Feminine responsibility for the faith cannot be taken over by a man if the covenantal truth about Christ and the Church is to be made real in the world. This is the truth spoken in the world and to the world in eucharistic worship. Only men can be priests if the truth about Christ's sacrificial headship is to be authentically spoken. However, in eucharistic worship it is the woman, as the center of everything good about creation, who provides the necessary sacramental response by which the one flesh unity of Christ and the Church is historically made present. If the symbols of human sexuality by which the Church worships are altered, the religion itself collapses because its covenantal truth is not effectively communicated.
Authority is about giving life and it is differentiated between men and women.
Posing the question this way is still to understand authority as the power to control, above and outside of a free covenantal order. The prime example of feminine authority is Mary, the Mother of God. Feminine authority also can be seen residing in one like St. Monica, who exercised authority in calling her son, St. Augustine, to truth and holiness. It is found in early Church martyrs like Ss. Perpetua and Agatha who are actually the protagonists in a contest of wills against their oppressors.