9. Points of Correction

An Argument Against Priestesses

1. While gender can be distinguished it can never be separated out as "incidental" to either our humanity or to Christ's.

2. The Church is restrained by the pattern of Christ and tradition in perpetuating the priesthood given to Christ's male apostles at the Last Supper (and not immediately to the 70 and never to women). Also, the role of Christ as the groom and the Church as his bride is realized in the Eucharist, impelling us to ordain men who can signify this reality.

3. The correlation of contraception and abortion to the Church's inability, not refusal, to ordain women is nonsense and non-topical. As for the sensus-fidelium, I would suspect that a world majority, not just North American, would argue against women priests. In any case, this has historically been the case, once true, always true, and such a sense must be validated by tradition and responsible religious practice.

4. The statement that a female priesthood is perfectly in line with apostolic tradition is a fallacy. Even most of the feminist theologians acknowledge this state of affairs. Mary Daly has gone so far as to adopt a form of goddess worship, contending that Christianity is unredeemably patriarchal. The early fathers (you should read them) either through implication or direct assertion are unanimous that only men can be priests. The ecumenical council of Nicea (another source of infallible teaching) directly stipulated that women could not be ordained. Your argumentation for this proposition is absent because it is non-existent. Let us not lie to ourselves.