Question to Catholics regarding the priesthood?

Question

1. Should there be women priests?

2. Can women feel they are equal in the church if they are not allowed to be priests?

No disrespect intended. Peace be with you.

I have been considering converting to Catholicism. Today, my wife said she is not Catholic because women are not treated as equals. Thank you for sharing.

Answer 1

1. No, there should not be women priests.
2. Women are equal in the Church. Being a priest is just one vocation, there are others. Women can be nuns...men cannot be nuns.

It is a mistake to think that when women are told they cannot be something that it is a put down somehow. It's not...it's because women are blessed and have special roles within God's plan that they need to be available to do. They cannot fulfill their role if they are filling the role of men.

St. Paul tells us we are one body but many parts. One body part cannot be another yet all are still equal and necessary.

Explain to your wife that being a woman is special. Being a mother is a sacred calling.

Answer 2

1.No I do not think women should be priests. Men have always held the position of spiritual leader both in the church and at home. This is backed up by both the Bible and church tradition.

2. Yes women can feel equal in the church if they are not priests. Equal importance does not always mean the jobs are the same. Women hold many important roles in the church and they have a very strong voice in the church - I am not just speaking of Nuns either.

Answer 3

I was raised Catholic and am a very strong independant women who doesn't feel threatened by tradition. I do not believe women should be priests for many reasons. One reason being the last supper is re-inacted at mass, the priest is a symbol of Jesus. Secondly, though the world has come a long way in women's rights I do believe in tradition. There is no room for feminism in religion, we all play our own very important roles. Are the men offended that they can not be nuns? Afterall, we do live in a country that has never had a women president.

Answer 4

No, women cannot be priests, that was not what Jesus did when he instituted the priesthood. No one, even a man has a right to be a priest. It is a gift from God. Women have been an important part of the Church since day one. One woman in particlular appeared to have participated in the most important role, that no man was ever considered for. (ie Mary). Women have always been viewed as equals in God's eyes.

Answer 5

there are particular occupations that offer get admission to to young toddlers, jointly with priesthood. Pedophiles would be drawn to those positions. To me that's an unlucky actuality of existence. yet faculties etc. attempt to put in an excellent kind of tests to make helpful no longer something is going incorrect, and if suspicion arises then this is investigated and cleared up one way or yet another. The travesty that went on interior the Catholic church isn't that pedophiles have been given into the priesthood, however the way they have been dealt with. On looking out they had a suspect pedophile priest the bishops ought to have placed that guy or woman right into a place the place they might not be in touch with toddlers, finished an inner learn and, if warranted, called interior the police. whether that they had needed to maintain all of it inner anybody with a sturdy indication of being a pedophile ought to have had a mark on their checklist that they might in no way paintings with toddlers different than under the closest scrutiny. yet what definitely got here approximately? The pedophiles saved their jobs till it became into this style of situation interior the community that they've been moved into yet another parrish who have been given no strategies approximately this and the pedophile became into unfastened to repeat with an entire new set of toddlers. the concern to me isn't those few clergymen, that's the callous and inhumane way that the bishops dealt with those few clergymen without theory for the parishioners who have been the sufferers.

Answer 6

i would not be comfortable with a woman as a priest. while there are many reasons, one is that biblically Christ's apostles were men. women have a very high regard in the Rcc. woemn are treated with the utmost respect and are entrusted with many responsibilities. Where but the catholic church is Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ our Lord & Saviour treated with more respect and love?! Catholics give her the respect due her station. While God the Father, God the Son & God the Spirit are "all that & a bag of chips" Mary is the soda that goes right along with.....

Answer 7

Colin, thanks for your question. Catholics follow the example of Jesus in ordaining only men to the priesthood.

Why? Part of the answer is that men and women are different, and not just in their reproductive organs. Men excel in rationality, but tend to be less empathetic. This gives them advantages as leaders. Just as a home headed by a woman is usually out of balance, so is a Christian community.

Women have been central to Catholicism since Mary was visited by an angel who told her she was to become the virgin mother of the savior of the world. Mary remains the greatest of Catholic saints, the exemplary definition of obedience to God and self-sacrificing love.

Catholic women are equal, if not superior to men. Just as the Church balances faith and works, Bible and tradition, word and sacrament, the church balances the special gifts of men and women.

Cheers,
Bruce

Answer 8

1 The Bible says women can be teachers, but it doesn't give them full authority.
2 Equality has nothing to do with it. An eye is not an ear. Each of us has a different function in the church.
Bloom where you are planted.

Answer 9

Sexism is against the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church:

Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine beatitude: all therefore enjoy an equal dignity.

The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it:

Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God's design.

http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt3sect1chpt2art3.htm#1934

The one exception is the ordination of women. The Catholic Church currently teaches:

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.

http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt2sect2chpt3.htm#1577

With love in Christ.

Answer 10

I answer as a former Catholic, who's answer to this question has nothing to do with me leaving the church.

I think any one who wants to dedicate their lives to the priesthood should be allowed to pursue the order.

I believe women should be equal in the church, but they are not at this time.

I also believe the priesthood will be much more appealing if they were allowed to marry.