I have just joined this forum
Welcome Candy! Since you are new, you probably don’t realize that you have resurrected an old thread. In this case, it worked out because you drew some responses to your question, but many times everyone who was participating is already moved on so it may be better to start a new thread. You can tell the age of the thread by looking at the date on the OP (original post).
and I have been trying to make sense of why women can not be ordained as priests.
One answer I found on Catholic Answers is that - A women cannot teach or have authority over a man.
This is part of the divine deposit of faith, but there are other factors that are more important. The priesthood is not a “right”, but a privilege to which no human being is entitled, man or woman.
As a catholic, brought up in Ireland, I was led to believe that God made us in his own image and likeness. This is the reason for my confusion - If man and woman were made in his own image and likeness there is no difference between man and woman. So I cannot understand why women cannot become priests
The fact that men and women are equal in dignity does not mean “there is no difference”. One of the reasons that only men are ordained is that they stand in the person of Christ as grooms to the bride (the Church). They espouse the Church and promise to love and serve her as the Bride of Christ.
Eph 5:25-33
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, 27 so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind — yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church. 33 Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.
Human persons as husband and wife reflect the great mystery of Christ and His relationship with HIs Bride, the Church.
I would like to know based on what evidence or belief was this assumption arrived at?
This is not an “assumption” but something we received from the Apostles. The Church believes that she does not have the authority from Christ to ordain women. If Jesus wanted to ordain women, He would have done so, or instructed His Apostles to do so. He most certainly would have started with His Blessed Mother, who is Queen!
Code:
On anything I have read about what the church fathers had to say on the status and role of women in society in general and in the church in particular, I cannot help thinking that their views were formed coloured by the attitudes (both social and political) of the society in which they lived.
No doubt many disciplines and practices of the Church have been influenced by culture. For example, Jesus came as a man. If He had come as a woman to the Jews, no one would have listened to HIm, because women cannot become Rabbis.
I know my argument sounds simplistic, but sometimes when you overcomplicate an issue you cannot see the real truth
If you read the second and third chapters of Revelation, you will see a very powerful, very attentive Jesus talking to His Church. His power and authority have not waned since those letters were written. There is no doubt that, if He wants to correct His Church, He is able to do so. Since the ordination of only men has been an unbroken line of Tradition since the time of Moses, it does not appear that He wishes to do so.
