What does the Vatican have against female priests? Why the sexism and ex-communications?

Question

The NY Times reports in an article titled "Vatican Asserts Rule That Bars Female Priests" that the Vatican said that ordaining women as priests is still a big No-No, and warned that anyone involved in the ordination of women would be automatically excommunicated. Whew-forget about world hunger or peace-ordaining women as priests is dreadful? If they can get rid of purgatory-why can't they ordain female priests?http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/world/europe/31vatican.html?_r=2&ref=europe&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

The Women's Ordination Conference said in their press release that as women are the backbone of Catholic parishes-it is outrageous that women can't be ordained as priests. They pointed out it's rather hypocritical to kick people around who are performing good works; fighting injustices and serving their communities. Jesus seemed to think more highly of women than the Vatican: http://www.womensordination.org/pages/press_pages/Press5-30-08.html

Answer 1

grace, CAtholic's don't allow and have never allowed women as priests.  feel free to go to the www.vatican.va website OR read the over thousands of answers here.  if you are not Catholic then it really shouldn't matter.  It is not sexism - it's the way of the church.

why the excommunication?!?!?  when you are not with you are against. when you are doing something wrong at your job you are fired? when you break the law you go to jail?!  when you do something blatantly against the Church you are excommunicated.  for every action there is a reaction.

Jesus was a male whos choice were men to continue the teaching.

Answer 2

It is Roman/Eastern Orthodox Catholic doctrine, and has been for almost 2000 years. If you are a Christian and familiar with your Bible, you will not find one text supporting a woman's ordination. It is your choice to accept or deny this Biblical doctrine.

Answer 3

Great question ... no one-size-fits-all answer.

Today, it seems apparent that all major institutions (family, education, government, business, and religion), if viewed with a healthy does of skepticism, reveal their hypocrisy -in spades!

The Catholic Church is no exception.

Religions, like governments, are not so much interested in "souls" or "salvation" as they are interested in masses of people, in lockstep harmony, kneeling in supplication to praise something -be it a god, the dollar, or a greased pig.

Instead of finding that offense or feeling the need to batter your intellect to arrive at a logical conclusion for something that is irrational, I believe it's in the best interests of personal -and community- sanity to simply allow it ... of course, if you must label it, then allow yourself to assess the hypocrisy and, in the end, laugh it off and label it as childish.

For fun, imagine a second Vatican, founded, operated, and sustained by females ... no, not in Rome ... that's too convenient and it would take a millenium (at least) before you could actually get to rent some property to establish your cathedral and spread the word.  Besides, if you stay with that "bricks and mortar" concept you are falling right into the hands of the very cohort you are trying to avoid (or, at least change) ... males.  Let's face it, after a few thousand years of this gender dance, males own the property ... males own the processes ... males own the policy- and law-making venues ... males seem to own everything ... except you!

So, don't just "hope and pray" things will be different, get out and about and change the rules!

Create the new Vatican online.  Call it Vatican II (or, too) just for the hypocrisy of it all.  Post your "no males allowed" signs and, as they say, "let the chips fall where they may."

Guaranteed, in nano-seconds, some male trolling the net will bombard Vatican II with relentless pleas -and reasons- why he should be allowed to be a priestess in your religion.

It's all rather silly stuff ... as such, have some fun with it!

Answer 4

The opposition to women priests is based on passages in the Bible that have been interpreted as meaning that women should not teach in the churchs.  Paul said "women be silent in the churches".  

There have always been women in the church who have questioned this doctrine - Teresa of Avila said "Don't go by one text alone."

However, women have always been able to have a role in religious life through being nuns, and most do not seem to have yearned to become priests.  However, the Catholic church is increasingly under pressure to become Politically correct, and I daresay it will come one day.  Then there will probably be a split in the Catholic church as there has been in the Church of England.  Whether that will be a good thing or not I could not say.

Answer 5

Why do you think people in developed countries have abandoned the Catholic Church in droves?  The Church totally backwards.  

The irony is that the remaining self-professed "Catholics" (in developed countries) pick and choose from a long "menu" of Do's and Dont's: they couldn't possibly care less what the fossilized misogynists in the Vatican have to say on any subject.  So how is it they still refer to themselves as Catholic?  I always found this amusing.

The Catholics in the developing world remain barefoot and pregnant.   Not much of a marketing strategy but h**l, its their own bloody fault.

I decided for myself this was bunk at 9 years old.  That's when I became a heretic; I thought I'd get an early start and besides - the promised shetland pony never did materialise.

Answer 6

Well I can tell you the back ground WHY women cant be priest...

around the 14th century an argument broke out that lasted for YEARS.

Did women have souls? (yes seriously)

It lasted for a long time in Europe...and even longer in the US.

At some point it was decided that women had to have souls...b/c a non soul bearing thing...couldn't carry and birth a soul bearing male.

well into the 1800's in the US women were  jailed for speaking the word of god (were they women shouldn't ask q in church comes from)

now dont you want to support the church!

Answer 7

I'm just glad Catholics priests stopped burning women at the stake because they were supposedly witches...this was so they can get their gross little hands on their property.... The Vatican makes me puke.  The Vatican is more corrupt and full of S**t than a communist govt....

Answer 8

IMO. The biggest reason to disallow a woman to become a priest is because it threatens their position of power.  If they go down the road of egalitarianism that means women will one day be allowed to become arch bishops and then have the ability to be elected as popes. It's the same as when they tell you that you can't have a job at a company because you are "over-qualified" and they give it to someone else.  You represent a threat to the status quo. There's no logical reason only a hidden one.

Answer 9

The church near me has a woman priest/vicar I don't know if she is catholic though or another form of Christianity.

Answer 10

The Vatican is the original purveyor of anti-female rhetoric supported with the so-called bible which made Eve, the 'first female' the bad guy and cause of the downfall of man for eternity - hey, it must be true because the bible tell us so - the bible, also authored by males.  From what I learned, societies were matriarchal until christianity began (literally in cellars) and what's really funny, is that some of the males on this site have no idea how closely they parrot and regurgitate all that religious bullsh!t all while thinking they're so modern and forward-thinking.

Besides, consider what some have done to little boys let alone having women cloistered and readily available ~ obviously they can't control themselves so the next best thing is to keep them separated.  The priests may be men of the cloth but they're still men.  The guys were very clever - back in the day when most were illiterate and uneducated.

Answer 11

That is a good question. Seeing as how they hail Mary. And hold her as the highest figure in their church beside Jesus.

Answer 12

+ Ordination of Women +

WWJD? What would Jesus do?

The Catholic Church currently teaches:

The Lord Jesus chose men to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry.

The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible.

For more information see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sections 1577: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt2s...

+ Excommunication +

Excommunication is a severe penalty resulting from grave crimes against the Catholic religion.

It is imposed by church authority or incurred as a direct result of the commission of an offense.

Excommunication excludes the offender from taking part in the Eucharist or other sacraments and from the exercise of any ecclesiastical office, ministry, or function.

Excommunication does not mean a loss of salvation. However, the crime committed that was penalized by it might be a mortal sin.

Remember the purpose of excommunication is the correction and redemption of the person who has chosen to separate himself or herself from the Church.

For more information, see: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05678a.h...

With love in Christ.

Answer 13

Christ was a man, the priest is the vicar of Christ, that would be like asking a man to represent the Virgin Mary both are unrealistic and have no basis.   As far as women within the church,  the late Mother Theresa was more well known then priests, bishops, cardinals, and probably the pope.  Mother angelica founder of EWTN has done great works yet neither of them desired to be a priest.  This is not about the Catholic Church this is about a group of men and women pushing their belief upon the church.   If these women really want to serve they can serve the church in many ways no less important then a priest however I suspect its about their own personal objective which is quite selfish.  We have many problems in this world and this is their quest, its really sad when you think about it.

Answer 14

Religion is about faith not about modernism and going with the times.

Bottom line is though same reason as priests are not supposed to marry they are to stay childless to serve the church and people and a preggo priestess would be quite an embarassment.

Answer 15

Its their prerogative, end of story.

Besides, I have yet to see a valid argument made of FAITH instead of EGO for a woman to be a priest of an almost 2k year old men only priesthood.

Answer 16

Unfortunately Catholics (like many other religions) don't really think about their holy texts but just do as they are told. Most of the conventions of the Catholic Church come from paganism (easily historically documented) or from arbitrary rulings by male leaders 3 centuries or more after Jesus' death.

I find this whole fuss interesting since the first person Jesus went to after his resurrection (if you follow this faith) was Mary Magdalene, whom he instructed to spread the word about his rising. IE, he instructed a woman to preach, over 11 men who were also his disciples.

The Church's rules have been longstanding, yes, but that doesn't mean they have any basis in actual faith. And they used to excommunicate people for marriages or "heretical" ideas, too. It was as meaningless then as it is now--how can a man decide where you're going when you die?

Answer 17

The Catholic Church has no d**n good reason to exclude women from the priesthood . . . except tradition.  There's no rhyme, reason or logic for this nonsense except they've always done it this way.  The Church is in a recruiting crisis.  They don't have enough priests to serve the faithful, and if they continue to prevent women from entering the seminary, they have only their mysogynistic selves to blame.

Answer 18

That's good news.  The modern western woman has NO PLACE in any position of worship.