Why can't women be Catholic Priests?

NOTE: The Church's position on a female clergy is doctrinal, unchangeable. Whereas, its position on a married priesthood is canonical and theoretically could change.

The Catholic Church believes that talented women should be able to hold important roles in companies, governments and in the Church.

In their closing message of the Second Vatican Council, the council fathers said:

The hour is coming, in fact, has come, when the vocation of woman is being acknowledged in its fullness, the hour in which women acquire in the world an influence, an effect and a power never hitherto achieved. That is why, at this moment when the human race is undergoing so deep a transformation, women impregnated with a spirit of the Gospel can do so much to aid humanity in not falling.
(Vatican II, Closing Speech, December 8, 1965 )

The Church declared Mary the most important human being of all time. The Mother of God is a woman. The Catholic Church has put more attention on Mary than any other denomination. Pope Francis has called for a "deeper theology" for women.

"Nobody can be a better priest than Our Lady, and she remained only the handmaiden of the Lord."
Mother Teresa to an Indian journalist, 1984

The Church has no authority to ordain women

When it comes to the ordination of women the Church has to approach this question the same way it approaches every other important decision; with prayer, the Bible, the Tradition of the Church and the wisdom of theologians. The Church wants to know what God has to say about this, and She (the theological pronoun for the Church) believes God has an opinion on this. Pope John Paul II has said:

"Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."

Some may say the Pope was old, chauvinistic and conservative. Although he was old, it would be a difficult to say he was chauvinistic given that he has canonized more women than all the other Popes in history combined. He named St. Thérèse of Lisieux a Doctor of the Church (only the third in history), and declared Sister Faustina a Saint, with a special feast day to celebrate the Divine Mercy.

Many traditionalist Catholics wanted to throw the Pope out because he was "too liberal". He also consistently stood up for women's rights in every instance where they did not interfere with the primary right to life. Pope Francis, who is as left leaning as any pope in history, confirmed the pronouncement.

This issue is not about discriminating against women, but rather it is about following God's wish for the Church. Other denominations have discerned differently in order to stay "relevant" to our culture. They honestly thought that ordaining women would bring modern women back to Church. They are now on the brink of extinction (United, Anglican, Methodist, etc.).

There are those who argue that the Pope did not declare this from the Chair of Peter and therefore the statement was not "infallibly" made. It is clear that the Pope intended it as a teaching statement on morals, and he made it binding on the whole Church. The Magisterium also stood behind him and there is 2000 years of unity among the Bishops on this. This has all the qualities of an "infallible" statement. At the very least, it is highly unlikely that this will change in the next century. There are many theological reasons why the Church believes God has chosen a male priesthood. Those who argue for a femail priesthood tend to be the same crowd who would like to see same sex marriage and contraception accepted also.

One of the main reasons the Church has this position is that Jesus himself chose 12 male apostles. There were many women available that He could have chosen, but He only chose 12 males. There were several strong candidates, including his own mother who is recognized as the holiest of all human beings.

The priesthood is not a job, it's a vocation given to us by Our Lord.

Was Jesus only following the conventions of the time?

Some have said that the conventions of the time dictated that only men should have positions of power and therefore Jesus followed the conventions of the time (John 5:1-18). That statement is problematic because Jesus was very quick to break social conventions. For instance, He healed a woman on the Sabbath. He spoke with the Samaritan woman (John 4:4-42; 8:3-11), which was forbidden to Jews. He dined with tax collectors, He welcomed a Mary Magdalene, from whom He cast out 7 demons, as one of his best followers and revealed his risen body to her first, He freed the woman caught in adultery from being stoned, He said the Roman soldier (a gentile) was more faithful than anyone among the people of Judea, and so on. So Jesus was clearly not afraid to break the conventions of his time. In fact, He was crucified because of that.

Another thing to consider is that there were women performing similar roles to a priest in other religions, at the time of Jesus so it would be inaccurate to say there was no historical precedence. Fr. Mateo writes:

... the lands around the Mediterranean teemed with religions with priestesses. The famed Vestal Virgins of Rome were priestesses. There was a priestess functioning at Delphi. The Sybil was a priestess and the many temple prostitutes were priestesses.

Christ is the Bridegroom, the Church is the Bride, the priest represents Christ

The overarching theme in Scripture is the Bride and Bridegroom. The Bible opens with the marriage of Adam and Eve, and closes with the marriage of Christ and his Church (Rev. 21:9-10).  Ephesians 5:22-33 compares the union of husband and wife to that of Christ and the church (see also John 3:29). We find this matrimonial language in the Old Testament also, where the people of Israel are the bride and God is the groom (e.g., Isaiah 54:5, 62:5, Jer 3:14). Many of the early Christians and Saints confirmed this relationship including Ambrose of Milan, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179),Teresa of Avila (1515–1582), Gertrude the Great, John of the Cross, etc... In these analogies Jesus is always the groom, male, and the Church is always the bride, female. 

The priest represents Christ "In persona Christi" when administering the Sacraments, and as such is the groom, which is male

In persona Christi - a Latin phrase meaning "in the person of Christ" - is an important theological concept which refers to the action of a bishop or priest while celebrating a sacrament. The priest acts in the person of Christ in the pronouncing of the words of the sacramental rite. There are essential moments in the rites where the priest's words and gestures confect the sacrament.

These words are spoken in persona Christi capitis. Two examples include, "This is my body" and "This is my blood" during the transubstantiation of the Eucharist. This is also true during reconciliation when the priest says, "I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." It is interesting that most advocates of a woman priesthood don't believe in transubstantiation, or in absolution, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a priesthood.

Weren't there women priests in the early Church?

Some authors, such as Mary Ann Rossi and Professor Giorgio Otranto have pointed to Pope St. Gelasius (circa 494 AD) who wrote a letter of discipline to an area that was allowing women to serve at the altar. Ms. Rossi claims this proves precedence of female priests. This is not much different from situations today where the Magisterium has had to step in when people try to take liberties with the Eucharist. Nor is it different from when Saint Paul stepped in to correct mistakes in the administration of the Eucharist (1 Corinthians 11:23-29).

This in no way indicates that the Church accepted women priests. This was never accepted by the Church and even the most militant advocates of female priesthood have not found one magisterial document supporting their position. In his Epistle 14: 26, March 11, 494 AD, Pope Gelasius addresses a very specific area, Lucania, Bruttium, and Sicilia, which clearly demonstrates the limited nature of this abuse. The Pope cites earlier magisterial declarations against women at the altar.

There was never an accepted order of female priests. This is a myth put forth by those who would like to undermine the Magisterium, and who would like to bring about what they call the French Revolution to Catholicism where the common people take the authority from the Magisterium, much like the Reformation of the 1500s, the fruit of which is hundreds of different denominations. The Magisterium is necessary for unity, and Jesus knew that when He gave it full magisterial authority (Mat 16:18).

Was there ever a woman Pope?

This is a myth that was in circulation from the 13th to 17th centuries. It claimed that Pope Joan reigned from 850-870 AD. French Protestant Hugh Blondel (1590-1655) disproved the myth with a scholarly refutation. The legend goes that a woman named Joan impersonated a man so that she could enter the clerical life and rise through the ecclesiastical rank. She eventually became a Pope until one day, while riding a horse, she gave birth to a child and was exposed as a fake, only to be stoned to death by an angry mob. Not even those who were against the papacy in the years around 1000 A.D. make any mention of this. The legend didn't show up until 300 years after the incident allegedly occurred. It is the equivalent of today's "urban legends." No serious secular male or female historian accepts this legend.

The Second Vatican council empowers women

A woman wrote:

... is there freedom for a person to do something that perhaps wouldn't fit into the traditional Catholic mold, esp. being a woman? 

Many women Saints did not fit the "mold" of Catholic women of their day. There is a very important role for faithful holy women.

Women have held important roles in the history of the Church:

In days gone by, Pinsent and Holden describe as perhaps most surprising" the claim of Catholic civilisation to have produced many of the first women scientists. Trotula of Salerno is the credited author of a book on diseases for women in the Eleventh Century, Dorotea Bucca taught at the University of Bologna for over forty years, and Maria Agnesi, who died in 1799, was appointed by Pope Benedict XIV to become the first woman to become a mathematics professor at any university. ^{Footnote 1}

How did the experiment of women "chaplains" in Catholic High Schools work out?

There are faithful women all over the Church today, particularly in the blogsphere, prolife, and strong women who organize large Catholic events. Kirsten of this site is one of them. There are more women in Church than men, and in general women are the backbone of a parish. But one area of ministry that has us scratching our heads is the situation with female "chaplains".

Women with theology degrees are now "Chaplains" in most Catholic high schools and universities. (Although the term "chaplain" can only be used for a priest, Canon Law 564-572). Some of these women say it's as close as they can get to realizing their aspirations of becoming a priest, and kind of a "proof of concept". So one would expect them to be extra careful to uphold the teachings of the Church the way a priest is called to do. However, challenges to Catholic Dogma and Doctrine are common in this field.

In short, just about every sacrament is questioned, most dogmas denied, and moral teachings undermined. Most people who are in favour of a female clergy would not see any problem with the list above, which basically means they propose the Catholic Church follow the Anglican or United denominations, which have been devastated by a mass exodus, since they liberalized. Our prayer is that high school chaplaincy offices will focus on teaching the Word of God, rather than challenging it.

The Da Vinci Code - Did Catholics re-write the Bible?

Some women (and men) think that the male dominated early Catholic Church rewrote the Bible to suit themselves. The "New York Times Best Seller" the "Da Vinci Code" has made these theories popular. The book is questioning the martyrs who died at the teeth of lions to protect the Truth and the integrity of "the Word" (Bible) in the first centuries of Christianity.

Dan Brown got rich and famous rewriting church history in the "Da Vinci Code."
Early Christian martyrs died penniless making Church history.

We cannot imagine these martyrs putting their salvation and the salvation of humanity at stake to cover up Mary Magdalene's "claim to the Papacy" like the Da Vinci Code claims. More about the Da Code here including an outline of its historical errors.

What about the "ordinations of women" that took place on boats?

In 2005, several women were "ordained" on a boat in the St. Lawrence. Apparently dioceses don't have any jurisdiction over some water areas. It was the follow-up to a 3 day "women's ordination" (WOW) conference that attracted about 300 attendees from all over the world (we believe they did the same thing in a river in Venice two years earlier).

Topics of the conference at Carleton University included:

• Erotic Justice: Commitment to Personal and Global Transformation
• A Better Sexual Ethic: Challenging Patriarchal Mores in Priestly Formation
• Listening for the Echo: Giving Voice to Lesbian Spirituality
• Ecofeminism and Ministry: The Sacred Earth Calling Us Home
• Maintaining a Political Presence: A Lobbying Presence in Rome

We hope this gives an idea of what the Church would look like in their hands. The press loves this group of radical feminists.

Related articles

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2. More women's issues
3. Ambiguities in Vatican II
4. Is the Church oppressing women?
5. Did the church wipe out the witches?