What are your thoughts on having female priests within the Catholic/Orthodox/Eastern
The church could, by the way, choose to have female priests if it ever chose to. Tradition dictates that it's males, but there's no mandate that excludes women indefinitely. Women could be priests if it were allowed.
As a Catholic, I think that women should be ordained and I believe it will happen someday but not necessarily in my life time. I can imagine most won't think so though. I also think that priests should have the option of marriage.
When Jesus arose from the dead, the first person he showed himself to was Mary, He told her to go and tell the apostles what she had seen, making her the first Evangelist. I think that pretty much says it all
if god is real and the bible true, then god works how god wants to. if god wants to call a female to lead a congregation and spread his messages, then that is what god will do.
i find the idea that just because a female does not have a penis means she can't have a spiritual connection or be a spiritual leader to be the most sexist pigheaded thing - ever.
Sorry but I'm against it...I'm a Catholic (as I would assume that you are) and if the Pope says something is allowed we should do it and Viceversa. The pope said no and we should not have priests that are women. Don't get me wrong, the pope is NOT perfect but he is speaking for the Church.
No they couldn't simply "choose" to have female priests. It's Doctrine (capital D), not tradition -- and OME I can't believe I am saying this: 1Corinthians is a large reason for the "why".
The fact that Catholics currently allow females onto the altar is a huge deal, as traditionally it would NEVER happen. But that's as far as it goes. Eastern Orthodox churches do not allow females near the altar. They take a swipe out of us all the time for female altar servers, lecterns and Eucharistic Ministers. I know many a Catholic women who won't receive the Eucharist from a female.
On that note, I don't mind it. It doesn't challenge any feminist agenda in my world.
It is of no right for anyone besides the leading members of the Catholic/Orthodox/Eastern Churches to decide who can be a priest. Forget equality or tolerance or equal rights and all that, it just doesn't apply especially with separation of church and state. State rules and etiquette should not be forced upon a church.
mandate women are only to spread their legs pop out babies Nada shut up
1st Timothy Chapter 2
In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedNESSaa sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
10 But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.
11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
15 Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
I personally prefer my priest to be a man. Women do take part in the service in Catholic and other churches by reading the lessons and Gospel appropriate to the church calendar.
As explained in the document Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, the does not have the authority to ordain women. It is not a question of wanting to, it as a question of not having the power to.
Jesus never ordained women and so the church cannot.
for an in depth explanation listen to
http://www.peterkreeft.com/audio/09_priestesses.htm
<<What are your thoughts on having female priests within the Catholic/Orthodox/Eastern Churches?>>
It's a theological impossibility.
<<The church could, by the way, choose to have female priests if it ever chose to.>>
No, the Church does not have the authority to do that.
<<Tradition dictates that it's males, but there's no mandate that excludes women indefinitely. Women could be priests if it were allowed.>>
Yes there is:
Gen. 3:15; Luke 1:26-55; John 19:26; Rev. 12:1- Mary is God's greatest creation, was the closest person to Jesus, and yet Jesus did not choose her to become a priest. God chose only men to be priests to reflect the complementarity of the sexes. Just as the man (the royal priest) gives natural life to the woman in the marital covenant, the ministerial priest gives supernatural life in the New Covenant sacraments.
Judges 17:10; 18:19 ? fatherhood and priesthood are synonymous terms. Micah says, ?Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest.? Fathers/priests give life, and mothers receive and nurture life. This reflects God our Father who gives the life of grace through the Priesthood of His Divine Son, and Mother Church who receives the life of grace and nourishes her children. In summary, women cannot be priests because women cannot be fathers.
Mark 16:9; Luke 7: 37-50; John 8:3-11 - Jesus allowed women to uniquely join in His mission, exalting them above cultural norms. His decision not to ordain women had nothing to do with culture. The Gospel writers are also clear that women participated in Jesus' ministry and, unlike men, never betrayed Jesus. Women have always been held with the highest regard in the Church (e.g., the Church's greatest saint and model of faith is a woman; the Church's constant teaching on the dignity of motherhood; the Church's understanding of humanity as being the Bride united to Christ, etc.).
Mark 14:17,20; Luke 22:14 - the language "the twelve" and "apostles" shows Jesus commissioned the Eucharistic priesthood by giving holy orders only to men.
Gen. 14:10; Heb. 5:6,10; 6:20; 7:15,17 - Jesus, the Son of God, is both priest and King after the priest-king Melchizedek. Jesus' priesthood embodies both Kingship and Sonship.
Gen. 22:9-13 - as foreshadowed, God chose our redemption to be secured by the sacrificial love that the Son gives to the Father.
Matt. 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19 - because the priest acts in persona Christi in the offering to the Father, the priest cannot be a woman.
Mark 3:13 - Jesus selected the apostles "as He desired," according to His will, and not according to the demands of His culture. Because Jesus acted according to His will which was perfectly united to that of the Father, one cannot criticize Jesus' selection of men to be His priests without criticizing God.
John 20:22 - Jesus only breathed on the male apostles, the first bishops, giving them the authority to forgive and retain sins. In fact, the male priesthood of Christianity was a distinction from the priestesses of paganism that existed during these times. A female priesthood would be a reversion to non-Christian practices. The sacred tradition of a male priesthood has existed compromised in the Church for 2,000 years.
1 Cor. 14:34-35 - Paul says a woman is not permitted to preach the word of God in the Church. It has always been the tradition of the Church for the priest or deacon alone (an ordained male) to read and preach the Gospel.
1 Tim. 2:12 - Paul also says that a woman is not permitted to hold teaching authority in the Church. Can you imagine how much Mary, the Mother of God, would have been able to teach Christians about Jesus her Son in the Church? Yet, she was not permitted to hold such teaching authority in the Church.
Rom. 16:1-2 - while many Protestants point to this verse denounce the Church's tradition of a male priesthood, deaconesses, like Phoebe, were helpers to the priests (for example, preparing women for naked baptism so as to prevent scandal). But these helpers were never ordained.
Luke 2:36-37 - prophetesses, like Anna, were women who consecrated themselves to religious life, but were not ordained.
Isaiah 3:12 ? Isaiah complains that the priests of ancient Israel were having their authority usurped by women, and this was at the height of Israel?s covenant apostasy.
Oooookay, I think we've pretty much driven a stake through the heart of the "the pope could if he really wanted to" argument. But I think you were asking for personal opinions anyway. Mine is: No way.
It's not a question of women being of less value than men or not being smart enough. It's just that being a Priest - like being the head of a family - is a man's role.
And before you flame me over that last remark, something was pointed out to me the other day: The Blessed Virgin has a role in the Church that Joseph can't even approach, But when the angel told the Holy Family to flee to Egypt, the angel did not appear to Mary and tell her to advise her husband what God's intentions were. The angel appeared to the head of the family.
Sorry, but you're incorrect. Pope John Paul II, under the authority of the Holy See, officially declared a few years ago that the Church does not have the authority to ordain women. In a word, that's it. End of discussion. When the Holy See has spoken, It has spoken. It's not a matter of tradition; it's Church authority.
Jesus never chose women to become his disciples, who became his disciples. Just as women are the heart but not the head of the home, their distinctive gifts enable them as the heart, but not the head of the church.
A key to their special role may lie in women's extraordinary capacity for empathy. Jesus says in Luke 6:
Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets."
It takes the special toughness God designed in men to be resilient in the face of hate, insult, and rejection to persevere in leadership and proclaiming the word.
I used to think the same thing but once it was actually explained to me, I have no issue with women not being priests. Woman are different from men and thus has given each different roles to play. Woman are equally as important as the men are. Having men as priest just makes sense because Jesus was a man and the symbolism of a man doing the mass is much more powerful than it would be if women did it. Its kinda like a marriage Men represent Christ and Woman are his bride which is the Church. A man can be a priest because he marries the church, a woman cannot marry the church so she cannot be a priest, she can marry Christ though which is why a woman can choose to live as a sister.
What are your thoughts on having female priests within the Catholic/Orthodox/Eastern
