KS3 / GCSE Religious Studies: Should women be priests?

There are some Christians who believe women are not made to be priests and, yet, in the early days of Christianity, it appears they played vital roles. There has long been an underlying assumption that to be a true representative of the Christian god, you really need to be a man. In the Church of England and across the world, the issue of whether women should be bishops has caused turmoil, and most Catholics believe that women shouldn't even be priests. Amongst them is Catholic writer and broadcaster Joanna Bogle.

Joanna:
God became incarnate as a man. That’s not an accident. Christ was and grew up in a world where every religion had priestesses. He knew what he was doing. He’s Almighty God. This was the plan from the beginning - that men would be priests. Priests are there to serve the Church, but it’s not a question of allowing women to be priests. It’s the nature of women that she has another task to do.
Bettany:
So God loves you, He just doesn’t want you to give the sacred Eucharist?
Joanna:
I could if I needed to distribute Holy Communion, but no. A priest in the person of Christ, who was male, will preside saying, “This is my body.” And I think that’s very profound.
Bettany:
So you think for the future of the Church it’s entirely appropriate that there are no female priests, there are no female bishops?
Joanna:
It’s not that we may not, it’s that we cannot have them. That’s a bit like saying, “What a pity men can’t give birth.” There are not going to be, they’re cannot be women priests. It’s not in the nature of womanhood. That’s the deal. That’s the deal.

Bettany:
I have to admit that I find Joanna’s position hard to accept. But she reflects the views of no lesser an authority than the Pope himself.

In 2010, the Vatican declared that to ordain a woman was a serious crime. Now, that seems to me to be very shocking, but, also as a historian, it's just rather odd, because if you investigate the foundations of Christianity, they tell a very different story.

Father Scott Brodeur is a Catholic priest and respected theologian at the prestigious Gregorian University in Rome. He prepares men for the priesthood. He believes that key evidence about the role women should play in the Church can be found in the Bible itself in a letter St Paul wrote to the citizens of Rome. And what he has to say may come as a surprise to some.

Father Scott Brodeur:
St Paul in… May I read this verse? …In the Letter To The Romans, Chapter 16, Verse 1, St Paul is writing and he says, "I commend to you our sister Phebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchrea." And Paul, by sending her to Rome, is saying, "Look at this extraordinary woman and I'm sending you one of our best. And because I trust her, she's going to interpret this letter for you. So if you have any questions, ask Phebe."

Bettany:
It is significant that, because that's pretty much the most important job that you can give someone, to ask Phebe to take the teachings of Christ, the message of Jesus, to Rome, to the centre of the Roman world.

Scott:
Absolutely. Paul is so aware of the importance of this letter. So she has a crucial role.

Bettany:
So do you think he's consciously making a point by choosing a woman?

Scott:
Absolutely. The entire Letter to the Romans is about, that there is now this common equality among us, that we all share the same value and worth.

Bettany:
It's interesting though, isn't it, because it's not the commonly held opinion? When you talk to people, they say, "Oh, you know, Christianity just caused terrible problems for women."

Scott:
Precisely. Or that St Paul was very much anti-women or so forth, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Bettany:
You've spent your life studying the teachings of Jesus. Do you think he would have wanted to have seen a Church develop where women played a key role?

Scott:
The early disciples of Jesus were both men and women. There was a very special, important group of women who closely followed him all through his public ministry in an important role of service to him. And I do think that's important for the Church in every age, including ours. Women were essential in the early Church.

Bettany:
Hidden beneath the streets of Rome lies an intricate labyrinth of tunnels, known as the Catacombs of St Priscillia. They date to between the 2nd and 4th Centuries AD, when to be a Christian in Rome was to be a criminal. Down here lies a neglected piece of early Christian history.

This is where Christians were brought to be buried and where they came when they were being persecuted. The catacombs were carved out of the bare rock. You can still see all the pickaxe marks on the ceilings and the walls.

It’s almost as if you’re being transported back to the very moment of Christianity’s inception.

This was only discovered a few years ago and it dates from the 2nd Century AD, which makes it the oldest surviving image anywhere in the world of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. And that’s what’s so fantastic about coming down here, because you’re absolutely up, face to face, with the very earliest days of Christianity.

But what I find especially fascinating about these tunnels is what they tell us about the role of women. In one corner, we find an image detailing what appears to be women presiding over a religious ritual, what today we might recognise as the Eucharist or Holy Communion. In another alcove is an image which some people would consider incendiary.

There are two things that strike you about this particular painting. The obvious one is that this scene is dominated by a figure of a woman. But then just have a look at this little group of three in the corner here and there’s a bishop and he’s got his hand on the shoulder of a woman. Now, she’s wearing a piece of white cloth called an alb and that was a vestment that could only be worn by ordained priests.

All over this subterranean world there are images of not just men leading worship but women. Being here it appears to me that the early Christians had an inclusive, egalitarian take on who should lead their faith – a view at odds with that of many Christians today.