Sathfilms

This post might help clarify for you: http://irishanddangerous.blogspot.com/2006/06/letter-to-editor.html
If not, then try reading the other reasons linked at the bottom of the original post that you linked to above.

Hope that helps.

To clarify, it isn’t the Pope who is the authority on the matter, it is Jesus Christ. The Pope is merely obeying the teaching and authority of Christ.

The priesthood (in Judaism and Christianity [Christianity at least until 1970 when Anglicans started ordaining women]) has always been seen as spiritual fatherhood. This is not to say that women can’t be leaders or holy, it’s just that they can’t be priests. It really comes down to what the priesthood stands for and the metaphysical reality of being. The priesthood is an extension of the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ. The priests today act in his person, or in persona Christi Capitis: In the person of Christ the Head. When the priest blesses you or performs the Sacraments, it is not the priest acting, but Christ acting through the priest. Hence, since Christ was of the gender male when he became incarnate, metaphysically speaking a woman cannot be a priest. It would not work because a woman is the wrong substance. This is nothing against women. As I said in my post, the Church has a very high view of women. The Blessed Virgin Mary, by virtue of being the Mother of Jesus Christ, who is God, and thus the Mother of God, is the highest exalted creature. She is not a goddess or anything like that. She is a creature….but she is the perfect creature. This being said, Christ never chose her to be a priest. He chose all men, because the priesthood is about spiritual fatherhood. The Catholic Church feels it does not have the authority to change something that Christ has established. Nor could the Catholic Church if they wanted to.

Keeping in mind that the priesthood is to represent spiritual fatherhood, not motherhood, due to the fact that God has revealed Himself as Father, from whom all fatherhood comes from…..and also the obvious physical (as in appearence) differences of men and women ( not to mention emotional, psychological, and other differences, i.e. men are more inclined to rationalize things, whereas women are more inclined to go with their heart (i.e. faith))…….read this and let me know if it clarifies the subject for you:
http://irishanddangerous.blogspot.com/2006/08/reason-3987235-why-women-cannot-be.html

Arnie,
Thanks for listening and giving me a chance to respond and explain the views of the Catholic Church.

Good luck to you as well and God Bless!

It may be strange but, women priests are not customary in Hindu religion as well. Arguments supporting this trend are generally around physiological, psychological and hormonal, none of which is spiritual.

Arnie,

I just stumbled over your page here and this discussion….

I’m happy that you brought it up – and I enjoyed reading your comments as well.

As a matter of fact – there ARE already a few Catholic women priests… Illegaly but licitly ordained, and called by God….

And I hope that the Church is one day soon going to change this so that all those women who are called will be allowed to officially discern and follow their call.

It’s not as simple as some have tried to make it look like in the answers above. It’s actually pure nonsense – that stuff about women being of another “substance”! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry….!!

It’s simply not true, and thus can’t be used as an argument. Also all the other common arguments against women priests are like straw that vanishes by a tiny little flame of the truth…

And things are changing indeed – although very slowly.

It’s actually only cultural stuff that stops women from following their call – nothing in the Bible is said against it – on the contrary – also women are serving in the early Church in equal roles as men, and Mary Magdalene was the first apostle, sent by Jesus himself to proclaim the good news to the male apostles.

I could write a lot about this – I’ve spent lots of time researching this and written about it in articles and on the internet, but most of it is in Swedish – only some of it is in English. And to write about even only the most essental things here would take the whole day… So I’ll give you some links below instead, where you’ll find much more to read.

From the Church fathers, and especially during the Roman empire, and all the way to our days, things changed so women were pushed out into the margins. Some of the “fathers” wrote terrible things about women – just because that was the common view in their days.

And this sadly destroys lives of women even today…

Here’s a very good article explaining why things turned out like they now are in the Catholic Church regarding this:

http://charlottetherese.110mb.com/church_without_women_leaders.htm

We had a long discussion about women priests in Sweden recently that several thousands followed – although not so many made any comments:

http://katolskvision.egetforum.se/viewtopic.php?t=113

There you’ll also see a press release about it in English as the first posting in the thread.

And at this webpage you’ll find some articles and videos about the ordinations of Catholic women (under the headline: kvinnliga/gifta präster = women/married priests).

http://www.geocities.com/katolskvision/kvartiklar.html

Coincidentally, some more Catholic women are actually being ordained today, just as I’m writing this…

Also – have a look at this webpage where you’ll find the truth about this, which the official Church tries to hide – and many good references – it’s in English, and in several other languages too:

http://www.womenpriests.org/index.asp

Here’s also a brand new blog at that page – about the subject – feel free to participate there:

http://www.womenpriests.org/dreamshareact/

Just for the record, the women who were “ordained”, were not done so either legally nor licitly. You can go through the motions, but that doesn’t change the reality that women cannot be priests.

The issue is not about women or men being superior over another. Catholics will admit that women are more spiritual and the better. The priesthood is not about that. Catholics do not degrade women either. The most honored creature amongst Catholics is a woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
See this post for refutation of Charlotte’s nonesense:
http://irishanddangerous.blogspot.com/2007/10/reason-3987242-why-women-cannot-be.html

Priesthood isn’t a right, first of all. The issue regarding whether women should be priests or shouldn’t be priests isn’t about equal rights at all, as people today seem to think it is.
Women and men are both equal to God and the soul IS genderless, but God, God being Jesus, did appoint men to be the leaders of his Church, the Church meaning the people who are followers of Christ, and this choice is not mere chance. Jesus went against every practice of his time, he really stood out against other Jews and the social norms, so if He wanted women to be priests, He would have chosen them regardless of when He lived.
An ordination, part of the Catholic sacrament known as Holy Orders, is a call to a specific vocation (duty/task within the Church). Every human being has a vocation, whether it is to marry and have children (and in that way spread the knowledge and the teachings of Christ), or become a nun, brother, friar, deacon, priest, bishop, cardinal(…etc.) and teach the children of God in that way. Though more important it is only right that this group of people be a smaller number and very special in their mindsets.
God would never call someone to the wrong vocation but a human, being prone to mistakes and misinterpretation of God’s calling, may see such vocations as gender-specific. The truth of the matter is, God is not gender-specific.
I do not know why He is even called a “He”, perhaps it is because He sent a Son and the Son is not only the Son but the essence of God Himself. In any case, God, who is not a creature like we are, has no gender. He is neither man nor woman because he is not biological: He just Is and always Has Been.
All this established, it would be heretical for a woman to be called by God to the priesthood. If this were possible, then Jesus Himself would have appointed women to the apostleship, but He didn’t. And it wasn’t because of the social norms of his era because He was always up to contradicting them. [Women in the Bible were the ones privileged of knowing He had risen on Easter Sunday before anyone else. Since no one listened to women, why would that be included in the Bible unless it were true. It is obvious in the entire Holy text that women WERE in fact equaly important to men.] He chose men because He intended for His Church to be ordered in that way, the men being the head and the women the backbone.
Isn’t it just that women give birth and new life in the flesh, but men who can’t do that be able to give birth and life in the spirit? I find it only fair. Women obviously have a more important job because without them there would be no one to teach the faith and no Church, either. And if women could be priests then men could be able to give birth, but alas it is not so. It is not a right to give birth it is a privilege, and such is the priesthood–a privilege not a right.
As a last thought, ponder upon this: Jesus was a man, the head of the Church who in essence is feminine. Since priests are supposed to represent Jesus, who was a man, then a woman priest would only be blasphemous to the entire order that Jesus instituted while He was humanly alive (Catholics believe that the Communion is indeed the real flesh and blood of Christ and thus is still physically among us, in the lesser state, until His return to earth at the Rapture). And again, it is not because of the differences between men and women, it isn’t because men are better than women. If some say that Jesus would have chosen His apostles differently had He been alive today, well Catholics believe He is still alive today so that statement would never change what we believe about Him and the practices He blessed us with. The people who truly know the Word and the Bible and have a close relationship with Jesus know that it is the way He wants it.
I only hope that my information has brought you new knowledge and also has synthesized what has been said in the above comments. God bless and Happy Easter season!