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What's the highest rank a Catholic woman can attain?

ZooMom

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To my knowledge, a woman isn't allowed to be pope, nor can she be a bishop. However, if I'm wrong, please correct.

If what I say is true, what sacred texts (Biblical or not) are used to enforce this?



Women may not serve as priests. Christ chose men as His Apostles, and that is the model the Church follows. There are Scriptures that speak of a woman's role in church, but it's not that so much as Tradition that holds that only men are called to be priests. This doesn't mean that the Church views women as inferior.


Soemone just mentioned Father Corapi in another thread, so he is on my mind...and I remember something he said while teaching about the ordained priesthood and why women can't be priests. "Men can't be mothers...women can't be Fathers." :) I thought it was funny.


Peace be with you.

Sandy
 
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JeffreyLloyd

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To my knowledge, a woman isn't allowed to be pope, nor can she be a bishop. However, if I'm wrong, please correct.

If what I say is true, what sacred texts (Biblical or not) are used to enforce this?

Women can be educators like teachers or principals; serve on church councils and leadership roles; in most parishes, women run the church! At our church for example, if you want information on anything, you don't go to the pastor, you go to the church secretory.

And here is some scripture from John Salza at scripturecatholic.com

Gen. 3:15; Luke 1:26-55; John 19:26; Rev. 12:1- Mary is God's greatest creation, was the closest person to Jesus, and yet Jesus did not choose her to become a priest. God chose only men to be priests to reflect the complementarity of the sexes. Just as the man (the royal priest) gives natural life to the woman in the marital covenant, the ministerial priest gives supernatural life in the New Covenant sacraments.

Judges 17:10; 18:19 – fatherhood and priesthood are synonymous terms. Micah says, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest.” Fathers/priests give life, and mothers receive and nurture life. This reflects God our Father who gives the life of grace through the Priesthood of His Divine Son, and Mother Church who receives the life of grace and nourishes her children. In summary, women cannot be priests because women cannot be fathers.

Mark 16:9; Luke 7: 37-50; John 8:3-11 - Jesus allowed women to uniquely join in His mission, exalting them above cultural norms. His decision not to ordain women had nothing to do with culture. The Gospel writers are also clear that women participated in Jesus' ministry and, unlike men, never betrayed Jesus. Women have always been held with the highest regard in the Church (e.g., the Church's greatest saint and model of faith is a woman; the Church's constant teaching on the dignity of motherhood; the Church's understanding of humanity as being the Bride united to Christ, etc.).

Mark 14:17,20; Luke 22:14 - the language "the twelve" and "apostles" shows Jesus commissioned the Eucharistic priesthood by giving holy orders only to men.

Gen. 14:10; Heb. 5:6,10; 6:20; 7:15,17 - Jesus, the Son of God, is both priest and King after the priest-king Melchizedek. Jesus' priesthood embodies both Kingship and Sonship.

Gen. 22:9-13 - as foreshadowed, God chose our redemption to be secured by the sacrificial love that the Son gives to the Father.

Matt. 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19 - because the priest acts in persona Christi in the offering to the Father, the priest cannot be a woman.

Mark 3:13 - Jesus selected the apostles "as He desired," according to His will, and not according to the demands of His culture. Because Jesus acted according to His will which was perfectly united to that of the Father, one cannot criticize Jesus' selection of men to be His priests without criticizing God.

John 20:22 - Jesus only breathed on the male apostles, the first bishops, giving them the authority to forgive and retain sins. In fact, the male priesthood of Christianity was a distinction from the priestesses of paganism that existed during these times. A female priesthood would be a reversion to non-Christian practices. The sacred tradition of a male priesthood has existed uncompromised in the Church for 2,000 years.

1 Cor. 14:34-35
- Paul says a woman is not permitted to preach the word of God in the Church. It has always been the tradition of the Church for the priest or deacon alone (an ordained male) to read and preach the Gospel.

1 Tim. 2:12 - Paul also says that a woman is not permitted to hold teaching authority in the Church. Can you imagine how much Mary, the Mother of God, would have been able to teach Christians about Jesus her Son in the Church? Yet, she was not permitted to hold such teaching authority in the Church.

Rom. 16:1-2 - while many Protestants point to this verse denounce the Church's tradition of a male priesthood, deaconesses, like Phoebe, were helpers to the priests (for example, preparing women for naked baptism so as to prevent scandal). But these helpers were never ordained.

Luke 2:36-37 - prophetesses, like Anna, were women who consecrated themselves to religious life, but were not ordained.

Isaiah 3:12 – Isaiah complains that the priests of ancient Israel were having their authority usurped by women, and this was at the height of Israel’s covenant apostasy.
 
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ZooMom

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Would that be the highest ranking nun?



Probably. The Mother Superior would be the administrator of the convent...sometimes even it's founder, as Blessed Theresa of Calcutta was for the Missionaries of Charity.
 
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Fantine

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St. Hilda was an abbess of both a men's and a women's monastery. Who would have thought that 8th century England would be more enlightened than 21st century Rome?

I have known sisters who have been CEO's of large hospitals employing hundreds of doctors, nurses, and staff. Their administrative ability and fundraising savvy could rival Bill Gates.

They have founded orders, and obviously Mother Angelica built a huge media empire.

And no, currently at least, they can't be priests or bishops...but thank goodness the glass ceiling isn't set as low in the business world and academia, and they can serve the Church to the best of their considerable abilities.
 
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Anygma

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Highest rank? Mom....worked OK for Mary.
:thumbsup: it is my belief too that it is the highest place for a woman to be in the church... at the front line of young souls education :)
I don't know. Maybe Mother Superior of a convent? :confused:

i also thought about that one on the aspect of consecrated religious life.
doctor of the church also come to mind
and sainthood :)
but does it really matter what rank one obtain more then what is God's will for us? God love the humble and little ones.
We must decrease—that Christ may increase
 
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ZooMom

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:thumbsup: it is my belief too that it is the highest place for a woman to be in the church... at the front line of young souls education :)


i also thought about that one on the aspect of consecrated religious life.
doctor of the church also come to mind
and sainthood :)
but does it really matter what rank one obtain more then what is God's will for us? God love the humble and little ones.
We must decrease—that Christ may increase


Excellent post. :) :thumbsup:
 
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Eucharisted

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To my knowledge, a woman isn't allowed to be pope, nor can she be a bishop. However, if I'm wrong, please correct.

If what I say is true, what sacred texts (Biblical or not) are used to enforce this?

Women cannot be ordained.

John 20:22
1 Tim. 2:12
1 Cor. 14:34-35

Study the rabbinic writings and Old Testament verses on the Messiah and you'll understand why women cannot be ordained.
 
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Sphinx777

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Would it be possible for a woman to be created a cardinal in the Catholic Church, without first having to be ordained as a member of the clergy?


FT-Caterina2001.jpg


Head of Ministry of Holy Affairs, Duchess of Milan, Cardinal Caterina Sforza

:angel: :angel: :angel: :angel: :angel: :angel: :angel: :angel: :angel: :angel: :angel: :angel: :angel: :angel: :angel: :angel: :angel: :angel:

 
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IgnatiusOfAntioch

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To my knowledge, a woman isn't allowed to be pope, nor can she be a bishop.

It is A woman who is the highest of all created beings. It is A woman can have the singular honour and mystery of giving birth to her own creator. A woman is the queen of heaven. It was a woman who was given the privilege of being the first to see the Saviour Risin from the dead. It was a woman who saved the chosen people from annialtion during the Babylonian captivity. No man has anything close to these singular honours.
 
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Rhamiel

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the Catholic Church has recognized women as Monarchs of nations, many good Catholic Queens in the History of Europe, Catholic women have been elected as leaders in parlements and other democratic positions
Some women have been given the title of "Doctor of the Church" only very very few men or women have such a title, this means that their teachings on theology have made a major differance in the history of the Catholic Church
St. Teresa of Avila, St.Catherine of Siena and St. Therese de Lisieux are all named Doctors of the Church
I believe that only 33 people have ever been named Doctors of the Church, so 1/11 of the Doctors of the Church being women is not bad at all
 
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