female clergy

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wahey

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hi
i was wondering what peoples views were on female clergy because my mum is in training and its going to be at least another 3 and 1/2 years before woman can be bishops
 
Well, my views on female clergy are in harmony with the teachings of the Catholic Church. In other words I’m against it. Males and females, while being equal, have distinct roles.

Ever wondered why all the Apostles were male?

By the way, you are an Anglican, aren’t you?
 
yes im anglican
werent there some apostles who werent one of the 12 who were woman though
 
wahey said:
werent there some apostles who werent one of the 12 who were woman though
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No.

You are confusing Apostles and disciples.

We are all disciples via our baptism. Apostles are a separate and distinct group of men on whom Jesus laid hands and ordained to the ministerial priesthood.

Women cannot be priests. I am sorry that your mother has been guided to believe that this is possible.
 
Wahey,

Priestesses will never be because Christ didn’t choose any women as his twelve apostles. (Peter, Andrew, James, John, etc…) It doesn’t have to do with social customs, Christ and his aposltes had no problem flouting those, rather it is because a preist stands in the person of Christ when celebrating mass.

If the church were to say that women could be priests, it would be like saying we know more than God. We can decide what is good and evil, we know better than Christ. The chuch can only proclaim anew what Christ revealed to us. If the Lord did not ordain women neither can the church.

Even if your mother took place in some sort of ordination ceremony she would not become a priestess or bishopess because women are not the proper matter for ordination. It would be like having the wrong matter for any other sacrament. Like trying to concecrate cornbread in the Eucharist or using wine for baptism. Things may look similar, but the supernatural events that take place in the sacraments do not take place there, so its not a sacrament at all.

Women most defintly had very important roles in Jesus’ ministry and that of the early church, but not the role of priest. This often affords women greater freedom and opportunity in service and confronting issues within the church. Look at St. Catherine of Sienna for example. Our Lady is the most perfect created being.

I can’t do justice to the issue in a forum post. You’d probably be better off reading why women can’t become preistesses from an authoritative source.

ourladyswarriors.org/teach/inteinsi.htm
 
wahey said:
hi
i was wondering what peoples views were on female clergy because my mum is in training and its going to be at least another 3 and 1/2 years before woman can be bishops
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Welcome to the Forum, wahey. 🙂 I’m sure by now you are aware - if you weren’t already - that the Catholic Church (as does Eastern Orthodoxy) teach that only men may be ordained to the deaconate and the priesthood (and thus only men may be bishops) - a teaching, btw, to which I heartily assent. There have been many discussions here on the topic; here is one such that will help you understand the what and the why of Catholic doctrine regarding the male-only priesthood:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=126262
 
I would like to see reply from non-Catholic; I am pretty sure there are those who also do not believe in female priests.
 
wahey said:
hi
i was wondering what peoples views were on female clergy because my mum is in training and its going to be at least another 3 and 1/2 years before woman can be bishops
Click to expand...
wrong forum you want non-Catholic religions
women cannot be Catholic priests because Jesus Christ established the sacramental priesthood, and he chose only men. end of story. end of discussion, My view or opinion is valueless, as is that of everyone else on this forum.
 
newbie1234 said:
Read 1Tim 2:12 for a womans role in the church
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Thanks newbie!

I quoted the verse here:

1 Tim 2:12 - I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man.

1 Tim 2:15: But she will be saved through motherhood, provided women persevere in faith and love and holiness, with self control.

…
It is more about obedient than about what one thinks he/she can do.
 
wahey said:
hi
i was wondering what peoples views were on female clergy because my mum is in training and its going to be at least another 3 and 1/2 years before woman can be bishops
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Wahey,

Hello and welcome to the Catholic Answers Forums. I hope you have a blessed and fruitful time here.

If I may offer a bit more perspective, the Anglican church does not have valid holy orders to begin with (they lost the Apostolic Succession at some point when they were using the Edwardine Ordinal, some time around the reign of Elizabeth I). Invalidly-ordained women aren’t much different from invalidly-ordained men.
  • Liberian
 
I should also like to point out that the Jews had no priestesses either. Moses and Aaron and their sons were priests, but no women. There just isn’t biblical precedent for it.
I would also like to say that I think our Baptist brethren also stick to men only for Church leaders. And the Greek Orthodox.
 
dafalax said:
I should also like to point out that the Jews had no priestesses either. Moses and Aaron and their sons were priests, but no women.
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Not even when Deborah was Judge in Israel, or when other women were in significant leadership roles, which seems to indicate that there was nothing “sexist” about the male-only priesthood. Obviously they perceived that it was a male-only role, even at times when they realized that women are perfectly capable of most of the same things that men can do.
 
water said:
I would like to see reply from non-Catholic; I am pretty sure there are those who also do not believe in female priests.
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Will a *former *non-Catholic do? 😃 I was in the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) which did not ordain women pastors or elders, unlike the mainline PCUSA. I think all the mainline Protestant churches ordain women ministers, but there are many smaller evangelical churches that don’t.
 
There are no female clergy in the Catholic Church as this would be denying the Incarnation and therefore denying Christ Himself.

No Catholic is allowed to deny Christ or promote female clergy as it is directly rejecting God and their faith. Some people might call themselves Catholic, who reject God, they need our prayers and support to stop holding dissident views.
Usually their views are held in place mostly by emotion and it is very difficult no matter how much you preach obedience, to touch them, and it is better to pray and reach them through emotion.

A Catholic believes that the Priest stands in the person of Christ up on the Altar of Sacrifice. As the person of Jesus incarnated as a man, to misrepresent Him is to reject the Incarnation.

Other belief systems might not require a Priest or someone to stand in the person of Christ so they can do what they want. I am Catholic so it isn’t my place to tell people of other groups how to practice their belief systems.

In Christ
Scylla
 
Scylla, good post. Truth about Catholic belief, but recognition that other faiths may not agree.
 
Wahey;

There are some liberal Protestants who believe that there were actually at least 16 Apostles, including four women - Susanna, Joanna, Mary of Magdala and Mary the mother of James.

The basis for this idea is Luke 8:1-3, which mentions that they (along with some other unnamed women) were always with Jesus along with the 12, and Luke 24:1-11, which shows that they were among the women who attempted to anoint Jesus body in the tomb when they discovered that it was empty.

There are at least two ways we know that they weren’t counted as Apostles, however. First, and most glaringly, none of the Gospel writers ever include them - they are constantly referring to “the twelve” - as far as the Gospel writers are concerned, these women were faithful disciples, but they were never Apostles.

Second, there is nothing anywhere in Christian Tradition to indicate that they themselves ever thought they were Apostles.

The fact that the Gospel writers never thought that they were, and the fact that they themselves never thought that they were, seems to indicate that they never actually were.
 
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