Why can women not be Catholic priests?

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This is not a decision of men, but of God. God decided that women bring men into the world. Jesus sent men to evangelize. There were women with Jesus as well. The Gospel mentions a few of them: firstly, Mary, the mother of Jesus; Mary Magdalene, His disciple and one of the first witnesses to the resurrection; Mary and Martha, the sisters who offered him hospitality in Bethany. They received of Jesus their own ministry. Mary is the most perfect creature, she brought forth Jesus and gave Him His human nature. Our salvation is born from her, yet she was not ordained. Women have other ministries in the Church, but not the priesthood, because of the will of God. This is why the Pope cannot change the Tradition. It's not his affair, but God's.

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It is against the tradition of the Church.

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The tradition that men are priests goes back to the apostles of Jesus. Peter was Jesus' rock, or second in command, and went on to become the leader of the early Christian church. Women play what could be called ancillary roles as nuns and sisters, as did the women who followed Jesus. These traditional views are often seen as bigoted and are openly debated by those seeking leniency in tradition's interpretation and application.

These days, Tradition is still upheld; the Catholic Church's is notorious for resistance to change.

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The Church has always followed the practice of Christ Himself, who ordained only men to be bishops, priests, and deacons. In 1994, Pope John paul II reaffirmed this 2000 year old tradition, declaring himself without authority to change it, while reaffirming that "The presence and the role of women in the life and mission of the Church, although not linked to the ministerial priesthood, remain absolutely necessary and irreplaceable." This issue is part of the much larger and holistic subject of the role of sexuality in human experience as understood by the Catholic Church, which has always understood both men and women to be made in the image of God. For more information, see The Theology of the Body and Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.

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Because the current pope has not changed the rules. Many things have been "tradition" for a very long time and recent popes have changed them. Some have caused more controversy than others and each one would have had people saying "We can't change this because we have done it for so long." The early Mass would be quite different from the current one. For instance readings from the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles etc. would not have been part of the celebration as they had not yet been written.

The Mass in Latin, which was generally abandoned by Pope John XXIII to allow people to hear the Mass in their own language caused a lot of discontent among conservative Catholics and some older people still hanker back to the old days.

In most parishes lay people are involved in the Mass much more than they were a generation or two ago and act as readers and ministers of communion. Men and women.

As one Catholic, female proponent of women's priesthood said, "The only person in the world who could also say, truthfully, "This is my body and this is my blood" was Mary, Jesus' mother.

The Catholic church currently ordains married priests who transfer from other Christian traditions, yet it will not allow priests to marry. This causes concern for many catholics. On the one side those who think there should be married priests (and many if not all of the apostles were married) because that's who Jesus chose, while on the other side some people are concerned that there shouldn't be any married priests: even converts who were already ordained into a Christian priesthood.

It's arguments like this which frustrate people who want to see women priests. "We do it because Jesus did it," is fine if you are rejecting women but wrong if you want to have married priests.

The tension between Tradition and What Jesus Did will run for a long time.

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It all also goes back to Jesus Christ himself implementing the pristhood at the Last Supper. While in the upper room, Jesus was only surrounded by his 12 disciples which were all men. Although he had many other followers, including his Mother Mary, he was surrounded by only men at the Last Supper where he instituted the Eucharist which is the true Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This was the example he left to show us and the Catholic Church still holds this rule.

First answer by ID1190618522. Last edit by Saintcatholic101. Contributor trust: 1 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 62 [recommend question]