Essay on The Debate Over Women in the Catholic Church

The Debate Over Women in the Catholic Church The question of the ordination of women to the priesthood has moved to the forefront of theological controversy in recent years, prompting a swamping of books, and religious opinions. This controversial issue stems not only from the renewed interest of the Catholic Church in the nature of its priesthood, but also, and perhaps predominantly, from the efforts of women to achieve a new and deeper understanding of their religion. The question, should women be ordained as ministers in the church immediately implies many questions. What difference could female priests make to the church? Did Jesus allow for women to be priests? What has been the result of many centuries of male priesthood?†¦show more content†¦There is ample evidence in Scripture for womens leadership in the early church. Such leadership became increasingly prohibited as the church became a public institution, as it was not considered proper for women to hold leadership positions in public places. As the world has come to see the equality of women holding leadership positions in the civil public world; so it would be right for them to be church leaders today. This would signal the churchs real belief in the equality of women and men. The Old Testament states on many occasions that women are not allowed to be priests. These statements are based on the fact that men were born first therefore they are automatically capable of doing a better job. The Old Testament tends to hold a very biased opinion in that they did not even state that women participated in church life. The New Testament does, however, give a precedent for the ordination of deaconesses (I Tim. 3:8-11, Rom. 16:1). The Bible states that Aquila and Priscilla, who served under Pauls administration, were deacon and deaconess. It also goes on to explain the importance of the role of women in the church and the fact that they were major contributors to the church community and in the way that the church was run. Why then, in certain parts of the Bible, does it state that women held no importance in the church when obviously they were contributors.Show MoreRelatedPope Paul Vi And John Paul II1095 Words   |  5 PagesThe third and longest chapter of the book dealt with how the documents have been received and implemented in the church over the last forty years. What appears to be evident is there was a lot of confusion in how and what needed to be done to implement the teachings of Vatican II. 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