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Didn't anybody read the Pope's explanation for not ordaining women? Quite explicitly he said, "I don't have the authority."

This is not an assertion of papal power. It's an assertion of papal subordination to Christ.

And it has nothing to do with any supposed "inferiority" of women. Think: if the Blessed Virgin mary had appeared to John Paul II, which of them would have fallen on their knees?

Sacraments are "outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace." Thus the outward signs, being instituted by Christ, can't be changed.

Here's the really interesting part: in two of the sacraments --- Matrimony and Holy Orders ---- the human body itself is the outward sign. That is, in Matrimony, the female body and the male body have sacramental significance.

In Holy Orders (priesthood) the male body is itself a sign. A sign of what? Modern ears are almost tone-deaf to the natural significance of gender, but here we go: maleness means PROTECTION, PROVISION, and SELF-SACRIFICE: being there to lay down your life for your flock, your people, your family.

It is an enduring sign-post in a de-sexed and de-sacramentalized world for what the male role is ~supposed~ to be.

I thank God for a Church that acts as if that bodily sex is significant and holy; that insists that masculinity and femininity mean something ("male and female he created them") and that matter matters.

Think: if the Blessed Virgin mary had appeared to John Paul II, which of them would have fallen on their knees?

Here's what I don't get. Catholics have really, really special example of holiness and spiritual importance held up for us in the Blessed Virgin. She never held elective office, wasn't a priest or deacon, didn't run a company, as far as we know couldn't read or write. But I and all other orthodox Catholics believe she was the holiest purely human being every created, Queen of the Angeles and the Saints, and, of course, the Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because of one thing and one thing only: she did what God asked her to do. And God glorified her for her obedience. What God wants may not be what we want, it may be some task the world despises or thinks of as unworthy. These gals want to be priests out of vanity, clearly if GOD wanted them to be priests he would have (and could have) made them men! But obedience and humility, while they may not get you on the cover of "People" are the hallmarks of the Christian walk. Think about all the fabulous, funny, heroic, delightful woman saints there have been, think about the convents and homes and schools and parishes crying out for women to help them in their work. How can these chickees possibly think the Church is anti-woman? Of all the religions on the planet I truly think the Roman Catholic church is the most pro-woman that there is.