Good Question: Why Doesn't The Catholic Church Allow Women Priests?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's a controversial issue within the Catholic Church -- ordaining women as priests. In an informal news conference with reporters Tuesday, Pope Francis said the ban on female priests will stay.
"Saint Pope John Paul II had the last clear work on this and it stands," Pope Francis said. He was referring to a 1994 letter which said the "Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women."
So, why doesn't the Catholic Church allow female priests? Good Question.
"This is based in strong, deep tradition and theology," says Charles Reid, a professor of law at the University of St. Thomas. "It would take a tectonic cultural shift to see things change."
It's been the teaching of the Catholic Church that priests must look like Jesus Christ, says Reid. Jesus Christ was a man and priests must represent Jesus at the altar. The Church has also taught because Jesus chose only men as his apostles, women cannot be ordained as priests.
"Jesus didn't do it, so we don't do it," says Dr. Deborah Savage, a professor of theology at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity.
According to a 2015 Pew Research poll, 59 percent of U.S. Catholics think women should allowed to be priests. In August, Pope Francis set up a commission to study the role of female deacons in early Christianity. Right now, only men can be deacons in the Catholic church.
Savage says she doesn't believe the argument that Jesus only chose male apostles because he was influenced by cultural opinions about women at that time.
"Not only did he respect women, but they were his confidantes," she says. "If he was God, then he knew what he was doing and wouldn't be conditioned by historical context."
