The Catholic Church does not ordain women for three reasons. First, it is strictly prohibited in Sacred Scripture. Second, it is strictly prohibited in Apostolic Tradition. Third, it is a distortion of the ministry of Jesus Christ.
First, Sacred Scripture forbids the ordination of women to any clerical state. The clerical offices of the Church are threefold: deacon, presbyter (priest) and bishop. In every case, along with many other qualifications, the Scriptures state that the candidate must be a man, and if he is married, he can only be the husband of one wife. (1st Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9) The Bible only recognizes two genders: biological male and biological female. Likewise, the Bible makes it very clear that marriage can only be between a biological male and a biological female. So if the Scriptures dictate that one prerequisite for the clerical state is to be the “husband” (biological male) of one wife (biological female), it’s pretty plain to see the Scriptures insist on biological males for the clergy. That, and the fact that the Scriptures refer to such candidates as men and always use male pronouns.
St Paul isn’t the least bit shy about this. He insists, in no uncertain terms, that women cannot hold any positions of authority in the Church – ever. (1st Corinthians 14:34) He makes no exception about this. “I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.” – (1st Timothy 2:12-15)
By today’s politically-correct standards of speech, this sounds sexist. However, we have to understand that the ancients knew nothing of political correctness, and were quite blunt in their speech by today’s standards. This text must be properly interpreted in context. The context of the passage is prayer, specifically public prayer in a church setting. Paul is talking about who leads prayer, and he references men here (clergy). The women he tells to “keep silent.” That doesn’t mean they can’t talk. What he’s saying is they can’t lead in prayer, meaning specifically, they can’t officiate the liturgy. Of course, women can speak in church in other ways, in non-authoritative ways, such as: they can sing in choirs, make announcements, even read some passages of Scripture, etc. But women cannot officiate the liturgy. St Paul makes this clear by saying he does “not permit a woman to teach or to have authority.” That’s the key word here – “authority. Officiating the liturgy is a sign of authority. That’s why St Paul forbids it.
His explanation deserves some context as well. Otherwise, our politically-correct society will not tolerate it. He references the story of Adam and Eve in the Old Testament in saying: “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” This does not mean he’s blaming the woman (Eve) for all the sins in the world. On the contrary, he’s giving the woman (Eve) an excuse. He’s saying the woman was deceived by the serpent (devil). She didn’t fully understand what she was doing. One could derive from this that women are more easily deceived than men. Whether or not that’s true is irrelevant, because that’s not what St Paul is getting at here. What he’s getting at is the woman (Eve) committed the lesser sin. She was deceived or tricked into doing it. The man (Adam), on the other hand, knew exactly what he was doing. The early Christians (Augustine of Hippo AD 430, St Gregory of Nyssa AD 394, St Ambrose of Milan AD 397) understood the man (Adam) as committing the greater sin because he was not deceived. He chose, rather, to subordinate himself to his wife and follow her lead into sin, instead of being a spiritual leader and helping to guide her out of it.
This is part of St Paul’s explanation for why God wants men to become spiritual leaders in the Church and their homes. It’s necessary in the male path to salvation. The sin of the first man (Adam) must be corrected in every Christian man. Men must become spiritual leaders again, either in the Church or in their homes, self-sacrificial in character, if they hope to be what God intended them to become. In the Christian spiritual economy, leadership is not lordship. It’s sacrifice, meaning the sacrifice of one’s self for the betterment of others. Women do this almost naturally all the time. Men do not. That’s part of the sin of Adam. St Paul corrects that here, by restricting Church leadership (clergy) to men alone.
We have to understand, St Paul wrote this at a time when the Church was persecuted in the Holy Land, and received sporadic persecution elsewhere. In time, it would soon receive the persecution of the entire Roman Empire. Christian leaders were the first to be taken during persecutions. Being a Christian leader meant not only sacrificing your personal life for the good of your congregation, but often sacrificing your physical life to protect your congregation. St Paul wants men to become self-sacrificing “fathers” in the Church.
The last portion deserving context is St Paul’s second explanation: “woman will be saved through bearing children.” This does not mean women have to birth children to go to heaven! Rather, it means that a woman’s place in spiritual leadership (leading prayer) is with children. By raising children in holiness, teaching them to follow Christ, Christian women undo the sin of Eve. Instead of being deceived by the devil, they can now prevent children from being deceived – any children, not just their own. When we understand the context of Paul’s words here, we can begin to appreciate why he commanded the men to “man up” and lead through self-sacrifice in the Church and in their homes. As for women, he just tells them that they, and their leadership talents, are preserved (saved) through bringing children to Christ.
Second, Apostolic Tradition mirrors Sacred Scripture, both in the Apostolic Age and throughout the centuries. There is no credible evidence of women being ordained to the clerical state throughout the bi-millennial history of the Church. The bottom line is this. If Jesus Christ intended women to be ordained, he had in his presence the most perfect, humble and worthy woman in all of history. That would be his own mother, Mary. Why didn’t he ordain her? Let’s face it. If Jesus Christ wouldn’t even ordain Mary, then what gives anybody the notion that he would want to ordain less-worthy women today. Nobody (neither man nor woman) is more worthy than Mary.
Pope St John Paul II put it succinctly in his 1994 Apostolic Letter on the topic. In it, he wrote: “Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (Luke 22:32) 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.” – (Pope St. John Paul II, Ordinatio sacerdotalis, 4) The operative phrase here is “the Church has no authority whatsoever.” The Church cannot have any authority that Christ has not already given it. When it comes to ordaining clergy, Christ is our example. We cannot do more than he did. Jesus Christ only ordained men to the clerical state. He did not ordain women, children, or anyone else – only men. We could go as far as the example set by the Apostles, but no further. They only ordained men as well. To ordain women now, would be an innovation (making something up out of thin air), which the Church has no authority to do. Thus, any attempt to ordain a woman to the clerical state would be automatically invalid, null and void.
Third, this all comes down to the nature of the ministry of Jesus Christ. Being ordained (becoming clergy) means sharing in Christ’s ministry. It is his ministry, not ours. It is his authority, not ours. It is his very nature, not ours. When the sacraments of the Church are administered, the administrator becomes in persona Christi (Latin: “in the person of Christ”). Jesus Christ is a man. He is not a woman. Nor is he without gender. When one is ordained to the clerical state, one shares in the ministry and nature of Christ – who is a man. The cleric becomes in persona Christi – representing the divine God-Man – to the flock he shepherds. A woman can be many things, but she can never be a man. Any attempt to do so is merely an illusion, for the XX chromosomal makeup of every cell in her body cries out: “I am a woman.” Women cannot be ordained, for to be ordained is to share in the male ministry, male authority and male nature of Christ. Jesus Christ can be many things, but he can never be a woman.
Was this short article helpful? If so, consider getting the book: Are Catholics Christian? by Shane Schaetzel. This short article is an excerpt from the book Are Catholics Christian? which has been used by clergy and catechists throughout North America in OCIA (RCIA) and other Catholic education programs. You can get the whole thing, in one short book, by clicking here.
Shane Schaetzel is an author of Catholic books and an Evangelical convert to the Catholic Church through Anglicanism. His articles have been featured on LifeSiteNews, The Remnant Newspaper, Forward in Christ, and Catholic Online. You can read Shane’s books at ShaneSchaetzel.Com
Real Clear Catholic 