REDO: Roman Catholic women should be allowed to become priests

Thanks once again for allowing me to debate this. I will defend the Churches teaching that only men can validly receive Holy Orders. Round 2 will be for rebuttals so for this round I will explain why the Church teaches what it does. Difference between men and women? Before we go into why the Church only allows men to be priests we must first address a modern heresy of the sexual revolution. It has become very common in today’s culture to say that there is no real difference between men and women, that the ideas of defences in the two are social constructs and not objective. The Catholic Church teaches this is not true, that each although equal in dignity display the image of God in different ways [1]. The Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses this in paragraph 2335. "Each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a different way." (CCC 2335) This is a fundamental distinction we must make when a dressing this question. If men and women really are different in their ontology then what flows from their being will also be different. This is not a question of sexism but rather of acting according to ones nature as infused by God. A good way of seeing the difference in Men and Women is also seeing the differences in the persons of the Trinity. This illustration is used to signify how each person of the Trinity is different from the other. God Father - Lover Son - Beloved Spirit - Love Human Man - Lover Women - Beloved We can see this distinction in ontology by looking at the marital act. Man goes out from himself and loves his beloved. The woman receives the love of the lover and what results is the image of the Trinity. If we can make this distinction that there are indeed differences in Men and Women then we are one step closer to understanding why women cannot be priests. A Priest in the Order of Malchizedek In the book of Genesis we see what is referred to as biblical typology, Abraham meets the high priest Malchizedek king of Salem who brought out bread and wine. This is a symbol of Jesus who was to come. “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High." (Gen 14:19) As Catholics we believe there is really only one priest, which is the high priest Jesus Christ who was prefigured by the character of Malchizedek [2]. Christ abolished the Levitical priesthood and established himself as one high priest who accomplishes what the Levitical priests could not (Hebrews 7:11). We also believe every one of the baptised exercises this priesthood through their vocation in Christ’s mission as priest, prophet, and king. This is endowed to every believer at baptism. Along with the common priesthood of the faithful is the ministerial priesthood that Christ gave to the apostles to serve the Church. "22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (John 20:22-23) We know only God has the power to forgive sins, this shows Jesus is endowing these certain men with His authority and making them human agents of the one high priest. This is what we call the ministerial priesthood and it continues today through the laying on of hands from the bishop [3]. How Christ Relates to His Church Now we come to the important part of understanding why men are exclusively called to the ministerial priesthood. It has to do with how Christ relates to His Church. There are doctrinal reasons for this teaching that are highly misunderstood. The first worth examining is the nature of the sacrament. A sacrament is defined as: A visible sign of an invisible grace. This means there are two main parts to a sacrament. 1. Something visible, tangible, sensible and 2. Something invisible. The sacrament of baptism uses water which is a part of the visible sign discovered in this sacrament. Water is used to represent the life and death of Christ. Water was used in the Exodus of the Israelites to kill the Egyptians. Furthermore, water is also a sign of washing away our sins, and finally water is a sign of new-birth. It would not be appropriate to pour wine over a baby or an adults head, as that is the incorrect sign. In as much as there is no inequality between wine and water, there is no inequality in man being used to signify liturgically the male-reality of Christ's priesthood. Furthermore the priesthood, adds a permanent character at the level of being which cannot be undone after the ordination (similar to baptism and confirmation). This unrepeatable sacrament is most prominently a matter of identity and not function. That is to say the priesthood has to do with one's own nature rather than primarily his activity. A woman can speak the words of consecration, can offer reflections on the word of God, and can be great councillors. But the priesthood is not primarily about what one can "do" as much as it is about whom one is, and his relationship with God and the Church. The nature of Christ as revealed in scripture is to be the Churches’ Bridegroom[4]. Therefore a woman cannot fulfill a sign of Groom in as much as man cannot fulfill the role as Bride. This takes us back to the distinctions made in males and females. Church has no authority to ordain women I will conclude my argument with this statement by St. John Paul II in his apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. "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 (cf. Lk 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." (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, 4) For those unfamiliar with papal language, when the pope says something is to be definitively held by all the faithful he is making an infallible statement. If we question one infallible statement, then all infallible declarations can be questions. This is not the opinion of the Church it is from the very mind of Christ. In the next round I will respond to your objections. Sources: 1.http://www.vatican.va... 2.http://www.vatican.va... 3. http://www.vatican.va... 1575 4.https://www.biblegateway.com...