Why can't women be priests in the Catholic community?

Answer 1

From the first, the primary responsibility for the welfare of both the family, and the people of God, has always rested on the shoulders of the male.

Virtually all the old testament prophets were male.

The required sacrifices of the old testament were ALWAYS performed by the MALE patiarch.

There was NEVER even one female old testament priest in the entire history of the Levitical priesthood.

Jesus never ordained any women as new covenant priests or apostles (not even his mother).

Jesus was a male ... and God has always revealed himself in the masculine.

Jesus was celibate.

Priests are called to act "in persona Christi" which means they are to represent Jesus Christ, and do for the Church, what Jesus did, and as he did.

Jesus sacrificed his life for his bride, which is the church.

It would be very tough for a woman to sacrifice her life for her "bride" ... and it would also send the wrong message.

No one has a "right" to be a priest. The priesthood is a calling, and everything we know tells us that God chose to restrict that "calling" only to men, just as he leaves it only to women, to bear children.

The job of teaching, sanctifying, and governing, in the Catholic Church, will likely be restricted to males foreever, because the church has no reason to believe that Jesus ever intended it to be done any other way.

Answer 2

In the Orthodox Church monks is also married if they're married earlier than they're ordained. The Catholic Church within the states has a few issues, I can not consider precisely (no longer any issues with the precise denomination however a few issues with the men and women walking it) however I believe that a few men and women in it'll say matters that contradict what the Pope says and it may be as an alternative complicated. Men desire to marry (good, a few) and within the Orthodox Church they allow them to nevertheless it should be earlier than they're ordained. I have no idea why that is taking place. But within the Catholic Church within the states one of the most issues they have been having is that as an alternative than excommunicating guys that abused (sexually and such) boys, they only moved them to one more parish. Unfortunately it is given the Church a as an alternative unhealthy identify and plenty of men and women make particularly impolite feedback approximately Catholic monks which I can not stand. I used to be baptised Catholic by way of an italian priest and my mum and dad and I switched to Orthodoxy whilst I used to be approximately two or three so I have no idea so much approximately the denomination. sorry.

Answer 3

A convenient argument expressed by the PR spin doctors and apologists of the Catholic Church is that Jesus chose 12 men to be his disciples and that history continued that they too chose men- so because Jesus did this, the Catholic Church is honor bound to follow his descision.

This works if you assume the official "Catholic" view of the Nazarenes and Jesus and ignore the fact that Mary Magdalene, that his mother and that several other women were considered equal members and in some cases, superior to all the other disciples.

The Vatican and its apologists will passionately argue against such claims, for they refuse to accept the Gospel of Thomas and Philip because it shows the truth of equality of women. That is because Paul of Tarsus, the man who formed christianity to subvert the true message of Jesus hated women and considered them less than slaves.

See:
http://one-faith-of-god.org/new_testament/apocrypha/founders_christianity/founders_christianity_0010.htm

It is because of Paul, not Jesus that Christianity and the Catholic hate women and consider them inferior- not Jesus.

If you still don't believe then ask yourself this simple question- if Jesus was really divine, how on earth would he be so sexist?

Answer 4

Because the will of Christ was an all-male priesthood. He made this perfectly clear by selecting men 12 times out of 12 to be the first priests of His Church, in spite of the fact that there were many holy women available. If Christ had wanted priestesses in His Church, surely He would have ordained at least one in order to reveal this fact. The official, unchangeable teaching of the Church is therefore that Christ did not give the Church the authority to ordain women. The matter is therefore closed, in spite of the fact that some act as though it could be changed.
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Answer 5

Because:

1 Corinthians 14:33-35 states, "...As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church."

It is Biblical. But the Catholic Church picks and chooses its doctrine. It also says the Sabbath is the seventh day, not the first.

Answer 6

The Catechism of the Catholic Church currently 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.

Answer 7

Only a male animal could be sacrificed to atone for sin. Every Mass atones for sin as it is a re-enactment of the sacrifice that Jesus gave for our sins. The priest stands in for Jesus. Jesus is a male -- the priest needs to be a male. I think the abomination that stands in the Holy place, according to Revelations< could be the woman who thinks she can be a priest. We are seeing this in off shoots within excommunicated clergy. Very troubling times.

Answer 8

Women in the Priesthood
Gen. 3:15; Luke 1:26-55; John 19:26; Rev. 12:1- Mary is God's greatest creation, was the closest person to Jesus, and yet Jesus did not choose her to become a priest. God chose only men to be priests to reflect the complimentarity of the sexes. Just as the man (the royal priest) gives natural life to the woman in the marital covenant, the ministerial priest gives supernatural life in the New Covenant sacraments.

Judges 17:10; 18:19 – fatherhood and priesthood are synonymous terms. Micah says, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest.” Fathers/priests give life, and mothers receive and nurture life. This reflects God our Father who gives the life of grace through the Priesthood of His Divine Son, and Mother Church who receives the life of grace and nourishes her children. In summary, women cannot be priests because women cannot be fathers.

Mark 16:9; Luke 7: 37-50; John 8:3-11 - Jesus allowed women to uniquely join in His mission, exalting them above cultural norms. His decision not to ordain women had nothing to do with culture. The Gospel writers are also clear that women participated in Jesus' ministry and, unlike men, never betrayed Jesus. Women have always been held with the highest regard in the Church (e.g., the Church's greatest saint and model of faith is a woman; the Church's constant teaching on the dignity of motherhood; the Church's understanding of humanity as being the Bride united to Christ, etc.).

Mark 14:17,20; Luke 22:14 - the language "the twelve" and "apostles" shows Jesus commissioned the Eucharistic priesthood by giving holy orders only to men.

Gen. 14:10; Heb. 5:6,10; 6:20; 7:15,17 - Jesus, the Son of God, is both priest and King after the priest-king Melchizedek. Jesus' priesthood embodies both Kingship and Sonship.

Gen. 22:9-13 - as foreshadowed, God chose our redemption to be secured by the sacrificial love that the Son gives to the Father.

Matt. 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19 - because the priest acts in persona Christi in the offering to the Father, the priest cannot be a woman.

Mark 3:13 - Jesus selected the apostles "as He desired," according to His will, and not according to the demands of His culture. Because Jesus acted according to His will which was perfectly united to that of the Father, one cannot criticize Jesus' selection of men to be His priests without criticizing God.

John 20:22 - Jesus only breathed on the male apostles, the first bishops, giving them the authority to forgive and retain sins. In fact, the male priesthood of Christianity was a distinction from the priestesses of paganism that existed during these times. A female priesthood would be a reversion to non-Christian practices. The sacred tradition of a male priesthood has existed uncompromised in the Church for 2,000 years.

1 Cor. 14:34-35 - Paul says a woman is not permitted to preach the word of God in the Church. It has always been the tradition of the Church for the priest or deacon alone (an ordained male) to read and preach the Gospel.

1 Tim. 2:12 - Paul also says that a woman is not permitted to hold teaching authority in the Church. Can you imagine how much Mary, the Mother of God, would have been able to teach Christians about Jesus her Son in the Church? Yet, she was not permitted to hold such teaching authority in the Church.

Rom. 16:1-2 - while many Protestants point to this verse denounce the Church's tradition of a male priesthood, deaconesses, like Phoebe, were helpers to the priests (for example, preparing women for naked baptism so as to prevent scandal). But these helpers were never ordained.

Luke 2:36-37 - prophetesses, like Anna, were women who consecrated themselves to religious life, but were not ordained.

Isaiah 3:12 – Isaiah complains that the priests of ancient Israel were having their authority usurped by women, and this was at the height of Israel’s covenant apostasy.

Answer 9

Because the Catholic Church thinks it's still the 1500s

Answer 10

it's just an old tradition. the Church says it is because Jesus chose 12 MEN to follow him, and something about Paul saying that women shouldn't teach men.

I'm Catholic, and I don't agree with this tradition. It's sexist and patriarchal.