This paper is an examination of the issues and controversies surrounding the ordination of women in the Catholic Church. An increasing number of theologians, scholars, feminists, and others, including both men and women, has begun pressing the Church to reevaluate its ban on ordaining women and allowing them to play an active role in the ministry of the Church's works. The Vatican counters that history, scripture, and tradition dictate that only men can serve as priests. However, as the debate continues, the issue raises fundamental questions about the patriarchal view toward more than half its members to which the Church continues to cling. Critics insist that the ban must eventually be lifted for the Catholic Church to continue to survive, in part because fewer men are joining the priesthood and in part because the sexist perspective that the ban represents is no longer tenable in the modern world.
Jackson W. Carroll and his colleagues call the possibility of the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church "a distant hope" (42), though some writers are more optimistic. Mary E. Hunt predicts that women will be ordained in the Catholic church well before the end of the 21st century (26). Currently, however, the Vatican continues its ban on female ordination, though it allows the debate to go on.
The ban is based in a number of historical arguments. First, theologians state, Jesus was male. They suggest that this represents a significant, conscious choice to advocate the continuation of the patriarchal system of the society in which he appeared. Simone M. St. Pierre outlines this part of the argument: "Since Jesus was a man, the role of the priest is reserved exclusively for a male hierarchy" (19). Emily C. Hewitt quotes a priest in New York who contends, "[Jesus] could not have been a woman without having been a different sort of personality altogether" (42).
The second principal argument against ordaining ...