Can women be priests?

There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus, reads Galatians 3:28. Among the most vocal controversies in some sections of the Church in the late 20th century and early 21st century has been the question of the ordination of women. As more Protestant denominations – including the Church of England – have begun ordaining women, the Catholic Church’s teaching on the all-male priesthood has come under attack, with some claiming that the ordination of women is simply a matter of justice, and the lack of such ordination is proof that the Catholic Church does not value women. The Church’s teaching on this matter, however, cannot change. Why can’t women be priests? A number of Christians say that this stand has no place in modern society where women are breaking the glass ceilings in other fields such as politics and economy. “Why shouldn’t the same happen in religion?” asks Jonathan Kabetsi of Kicukiro Evangelical Church. Kabetsi says that those opposed to ordination of women to higher hierarchy in the Church are just furthering patriarchal systems of obsolete societies that have no place in modern times. “The Bible says that men and women are equal. For the Church to preach otherwise is quite ironical and hypocritical. Women should be allowed into any position without gender discrimination depending on their abilities to spread the word of God,” she avers. Rachel Maleche, who describes herself as a strong Christian, agrees that its high time the Church stopped gender discrimination. “There are a number of evangelical churches today that are led by women. People don’t have problems attending such houses of God. I have read the Bible extensively but I haven’t come across any passage in it that bars women from rising to the highest positions in the Church.” But Father Michael Oketch, a visiting catholic priest from Kenya, defends his Church position thus: “Only a baptised man validly receives sacred ordination. The Lord Jesus chose men to form the college of the 12 apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry. The college of bishops, with whom the priests are united in the priesthood, makes the college of the 12 an ever-present and ever-active reality until Christ’s return. The Church recognises herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible.” The Father says that this was a tradition that was established by Christ himself. “Yet even if we disregard the differences between the sexes, as many advocates of women’s ordination do, we have to face the fact that the ordination of men is an unbroken tradition that goes back not only to the Apostles but to Christ Himself.” He says that Christ, of course, was a man. But there is a school of thought that says sex is irrelevant in religion. “There are many women that played their part in Jesus’s ministry. When you read about Mary the Magdalene and Martha, you realise that they were very crucial in Christ’s ministry and they could as well been disciples,” says Rachel Maleche. Maleche says that she would really be joyous one day when the Pope announces that women can get any position in the Church, including the papal seat itself.