Why should women be Catholic priests?

Answer 1

Some people would say why not.

The arguments against are divided into two sections.

The first is that Jesus didn't choose any women to be his apostles and so, by example we should have men as priests.

Another is that it is tradition - we have never had women priests so why start now?

As the question is about Catholic priests (not other Christian traditions) it might be useful to see whether the church is consistent with its handling of other situations - married priests for example.

Several of the men Jesus chose to follow him were married.

Currently the church will accept married men who, as priests, convert from another church and allow them to continue as priests.

The church will not allow an unmarried priest to marry.

The basic question here is would God call a woman to be a priest? If it is God's will then how can the church deny it? The difficulty here is who decides whether it is God's will or not and what would be the outcome if things changed?

As only men can be priests and the hierarchy of the church is made up of priests the leadership is, by definition, men. So, the decision about who should be priests is made by men. There is always a fear that changes in the church would cause division and weaken the position of the church - however with some countries having a very low Catholic church attending population the power of the church has already been significantly eroded.

Some would say that having women priests could even strengthen the church.