Hi, Charles —

Great question.

It's two-fold. First, every sacrament Christ left us has what is called a form and a matter.

Matter is the stuff of which to work with, like bread for the Eucharist, water for baptism, the priest in Confession, etc. Form is the way or the formula by which the stuff is performed, such as:

• the words in Consecration
  (This is my Body. . . ),
• the Trinitarian formula in Baptism
  (I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit), etc.

The Church can not change the proper form or matter that Christ gave us to administer the sacraments. If that happens they are not valid. We continue His Mission, we don't create our own.

When it comes to the sacrament of Holy Orders, or the ordination of priests, the matter that Christ chose for the priesthood was maleness or Men. He had no problem bucking the system with many other things during His Mission and could have made females priests if it was the right thing to do, but He didn't. Christ ordained only males to follow Him in this particular priestly ministry, and when He does something there is a perfect reason. So we can not change it; if we did it would be like the Church deciding it's okay to consecrate steak or french fries into Christ's body at Mass because it has become a popular food.

A more philosophical approach to the question can be found in the difference in maleness and femaleness. Although our culture today, for various reasons caused by sin, tends to play down the differences, masculinity and femininity are essentially different and complementary. They have their Source in God as Trinity and in humans; it is reflected in the dichotomy of male and female. St. Paul in Ephesians points out beginning in chapter five verse 21 that the male is head and woman the body in the mystical person that is marriage, which is a reflection of the ultimate marriage which is Christ and Church. Pope Pius XI in Casti Conubii offers the angle of man being head and woman being heart. This can be said to reflect the eternal Lover/Beloved relationship between the Father and the Son, imaged in man as Eve begotten from the side of (one could say the heart of) Adam. As Pius XI states, he has primacy of authority while she has primacy in love; two sides of God, if you will.

The priest when performing the sacraments takes the place of Christ. The Church calls him another Christ when doing so. We, as Church, are Christ's bride in this love relationship. At Mass then, you have the priest and his bride in the interplay of (Lover and beloved relationship).

If a woman were to act as priest you would have a priestess and her bride. Such a dynamic would:

• contradict truth and nature
• not reflect the Trinity as life-giving love, and
• would literally lead to a fruitless experience.

There's a lot here that flies in the face of modern culture, so feel free to follow up.

Peace,

Paul

Hi, Charles —

To underscore what my colleague Paul said, the family —

1. the husband who gives his life
2. the woman who receives the husband's life, and
3. the children who are the natural fruit of that life-giving love

— are an icon of Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5).

Christ is the bridegroom. He gives his life to the Church, his Bride, who bears fruit in eternal life. The priest is the icon of Christ, and is, in a sense, married to the Church. Through the priest, Christ gives his divine life to His bride in the Eucharist, where we become one flesh, one blood with Christ in his Body and Blood. Thus, only a man can be a priest (otherwise it would do violence to the sign).

Moreover, despite, as Paul said, Jesus's penchant for challenging tradition and doing shocking things, He only chose twelve men to be his Apostles. Throughout the years until now, no one in the Church even thought of ordaining women — ordaining men has been the constant practice.
That very fact bears witness to the infallible character of this teaching.

Another source of information is Inter Insigniores and Ordinatio Sacerdotalis which are the documents the Holy See issued to explain the subject.

This posting from our knowledge base may help as well:

• Is the Catholic faith, for or against, women priests?; I need an answer for a project I'm doing.

Eric

Hi, Charles —

I'd like to briefly add to what has been said; and like Eric, I would underscore a point that Paul made:

The Church doesn't just make stuff up as it goes along.

She can only do what Christ has given Her the authority to do. Since Christ only ordained men, in the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the Church can only ordain men. When Holy Orders is conferred, the man's soul is configured to Christ in a particular way.

Were a bishop to attempt to confer Holy Orders on a woman, nothing would happen because the bishop and the Church don't have the authority to do so.

Being a priest is not just a matter of having the right qualifications. It's not a job; it's a vocation and calling. When a man becomes a priest, he is called to a particular sacrifice and service. In a sense, he becomes Christ in persona capo — that is, Christ the Head — where the rest of us are Christ in the Body.

Finally, don't forget that each Christian, man or woman, shares in the Priesthood of Christ through their Baptism so (you [assuming you're baptized] and I) are also priests but not as the Head, rather as the Body. The lay faithful have a share in a universal priesthood through their Baptism while priests have a sacerdotal character on their soul so they share in the ministerial priesthood of Jesus Christ.

Many times, when women contemplate the priesthood, because it is denied to them, they perceive it as a position of honor, power, privilege, and authority. 

What they don't see is that it's really about service and sacrifice.

John

Charles —

A point I like to make is that only a woman can be a mother.

No one complains about or says that it is unfair that men can't be mothers. They have their pride of place in the economy of salvation.

It's only fair that men have the sole right to be spiritual Fathers.

Eric

Eric,

I see your point and I'd say your right, however, I wouldn't even go down that path because then we begin to twist the Gospel. Jesus came to save us from sin and death. He calls us into a covenant relationship with the Holy Trinity and offers us His Divine Life. He did not come to empower this group or another group.

He didn't come to make things fair or to make us feel good about our place in the economy of salvation. We should be elated at whatever role He asks us to play. Heck, we were on our way to Hell and He died in order that we could be saved! If we could only keep that perspective, all this other gobbledygook and feel good mumbo jumbo wouldn't even come into the picture.

As Christians, our focus should be bringing people to Jesus Christ. If a woman really believes she's called to be a priest, let her spend all her free time evangelizing the lost.

She'll either fall in love with her personal apostolate or she'll soon get sick of it and lose any interest in the priesthood. Either way, she'd realize she's not called to be a priest.

John

Hi guys,

Actually Eric stated a point I meant to include but forgot. Priesthood is a spiritual fatherhood. That's why we call a priest, Father. The masculine nature of priesthood includes the role of father as well as the role of groom.

While we seem to acknowledge the difference in father and mother on the level of nature,
many today have a difficult time seeing that difference in the order of grace.

Paul

Hi, Charles —

First of all, the Vatican used no punitive language. Secondly, your opinion is heresy albeit material.

The issue of ordaining married men has always been understood to be a matter of practice. The issue of a male priesthood is not a practice; it has to do with Sacramental Theology and is a matter of faith and morals. It comes under the category of Church Teaching or doctrine.

Therefore, every Catholic must assent to it with divine faith, because the Pope has stated that this is a definitive Teaching. The Church has no authority to ordain women. Period — end of story — exclamation point!

That cannot change because it is an infallible, and therefore immutable and irreformable, matter of faith and morals. Catholics are not free to hold a contrary opinion without falling into heresy.

This nonsense about a patriarchal society, is just that. It's heretical gibberish spewed by people who don't understand the nature of (Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium).

Instead, it is the language adopted by those who think the Church and the Gospel are meant to empower groups.

John

Chuck,

Thanks for the positive comments. I also would like to comment on your presumption that the subject of women priests is simply a matter of Church authority.

With married priests you have a point; that is a Church discipline which by its very nature can change at the discretion of the authority that Christ gave His Church.

However, women priestesses is a radically different question. John Paul II used the authority Christ gave the papacy to authoritatively proclaim that women can never be priests — not because he doesn't want them to be, — but because it is not possible.

Again, it's like saying women can be fathers. It makes no sense. Jesus instituted an all-male priesthood because spiritual fathers, like physical fathers, must be male.

Women can act like fathers to a certain degree, but they can never be fathers. Priesthood as a vocation, is essentially a being, not a doing. God cannot contradict Himself; even He cannot make a square circle or a married bachelor. Nor could He make a female father or a woman priest but don't trust us on this, trust the divine authority Christ gave John Paul II in his proclaiming this truth in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.

Peace,

Paul

Hi, Charles —

As for the language, your relatives can object all they want. A person attempting to ordain a woman is committing an act of heresy, which ultimately leads to a false ministry which deceives the faithful.

Therefore it is an attack on the Church and what She teaches. Hence, excommunication is required to protect faithful Catholics from following this error. This is not some incidental or material heresy. It is formal heresy and crime under Canon Law.

Excommunication is also for the benefit of the heretic, in the hopes that the sinner, once separated from the community, will repent. While it seems extreme, it is required, given the gravity of this heresy and crime.

John

Charles —

Sacraments are the deeds of Christ made present. It is Him acting upon us through the minister. They are extensions of His Will. Woman cannot (not 'may not') be priests for two reasons:

1. First, Christ's Will was to ordain men and act through men. He did not give all the disciples, male and female, the power to be priests, but only the Twelve Apostles.
   
   Since a sacrament is literally constituted by the Will of Christ, it is impossible to prescind from His Will.
   
   
2. Second, the priest is conformed to Christ as Spouse, Bridegroom, of the Church. As such, He must be male.

Mary Ann

Hi, Charles —

Again, the purpose of the Church is not to worry about what feminists want. The Church exists to preach the Gospel and to be the Sacrament of Salvation to the world. It does not exist to preach liberation of any kind aside from the liberation from sin and death which comes to us, in and, through the Incarnation and which we access by grace through faith.

We preach Jesus, nothing else.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, so that whosoever would believe in Him will have Eternal Life." (John 3:16)

That's the point of the Gospel. No where in the Gospels do I see Our Lord satisfying the whims of feminists or any other special interest groups.

That Identity politics is not part of the Mission of the Church.

John