alter Christus, another Christ. To have a woman stand in that place would make the relationship between Christ and His Church homosexual. The highest position in the Church is not a priest or even the pope-it's a saint, and there are thousands of women saints. As a matter of fact the highest saint is a woman; our Blessed Mother, Mary. There are also two women Doctors of the Church which means their writings are taken into account when considering doctrinal discovery. Edit* What kind of Catholic refuses to accept Church teaching?

Answer 4

Nuns have been around since I was child attending Catholic School 47 years ago. I don't think they are about to be extinguished any time soon.
Yes, women are smart and educated. Perhaps a woman who chooses to be a nun feels comfortable in serving the Lord to that capacity.
There is actually a shortage of nuns at this present time in the Catholic faith. Religious women may be choosing other avenues to pursue their faith and dedication.

Answer 5

It is because we as women were created differently. We were not meant to be priests. And this is why: Jesus didn't choose women to be his apostles. And, he very well could have. It had nothing to do with the society's view of his time that women were inferior to men. Jesus did not conform to the ideas of the society of his time. If women were meant to be priests, Jesus would have made it that way. look back into the Old Testament as well. The levite priests in Judaism are also men, and it was divine inspiration from God. Women are the structure that holds the Church together. Men are the leaders of the Church, but women are the ones who take care of it. They're the ones who usually decorate it, make the hosts, and deal with the emotional basis of nurturing the Church, while men deal with the more concrete aspects. Plus, when a man is ordained as a priest, he marries the Church, and it is refered to in feminine terms. If a woman were to become a priest(ess), she would be marrying a woman. Men are supposed to protect the woman they are married to. In the same way, a priest has to protect his Church. Women are supposed to be the nurturers in the relationship. It has nothing to do with equal rights for the genders. The Church already understands the importance of equality between men and women. We were created differently and are meant to play different roles in life. That doesn't make us inferior, just different.

I just want to also put out there, that there is not a shortage of people in religious vocations. Yes, it has gone down in the last 50 years, and the decline had alot to do with Vatican 2, but the number of religious is actually now going up statistically. This has to do with the Church going back to the traditional ways. Young people are attracted to what goes against mainstream society, which is wrong, and you can't get more subcultural than becoming a religious.

Answer 6

In the Catholic Church they believed that if a woman was called to serve God it would be in the way of becoming a Nun. I do agree that in this day and age women in the catholic church should be able to serve God with more options, however they choose to become nuns. I have nothing against them for making thier choice. Mother Teresa was a great nun. If only more people were as dedicated as she.

Answer 7

The RC Church doesn't "use women as nuns". Some women, albeit in much smaller numbers nowadays, decide to become nuns and dedicate their lives to Christ within the Catholic Church. The Church didn't decide to make them nuns to do it's bidding. The isssue is not whether women are smart or not. And no, men cannot be nuns but they can decide to become Christian brothers or monks.

Answer 8

Please stop implying the Catholic Church discriminates women. Mother Theresa was held in the highest esteem anywhere. IF YOU WANT TO ARGUE ABOUT THIS, ARGUE WITH JESUS CHRIST! You are really foolish. Jesus had all of his apostles as men. This does not diminish women in the least. You have allowed Satan to pervert your understanding and cause division where none should exist. Your lack of understanding and distortion when you say, "STILL PLACES WOMEN AT HE [sic] BOTTOM" is very wrong. By the way, include the Eastern, Russian, Greek Orthodox, and Ukrainian Churches in with the Catholic Church who hold the same beliefs. You show yourself as very narrow minded. You have embraced radical feminism.

Also, fyi, the Church put nuns in very responsible positions of authority in the school system and deans of universities. The nuns you speak of would be very offended at your comments.

Answer 9

There are brothers as well as sisters, although each vocation is in decline. I don't think the orders are all that important to the debate. A large number of lay women are very involved with the Catholic church. And capability is not the issue, either. Some parishes are actually administered by women, with a circuit-riding priest to say Masses on weekends.

Still, women are not allowed the priesthood, and for ridiculous reasons. The Catholic women who support this are following tradition, or have not invested themselves enough to care. But there are MANY Catholic women (men too, and priests) who favor women priests. There are even some who have held ordinations (and were immediately excommunicated, of course).

It's not a matter of support or protest. It is the simple fact that Roman Catholicism is not a democracy. The hidebound male hierarchy, particularly those in Rome, will continue to insist on male priests for as long as they can still manage. It will take many years AFTER a vocational crisis for them to even consider changing.

Answer 10

+ Religious Sisters +

There are actually more religious sisters (776,269) in the world than priests (405,450).

This is a vocation that these women choose to follow.

The religious state is thus one way of experiencing a "more intimate" consecration, rooted in Baptism and dedicated totally to God.

In the consecrated life, Christ's faithful, moved by the Holy Spirit, propose to follow Christ more nearly, to give themselves to God who is loved above all and, pursuing the perfection of charity in the service of the Kingdom, to signify and proclaim in the Church the glory of the world to come.

+ Ordination of Women +

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

The Lord Jesus chose men to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry.

The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible.

+ With love in Christ