Christians: Female priests and/or pope?

Question

Why, or why not? Why are there so few women priests (or at least, why do I have that idea)? Are there female bishops or cardinals? Of all denominations? Would/could a woman ever become pope?

I would appreciate it if you could state your denomination with the answer.

Answer 1

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.

By the way, there is a legend of a Pope Joan that has little or no documentation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Joan

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

A lot of denominations do have women as higher ranking officials (bishops, overseers, etc.). As for a femal pope? No that would never happen because the Catholic church does not recognize women as priests or anything else. I have had a woman pastor before, I have no problem with answering to and being accountable to a woman. If you look in the Bible, the first people that Jesus appeared to after his resurrection were women. Historically many of Jesus's disciples were women. Not his 12 close disciples, but others of His disciples. On the day of Pentecost, there were many women in the crowd of the 120.

Answer 3

To all the people who stated that there was no female apostle. Lemme see here. Are we forgetting Mary Magdalene? Perhaps.... And another thing, let us not forget who wrote the gospels. The other apostles, who were from a period in which women were forced to be subservient to men, wrote the gospels. Yeshua did not actually write any of them. It's kinda like a tabloid. Friends of celebrities sell their information all the time, and most of the time the information that is sold is false. So, the bible is not sufficient proof as to Yeshua's own opinions on women. The gospels contain the perspective of the apostles, and the Romans who came to revere the apostles. Sorry, but there is no way other than conjecture to know for sure what any of Yeshua's real ideas or opinions were. Except for one. He didn't like churches at all. Why else would he tear one apart, which is recorded in Jewish history, not just by word of mouth from the apostles. I can't wait until the world sees a written work that was actually written by Yeshua. A lot of people will probably look really stupid. Just a thought......

Answer 4

Orthodox - Reunification might be exceptional as we might be reuniting the long-established, divided church and coming a step in the direction of Christ's imaginative and prescient of 1 frame at the Earth. As for whether or not I might be for or towards reunification, that might rely fully at the technique of reunification. There is way to be labored out earlier than reunification might arise. Not the least of the problems is the role and authority of the Pope of Rome. Orthodox accord the Pope a primacy of honor, however now not of energy. They additionally don't respect papal infallibility or a number of different doctrines. We have the carrying on with difficulty of the Creed as good. Something might must deliver for reunification to arise, and I am now not certain both Church is capable to collapse. As a part be aware, for many who declare the Orthodox and Catholic church buildings don't seem to be church buildings when you consider that they are not "biblical", in which do you consider the Canon of the Bible got here from? The early church councils, guided by means of the Holy Spirit, set down the books to be contained within the Bible. God did not drop a leatherbound bible out of the sky. How do you consider Christianity used to be taught earlier than the Bible? By your definition, no Christian church existed for the primary three hundred years after Christ's crucifixion.

Answer 5

There are no female priests/bishops/cardinals in the Roman Catholic religion. Well, there are some rogue ones that say they are, but they really aren't.

I personally couldn't follow a woman priest/pastor/minister. Women play a very important role in the Church, but I look to a man for the authority.

Answer 6

No women priests. Every Mass atones for sin (among other things). The only sacrifice that was chosen for the actual atonement for sin was the male animal. Jesus was a male. The priest stands in for Jesus and actually acts for him.

The Church is the bride of Christ so when people are saying we want women priests they are also condoning homosexuality even if they do not realize it.

Answer 7

Actually, most of the respondents to this question are wrong.

They love to quote Corinthians, but then they conveniently ignore Paul's letter to the Romans.

In that letter, Paul names Phoebe as Deacon to the Romans. If you recall Paul's second letter to Timothy, he notes that there are only two different church offices: Bishop and Deacon, whose function is what we would regard as a priest's today.

Furthermore, the objective of Phoebe's ministry to the Romans was simple: To help collect money for the construction of the Christian church at Jerusalem.

Now, if Paul is so adamant about women not being priests, then why would he send a women to preside over the Christian church in the ancient world's most important city? And why would he charge her with a mission so central to his ministry?

Also in Romans, Paul names several other women who are in leadership, most notably Junia.

Finally, in his letter to Philemon, Paul takes a decided egalitarian view of people in the church, stating that there are no men or women, slave or free, but servants of God's church.

So, there you have it. Paul at the very least was contradictory on the subject of women in the pulpit, but in truth actually seems to endorse the notion.

Too bad that the respondants to this question don't bother to read all of their Bible. It's also a terrible shame that some people have allowed the encrustation of tradition over two millenia to act as substitute for the true spirit of Christ's ministry of peace, equality, love, and respect for one another.

Answer 8

I don't really agree with the "priesthood" thing going on there, so it's not my issue. But, I wonder: why do so many who don't want to follow the teachings of the church get worked up about it?

If you don't agree with their program, why are you concerned? It's not the only show in town, and you can go start your own pagan church down the road. I'm sure it would get interest. Plenty of pagans running around now.

Answer 9

1. Pope John Paul II addressed this in his letter to women.
Check it out.
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2. C. West:
# 5. Why can’t women be priests (roman catholic)?

For many women, the fact that the Catholic Church reserves priestly ordination to men stirs a caldron of intense emotion fired by the “historical consciousness” of women’s oppression. Only in recent years, it seems, has the Church been willing to acknowledge and ask for forgiveness for the fact that, as John Paul II expressed in his “Letter to Women,” … “objective blame [for this oppression], especially in particular historical contexts, has belonged to not just a few members of the Church. May this regret,” he continues, “be transformed, on the part of the whole Church, into a renewed commitment of fidelity to the Gospel vision.”

This gospel vision is precisely what we’ve been discussing throughout this book: the great “nuptial mystery” of Christ’s union with the Church symbolized from the beginning by our creation as male and female. Fidelity to this vision calls us to uphold woman’s dignity at every turn and to resist the ways in which gender roles have been exaggerated to favor men. But it also calls us to resist the other extreem that views men and women as interchangeable.

As mentioned previously, equality between the sexes that reveals the great “nuptial mystery.” It’s the fundamental difference of the sexes that quite literally brings life to the world.

A culture that levels this difference is a culture committing suicide, a culture of death. Professor Stanislaw Grygiel, VP of JPII Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, aptly described the danger of a “unisex” would in the quote that begins the previous chapter. As a preface to that statement, he said that to understand “the miracle of sexual difference … is the beginning of a path in which we discover the ultimate and fundamental difference for human beings: the difference between God and [humanity]. To blur sexual difference is to blur the great nuptial mystery: the call to life-giving communion between man and woman, and between God and humanity.

Men and women have different callings in the life-giving communion. It’s the bridegroom who gives the seed, and the bride who conceives life within her. One role isn’t better than the other. Both are equally dignified and indispensable.

We must receive the calling we’ve been given as a gift from God if we are ever to be at peace with ourselves. Should men complain that God hasn’t given them the privilege of being mothers? For a woman to want to be an ordained priest is similarly misguided.

We call priests ‘father’ for a reason. Priests efficaciously symbolize Christ’s giving up his body for his Bride so that she can conceive life “in the Holy Spirit.” Only men can do this. As JPII reminds us: “It is the Eucharist that above all expresses the redemptive act of Christ the Bridegroom towards the Church, the Bride.” This is clear and unambiguous when the sacramental ministry of the Eucharist, in which the priest acts ‘in the person of Christ,’ is performed by a man.

If the ministry of the Eucharist were performed by a woman, the symbolism would become that of bride to bride. There would be no possibility of effecting nuptial union, and thus no possibility of effecting nuptial union, and thus no possibility of new life coming to the Church. Here we see again how intimately united the marital embrace is with the Eucharist. JPII sums it up this way: “The Eucharist is … the sacrement of the Bridegroom and of the Bride”.

Answer 10

I do not think that there should be a Pope to start with. I am not anti Pope, it is just I do not care for Catholic doctrines.