>>>>But these “rules” were not “written by men”
They were written by God>>>
No. They were written by men...interpreting for God...and therefore reflect the customs of the the day...1500 years ago. Only a few men could read or write...no women ...only men led everything...no women. No man 1500 years ago would have dreamed that women would be college educated equals in the year 2008!
So! We’re lucky! Now both sexes can give spiritual guidence and mentoring in a society that desperataly needs it!
Wow...so you get to decide to arbitrarily ignore pieces of scripture that you don’t agree with, huh? You might want to look up the name “Marcion”...
You keep repeating 1500 years ago like it is relevant to something.
Well, we "seething with condescension" lay Dominicans think that women have been doing that for a mighty long time, and we hold in especial esteem Catherine of Siena who gave right much mentoring and spiritual guidance to the Pope, among others. She died in 1380, I think.
>>>>But these “rules” were not “written by men”
They were written by God>>>
No. They were written by men...interpreting for God...
Then you and I disagree.
Actually there were numerous wwomen priestesses in various pagan religions. These included the Greek Oracles, the Vestal Virgins or Rome, and priestesses of other religions who were temple prostitutes. One of the differences about Christianity is that there were no women priests, making it fairly unique among non-militaristic religions (such as Mithraism.
Always could. Here's a list of about 750 canonized women saints, and many a mentor among them.
Besides, what gives you the idea that men needed to be literate to be spiritual leaders? There's no evidence that St. Peter could read or write. Yes, there are the Epistles of Peter, but they were almost without a doubt dictated to Mark, who wrote them down, serving as Peter's scribe.
The interesting and important people in Catholicism are not the priests and the popes. The REALY interesting and important people are the saints.