Why Not Ordain Women?

by Sebastian R Fama

That God has chosen a minority of men for the servant role of priest, does not make them superior to women. Are men inferior to women because they cannot bear children? Of course not. God, who is perfectly just, determined that, in some cases, men and women were to have different roles. That is not sexism, that is diversity. Hence, the Church rejects the radical feminist notion that women have no worth unless they are exactly like men.

Men and women are both necessary. Thus, neither is superior nor inferior. God has a plan of service for everyone. Humbly seek His will in your life. For “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). The greatest Christian who ever lived was a woman, (Mary) and yet, she was never ordained to the priesthood.

The priesthood is a vocation. A vocation is a calling. In this case, a calling from God. If God calls you to do something, and you say yes, it gets done. Only you can frustrate God’s will in your life. If God chose to call women to the priesthood, we would have had them all along. But we have never had any. Therefore, we can conclude that God either has not called any women to the priesthood, or He did, and they all said no.

No man is more powerful than God and thus no man can prevent God from accomplishing His will. It is true that tyrants have jailed or killed priests and seminarians. And so yes, in a limited sense, God’s will can be frustrated. But that is not what we’re talking about. Our detractors are alleging that an important part of God’s plan has been suppressed by sinful men for 2,000 years. And that of course, is ludicrous. Remember that Jesus said the Holy Spirit would lead His Church into all truth (John 16:12). Did the Holy Spirit forget about women priests? Jesus also promised to protect and safeguard his Church (Matthew 28:18-20). And that would include its teachings.

If Jesus has not done what He promised, he is a liar. If that is true then we do not need Him. And we do not need His Church. And we certainly would not need any priests be they male or female. But Jesus is not a liar! And so, we do need Him and His Church. And we do need His priests. But only the ones that He calls. Furthermore, we need to be obedient to His Church as He endowed it with His own authority (Matthew 16:18-19, Luke 10:16).

In his encyclical Ordinatio Sacerdotalis Pope Saint John Paul II wrote: “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” (no. 4). In other words, the matter is settled.