Tough Questions

• Why are women not allowed to be priests in the Catholic Church?
  • This question deals with what is at the very heart of a sacrament.  Sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and invisible realities (grace) that cause what they signify, and are instituted by Christ.  The important part of that definition for this question is that they are instituted by Christ.  Therefore, the Church cannot change them.  For example, we cannot baptize people in the name of Bob, Joe and Annie.  In the same way, we cannot ordain women, because Christ only chose men when He ordained the first priests – the Apostles.  Why Christ only chose men is a mystery, but it certainly is not because of the culture of the times – Jesus was the model of what it means to be counter-cultural.  Furthermore, this is not the Church’s way of trying to give men all the power – the priest is first and foremost a servant of the people of God.  He is not ruling the Church, because it is not His Church, it is Christ’s.  Pope John Paul II said that the Church does not have the power to ordain women.  Thus, it is not that the Church does not want to ordain women, but simply that She cannot, because of the way that Christ instituted the sacrament of Holy Orders.

MORE TO COME….