Will Pope Francis Ever Support Women Priests?

Cinna

There is a pretty strong sect of women priests here in the USA, who operate without authority from the Vatican. Do you think Pope Francis will ever welcome them to practice under Vatican blessing? He does seem to be very forward thinking as far as people's rights. Could he be the first Pope to reach out a hand to these women?

axiom_low

If he does decide to allow women priests it will shock many among the old guard of the Vatican. Certainly there is a lot of church dogma to fight through but I doubt The Pope would struggle to find a way to present it positively to the church. Not to mention the popular support it would get. The thing to remember is; if Pope Francis allows woman priests than 70-80 years from now people will think that it was backwards and absurd that there was ever a rule against it. 

Soliloquy

I remember reading somewhere that there actually used to be women priests, in the very early days of the church.  And that some cardinals or bishops behind the Iron Curtain had authorized a limited number of women priests, fearing the male priests might not survive Communism and the women would be above suspicion by the authorities.  Not sure I want to be quoted on either point as someone will probably show up shortly to tell me just how wrong I am :)

MrOblivious

I believe that Pope Francis is capable enough to allow female priests. However, I believe that once he achieves this, he will receive a lot of criticism for allowing something so unheard of. As time goes on, women are getting more and more rights in society. It won't be long until this change would come to religion, namely Christianity. For thousands of years, men have represented the authority in the Church. I won't be surprised if Pope Francis allows women to have some power in the Church. The way the pope is handling himself right now, it won't be surprising if he allows something that would defy the unnamed rules of the Church. 

evelin

Seeing how open-minded he is, I think that he actually considers doing that and fights his way through doing it. Though there's a lot of rules he must abide by and even though you guys might think he can absolutely do anything he wants in Vatican, that isn't exactly accurate. Vatican works just like any other state, it's not really absolutist. Though if he manages to do that, I think it'd be such a great think for the female population to hear it!

Soliloquy

In many parishes, women are already filling most of the roles priests used to fill.  Everything except the transubstantiation parts, basically.

(And transubstantiation is supposed to be this grand mystery anyway, how are we to know women can't participate in it?)

SisterM

I would not say this is something he would not do. However it would gain resistance with the old guard who would take a lot of convincing. This is the way to go however.

Slate

I think so. However, that would take a lot of support and may come with a generational shift in Church leadership. The Church certainly would only benefit from allowing women to become priests. But, it's a battle against tradition.

zurminister

He may do so but he will certainly attract many critics and those that are against doing so and this will cause countless debates and the news title in all news channels and papers that he has allowed to do so. The issue is sensitive because of this. Let us just wait and see in the coming days.

joshposh

Probably not.  I said it before and I said it again.  The bible was written by crude and primitive old men that hell bent on controlling the weak minded.  Those men believe that women are to be suppressed as much as possible.  The Vatican will never allow any Pope to do that.  

harpazo22

First of all, the catholic religion doesn't base their lives off of the bible. Second of all, the bible was written by saved men of God through the Holy Spirit. The bible is the literal word of God, God-breathed and God-inspired. The bible is scientifically and historically accurate and it's fulfilled over 300 prophecies, with more to come. The bible is true, and if you don't believe that then you're going to be in for a rude awakening really soon. Jesus died for your sins so you could be forgiven and reconciled to God because on your own, you're not a good person and you can't work your way to heaven or God. The bible doesn't condone suppressing women. Men and women are equal in value, but we have different roles to uphold. Women take care of things, men work and have the authority in the household. Only people who hate God and don't know him personally have a problem with male and female roles. You're not ready to submit your life to Christ so of course you hate the idea of a woman humbly submitting to her husband. It's a shame because the clock is ticking and if you aren't right with God you're going to fall for the great deception that's going to come during the time of Jacob's trouble. People need to wake up and get saved before it's too late.

Francis

He is supposed to protect the rules guiding the Catholic Church. He is not able to change such rules alone. What will remain of the Catholic Church if every Pope comes with his own rules? Women have responsibilities in the society as outlined by the bible and we can never change that.

lexinonomous

It would be really shocking to see him say yes to a woman being a priest. Personally, I don't see why it's such a huge deal. I completely understand where Joshposh is coming from. I was raised Catholic, but he really does have a point.

MichelleVL

It would be shocking and nothing short of amazing for Pope Francis to allow women priests in the Catholic Church. More and more women are occupying authoritative roles in our ever changing society. Even if Pope Francis did allow for it, the Catholic Church would not be the first religion to allow women as head of the Church. There are a lot of other religions out there right now that support and allow it. In my opinion if he doesn't allow it during his period as Pope it will not be for fear of criticism, as most of his decrees have been criticized ever since his term started. It would for other countless reasons.

paf_2

I think this is sort of a slippery slope for Pope Francis to get on.  He might want to start small if he really wanted to consider such a change.  For example if there isn't already female Deacons in the Catholic church allow this.  But we still don't actually know where he stands on this issue.  He seems to be an open minded Pope but than this is a subject that would really be changing the image of the church in general.

lexinonomous

He may want to consider starting small, but at the same time it may not be such a bad move to go for big changes. He is incredibly open minded and so easy to like. I trust to see him make the right changes.

Corzhens

I cannot speak for the Pope. But although Pope Francis is an amiable guy, I don't think he will break tradition in his tenure. I agree that times are a-changing especially with technology as the game changer. But that is not reason enough to support the idea of women priests because the Catholic religion is the richest when it comes to heritage and tradition. So let us maintain the tradition for now.

janemariesayed

This is debatable subject in my own mind which I still have not come to a decision on. Since the beginning of time even the ancient Egyptians, it was the men who were the priests. The women were priestesses but their role was to sing and play instruments at special Temple events. The wife of the Pharaoh was known as the 'Hand of the God' and she used to not just sing, but also used to dance in front of a statue of the God to excite he who the stature represented into giving the Pharoah a new son and heir.

 Men being the main source of religious teaching and ritual performance has gone on through many religious paths. The reason women were not allowed to have the same role as a man was because women have their monthly courses. In pagan times, (pagan as in pre-Christianity) it was believed that the blood of the menstrual cycle was as strong as iron when manipulating energy to bring about events good or bad.

 The main question should really be, should we change the words and rules of the Bible to suit modern society? If we change one thing, we can change it all and which is the right thing to do. Has God come down and given us a new book to follow with new rules?

Martha

I believe that women are equal to men, if stronger (can men survive pregnancy and labor?) but when it comes to priesthood, I'm really traditional. I'd like my priest to be male and celibate and one who has undergone all education and training required for the vocation. I don't think that Pope Francis will break that tradition. 

HappyFish

Actually, you are right, Slate!  There were indeed women priests.  Phoebe is considered to be one of them, as are many of the early female Christian saints.  A lot of that changed with Constantine and how he brought the Roman Empire into accepting Christianity.  In the old days of Rome, women were hardly considered people.  The idea of women in the priesthood, having the same power as men, was not acceptable, and this is one of the concessions they made to be accepted by the Romans.  (I learned this all in Catholic school, by the way.)  So it would be less of making a new tradition and more of going back to an older one.  It would be nice if women could be in the priesthood, but I don't see the Pope and the Church as being ready to take that step yet.