There is a lot of evidence in the Bible’s New Testament that Jesus Christ – the Son of God, wanted an all-male clergy. He was male (sent by God, the Father Almighty, first person of the blessed Trinity) as was all the apostles he chose (Many of the traditional arguments can be found at this URL https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/life/faith/2017/08/31/confusion-and-reality-male-priesthood/620469001/). If He had desired both males and females to be priests, he could easily have selected some apostles to be female, but he did not. You might say so what? The support for this needs a little philosophy as to the nature of God. God is all-knowing. Amoebas reproduce asexually so an all-powerful perfect God could have made us with one sex, but he didn’t so there must be a reason “God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.” as described in Genesis 1: 27-28.
It says He created them in his own image, but what does that mean? Was it a foreshadowing that Christ would be born? Partially, yes, but the things which God has which no animal or plant has is the ability to reason, the ability of intelligence, the ability to compose/build (analogous to God’s power to create), the ability of will power and the ability to bring into the world new beings like themselves. But the world, in the beginning, without original sin, was paradise, functionally heaven, with life unending (Genesis 2:17). This was God’s plan for us. But our first parent’s pride allowed the devil to tempt them to try to become even more like God by knowing not only the supreme good in which they lived but also evil, the knowledge of which gave them absolute free will, for without knowledge of evil, even though you are free to choose one way or another, you cannot make a reasoned choice. The choice was originally to choose to unconditionally love God by obeying his one law; or to know evil, and have the choice to unconditionally love God by following all his laws, necessitated by the knowledge of evil and the wound to man’s soul due to original sin – concupiscence, or for man to love himself above God, and really, above all others. See to love God is to follow all his laws to not only love him but to love your neighbor as yourself.
So, one might ask what does this have to do with anything? And the answer is, of course, everything. The all-good God created us to live forever in eternal happiness. Because of man’s offense to God man lost his inheritance. But Christ came to restore man’s inheritance. God built paradise for man. Both a man and a woman are needed to help produce a child. The woman is the most important for bringing life into the world in that she must grow a baby inside of her own body for 9 months before it is able to live on its own. So, while natural law (which was built into the universe when God created it. See Genesis 3:16 for women and Genesis 3:17-19) makes women essential to bringing new life into existence and subject to her husband as the leader of the family (which I am stating now, was only meant to extend inside the family and does not apply to leadership in the secular world where it is perfectly acceptable for women to be leaders. See Galatians 3:27-28), men’s responsibility is to keep that new life alive through feeding (farming, working at a factory job, hunting etc.) and maintaining (as a doctor, lawyer, warrior, leaders and similar jobs) the life of the woman and the new life of the child until that child is old enough.
This is not to say God’s plan was built to restrict women from becoming secular doctors, lawyers, warriors. leaders etc., it means in the spiritual world God has reserved these things for men. But why? First off, the simple answer, in my humble opinion, is, though women can do these things, they are specially designed by God through temperament and usually charism to be naturally better nurtures (mothers), secular teachers, and spiritual advocates for the people of God (nuns, sisters and most especially the Blessed Virgin Mary whom the sisters and nuns model their lives after as well as mothers and women in general). Men on the other hand are designed by God, again, by temperament and usually charism to be naturally better, doctors, lawyers, warriors, leaders. As women draw their example from the virgin Mary Christ mother, so also do men draw their example from Christ. In the home, as mentioned earlier, the husband/father is the leader, but in our heavenly home God, in the person of Jesus Christ is the leader.
As He is a man, the humans He chooses to represent him are also men who are more apt to have the charisms and the best ability to use them and “resonate” with Christ as another man. As women bring humans in to this world and are their first teachers and nurturers, Priests and clergy in general usually bring children into the spiritual world through baptism though any baptized catholic can pour water over an unbaptized child and baptize him or her saying “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” The best reason for an all-male clergy is given above, but another logical reason, hinted to above, is that if men have no special purpose why not just have one sex (remember male and female he made them)? God is perfect and therefore makes no mistakes and being perfect is also all-efficient. So as makes logical sense, God made females essential for bringing humans into this world and nurturing young human children to be possible citizens of heaven if they choose to love God and their neighbor over loving themselves (in selfishness). By the same token God made males (in the clergy) essential in learning about God and our neighbor and maintaining our eternal life, should we lose it through mortal sin, by being judged in the confessional as to our penance for our sin (crime against God) and to offer advice on how to avoid it (as a counselor), and to heal us (as a physician) in the case of venial sin, so we can obtain everlasting life. In addition, the deacon, priest or bishop is our leader against the fight against the devil (warrior, leader) through the Epistles, Gospels and homilies he preaches
The saving power of Christ on the cross is re-presented at each and every mass and every mass is one in the same sacrifice offered on Calvary and is the event that gives power to the sacrament of baptism and to the priest in the sacraments of confession and the Holy Eucharist. Jesus is able to preform this miracle everyday in the sacrifice of the mass because He is God.
In Bishop Fulton J. Sheen’s book “Three to Get Married,” as well as in other Catholic literature, they often speak of Christ’s dying on the cross as analogous to the consummation of marriage in the marriage act. But how is this so in that in a sacramental marriage the marital act is repeated many times throughout the couple’s life and instead of pleasure being the result, Christ’s passion on the cross results in one of the most painful ways to die. But mass happens every day at almost every hour somewhere on earth just the marital act probably does. It is the unbloodied re-presenting of Christs death on the cross. His death on the cross is analogous to the marital act in that it brings “new life” into the kingdom of heaven with each person that dies with sanctifying grace in his soul – has at most an unforgiven venial sin and no unforgiven mortal sins. But just as the marital act is not always successful in producing an new life, though Christ died to give everyone the possibility to be saved, not everybody takes advantage of that fact. That is the equivalent of a particular marriage act not producing children. One of the more extensive references to Christ’s relationship to the church as a bridegroom to a bride is found in Ephesians 5:20-33. The priest/bishop as an “alter Christus” (another Christ) should be celibate because as in a Christian marriage the priest representing Christ in the relationship of Christ to his church, cannot have another “wife” besides the Church without being “adulterous.” This is why a priest should remain celibate, because he, as a with a human wife’s husband, must remain true to his “spouse” in his role as an “alter Christus” to his Church. He must take care of all his parishioners (or members of his diocese if he is a bishop) equally. Having a wife would necessitate special treatment to her and their children if they had any, and just that much less to the rest of the parish or diocese, were he a bishop.
Traditional Thomistic Catholic 