An individual’s interpretation of the Bible may be that it was women’s fault that sin was brought in to the world due to the fact of Eve eating from the tree of knowledge. Therefore, women are considered to be in a state of punishment for sin. Women are held responsible for bringing original sin into the world, and being a continuing source of seduction. The biblical creation stories are interpreted as having put women in a permanent state of submission to men, by way of punishment. So obviously it would be wholly inappropriate for such “sinful creatures” to be chosen as channels of God’s grace i.e. to be teaching the scripture.

Priests are viewed as a symbol of Christ who re-enact the sacrifice. As god chose to reveal himself in male form the symbol of him should be male. It could be argued that in having a strictly male priesthood the church is merely mirroring the actions that god took by using a male to communicate spiritual gifts. Cardinal Carter, former Archbishop of Toronto stated, “During mass, the priest acts in the person of Jesus. Since Jesus was male, a priest of matching gender more directly affects the fact that it is Christ who is present.” It could be said that placing such emphasis on gender is giving the impression that Christianity was never intended to include women; therefore stating it is justifiable to deny female ordination.

In 1994, Pope John Paul II stated “priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone…the church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women” this is the leader of the Roman Catholic Church stating that women are to have a minimal role within the Catholic church and that under no circumstances should a women be allowed to be ordained. However, rather contradictory the Roman Catholic Church recognizes that the traditional role of women is no longer acceptable and has been promoting the role of women as being equal to men. But as long as the Roman Catholic Church refuses to ordain women it has no right to preach about equal opportunities, as it is guilty of treating half the population in an unjust way.

In terms of ordination the bible has no specific teaching. The debate of ordination is down to interpretation. It must be kept in mind that Jesus ordained no one. Jesus had no problems with acquainting with both males and females he had both male and female disciples, Pope John Paul II stated recently “Jesus went out of his way to include men and women disciples”. The first apostle of all was the apostle to the Samaritans, the women at the well. The first apostles of the resurrection were Mary Magdalene and her friends. There were also many other apostles, women, appointed by the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 15:6). Mary Magdalene and Martha were close friends of Jesus and Jesus would have confided in them greatly. If Jesus can have such respect for women why can’t t

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