Title: Why Can't the Church Ordain Women?
Headings: WHY CAN'T THE CHURCH ORDAIN WOMEN?
WHY CAN'T THE CHURCH ORDAIN WOMEN?
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Content: According to Inter Insignores, the Church "does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination" (3). And in his recent letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, Pope John Paul II authoritatively writes: " I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful" (4). So it is not that the Church can but will not; rather, she does not because she cannot! Return To Top
A Common Argument against Women's Ordination
The most common argument put forth against female priests contends that, since God became incarnate in the male sex, only men can represent Christ and so only men can become priests. Though not untrue, this argument is incomplete and open to misunderstanding. It may give the impression that women are not Christlike, and are thus "second-class Christians". Nothing could be further from the heart and mind of Mother Church! The witness of countless female saints in Scripture and Church history refute this notion, as does the modern example of such Christlike souls as Mother Teresa.