Why doesn't God want Female Priests?

[BornInMarch]

Whenever the topic of Ordained Women comes up, a common response is that the church can’t have female priests because God doesn’t want it that way. The people who say this often cite the fact that God gave almost all of the important religious roles to Men (Prophets, Priests, Savior Of Humanity, Apostles, First Pope, etc) and that if we believe in God’s will we should continue the patterns he laid out when choosing church leaders.

But this leads to another question. Why did God choose only men for these roles? In the Gospels there are examples of women who would be very competent as Priests (The Virgin Mary being an obvious choice), and yet when Jesus chooses his disciples he chooses twelve painfully incompetent men (Judas betrays Jesus, Peter cuts a man’s ear off and then renounces Jesus, James and John ask Jesus for worldly power, etc). Why is this?

This is a genuine theological question. Please actually read this post before replying; if you just skip it and jump right to replies then I’ll be able to tell and will not take you seriously.

As a clarifier (because apparently it’s necessary), this question has nothing to do with my own beliefs on the topic. I am not saying that the church should ordain women, nor am I saying that it should not. I am simply asking the follow-up question of “why then?” to people who argue that the current policy is God’s will.

 

[BornInMarch]

This answer isn’t helpful.

If someone accuses Christianity or the Christian God of being sexist and uses the Only Male Priests rule as an example, then the answer you provided won’t be something I can use to refute their claims.

 

[1ke]

Why did God choose only men for these roles?

Because a woman can be a daughter, but not a son.

 

[superblue]

BorninMarch there are only opinions to this answer, God never specified nor did Jesus ever say only men can do this and only women can do that. Now granted only women can give birth and only men can grow thick luxurious hair on their back, but that doesnt mean that since 1+1= 2 that one has to give authoraty a gender specification.

One can speculate that during some where around or between 7- 4 or 4 - 7 BC which ever is the correct way of stating it, society was enterly male driven world. Had God decided to have a daughter to do the exact same thing Jesus did, chances are absolutely no one in that era would have listened to anything being said. An more over it would have probably caused 1000 times more drama.

The Catholic Church is the one that declared that the Monarchy will only be run by men. But to get around that everyone says woah woah woah, women play an important part today too in the Church and in its’ history, and that is true too. But as eras went on, men have held the predominant role in leadership, minus a few times in Egypt an other such places where a Queen was an actual authorative leader.

An as for choosing 12 incompentent men, they seemed to have learned as they went, and grew more in faith after the death and resurection of Jesus… so it is a bit unfair to say they were incompentent.

But again enjoy the opinions on why women will never be ordained and why supposedly the Church can read Gods’ mind and know for certain He didnt want women in a clerical role in the monarchy.

You could also ask why God didn’t make Jesus Chinese, or Native American, or what ever other race and have Jesus reveal himself to the world on another continent with another race of people. An pick like six women and six men. Or pick 12 married people with families to be his disciples.

who knows. Just a bunch of religious speculation after awhile and one can only be grateful that in the end there is a God.

 

[midori]

Because Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church. The Church, of course, is the Bride. And the priests act in persona Christi– in the person of Christ. Women make very poor bridegrooms…

The whole Church, of course, is priestly. That’s why we go to Mass on Sunday and participate, rather than letting a priestly class take care of all the religious functions deep within temples, a la the Ancient Egyptians and other pagan religions. We are part of the common priesthood, men and women alike. But only men are part of the ministerial/hierarchical priesthood.

It is the same priest, Christ Jesus, whose sacred person his minister truly represents. Now the minister, by reason of the sacerdotal consecration which he has received, is truly made like to the high priest and possesses the authority to act in the power and place of the person of Christ himself (virtute ac persona ipsius Christi). (Pius XII, encyclical, Mediator Dei: AAS, 39 (1947) 548.)

Christ is the source of all priesthood: the priest of the old law was a figure of Christ, and the priest of the new law acts in the person of Christ. (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh III,22,4c.)

 

[upant]

i would look at 1 timothy chapters 2 & 3. it spells it out . ymmv

 

[ontheway1]

God selected the most incompetent of men to be his disciples. He chose the unworthy, the unwashed, the disreputable. None of them “deserved” in any way to be chosen.

 

[PJM]

HERE is WHY my friend:thinking:

CATHOLIC CATECHISM
1324 The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” "The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it.

1327 In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith: “Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking.”

This is further testified to by 5 different authors of the HS Inspired bible 2 Tim 3: 16-17

Matthew: 26: 26-28 .
Mark: 14:22-24 **
Luke: 22:19-20 “ **
John 6: 47-57 Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him” [AND THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT TAKES PLACE IN CATHOLIC HOLY COMMUNION]

Paul 1 Cor. 11:23-30 “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. [24] And giving thanks, broke, and said: Take ye, and eat: this is my body, which shall be delivered for you: this do for the commemoration of me. In like manner also the chalice, after he had supped, saying: This chalice is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as often as you shall drink, for the commemoration of me. For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until he come. Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord.

St. John Paul II in his Infallible Teaching on a MALE Only Priesthood 5/22;1994
Pope John Paul II’s Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, “On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone,” i

MADE THESE POINTS
1 BECAUSE Ordination is one of the seven sacraments instituted by Christ, no early power can change it

1. Sacred Tradition: God; both Yahweh and Christ choose only men for this discipleship

3.The most compelling reason is the information above. The Eucharist is the very heart & FOUNDATION of Catholicism; and hence Christianity. Jesus said precisely and literally THIS IS MY BODY & THIS IS MY BLOOD, SO ONLY A MALE GENDER PRIEST IS ABLE TO LITERALLY DUPLICATE THIS OFFERING; THIS HOLY COMMUNION WHICH IS JESUS IN PERSON. AMEN

 

[BornInMarch]

This video gives a good explanation.

 

[Crocus]

Because Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church. The Church, of course, is the Bride. And the priests act in persona Christi– in the person of Christ.

This is the same answer I offer to criticism of our priests vow of celibacy (a discipline, not a doctrine).

My sister’s Protestant church values marriage for all church members including their male and female ministers.

I tell her that the priest (in the place of Christ) is the husband of the Church. He lays down his life for the Church.

How can he possibly serve two wives. Indeed if he had an earthly wife, his vocation would require him to put her first, and the Church second.

A male priesthood represents Christ as husband and father in relation to the Church.

 

[Catholicos]

I know it’s Jesus’ own earthly mother, but for anyone that doubts how God regards the woman of this world and our faith. I’d ask which of his disciples were assumed into heaven? Which of our Popes, priest or bishops? The less you question Gods will, the more obedient you are to it, the holier you will become . That’s what Mother Mary , so full of grace taught us.

 

[Crocus]

examples of women who would be very competent as Priests (The Virgin Mary being an obvious choice)

Yes, women are unreservedly the experts at multitasking. At our parish we try to limit ourselves to one ministry at a time (to avoid burnout and to give others the opportunity to serve).
The mother of Jesus is already irreplaceable as Mother of God. No need for her to assume a second vocation.

when Jesus chooses his disciples he chooses twelve painfully incompetent men

Incredible isn’t it? And miraculous too! Praise God.

 

[po18guy]

Have you thought of the Episcopalian Church? Seriously.

 

[Huey_Lewis]

This is a great question that I don’t think really has a great answer, like why does a good God permit evil, we only have good guesses. When St. JPII answered this question, he just said that essentially the church has no authority to ordain a women because Christ didn’t do it, therefore making any women’s priestly ordination non-valid. Jesus would have ordained women if he willed to ordain women, he wasn’t just attempting to be 1st century PC.

I talked with an EO subdeacon about this who pretty much agreed with what St. JPII has said about women’s ordination, that it wasn’t about women being invalid because of being female, but because Holy Tradition doesn’t allow for it. It’s something we just have to accept, like so many other things about our faith.

 

[po18guy]

As Dr. David Anders stated in his EWTN radio show, “Every Catholic woman is a priest in the royal priesthood of believers.” The ministerial priesthood is reserved for men, as they sit in persona Christi.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

1. We do not fully comprehend the mind of God. We do our best to understand, using what is given to us like scripture and Church teaching, but there are still areas we are not going to “get”. If God wanted women to be priests at some point in time He would make it so. He hasn’t, so I accept it as being His will. I don’t spend a lot of time wondering why. If it is part of His plan for the future He will make it so at the right time for humanity.
2. Mary would not have wanted to be a priest. What good mother would barge in on her son’s act like that? Now if you’d said Mary Magdalene, who was similar to the Apostles, maybe.
3. Jewish society, and even to some degree gentile society, was not set up in those days to have women as priestly leaders. It would have been too much of a jolt. I think this is also what Paul was getting at when he lectured certain women on their behavior.
4. Of course the male Apostles often came off as “incompetent”. First, they were humans. Second, they had never experienced anyone like Jesus before, and hadn’t grown up with all his lessons and insights. They reacted to things based on how they were used to acting before Jesus showed up, and he showed them a new way to act. Women were also similarly incompetent (for example, the mother of James and John wanting her kids to be first and foremost).

 

[Roseeurekacross]

when Jesus chooses his disciples he chooses twelve painfully incompetent men

Yet they are horribly martyred, beaten, persecuted for Him, and before that , live a life of turmoil and chaos while spreading the Word.

Jesus chose wisely.

 

[Roseeurekacross]

Why refute their claims? Why not describe the special roles of women in the church

 

[AlNg]

But didn’t Jesus choose a married man to be the first Pope?

 

[Duesenberg]

Whenever the topic of Ordained Women comes up, a common response is that God gave all the important religious roles to Men (Prophets, Priests, Savior Of Humanity, Apostles, First Pope, etc) and that if we believe in God’s will we should continue the patterns he laid out when choosing church leaders.

Yet Mother Mary is the Theotokos – the Mother of God and the Mediatrix of all Grace – a status that puts her before everyone except for the Three Persons of God. Have you ever pondered that?

But this leads to another question. Why did God choose only men for these roles? In the Gospels there are examples of women who would be very competent as Priests (The Virgin Mary being an obvious choice), and yet when Jesus chooses his disciples he chooses twelve painfully incompetent men (Judas betrays Jesus, Peter cuts a man’s ear off and then renounces Jesus, James and John ask Jesus for worldly power, etc). Why is this?

Mother Mary was given far more important roles…