Ireland’s Papal Nuncio insists there will never be women priests in the Catholic Church

Thanks, Gearoid4, for that flash from the past. It's been 30 years or thereabouts since I've heard anyone offer the "precious differences" argument as a reason to refuse equal treatment to women. As Americans, we've known since 1954 that "different" and "separate" even when it's claimed to be "complementary" or "equal," is never in practice equal. And of course there are validly ordained, in the line of apostolic succession, women priests. Despite canon law ignoring their existence and RC refusing them employment, they are priests "forever" with the same ministerial capacities as any male priest (except that no woman priest has been accused of predatory sexual abuse of children).

I see the usual pack of fundamentalist bigots and Know Nothings are out in force on this topic--posters portia, murph etc. The Irish Church has survived "dungeon, fire and sword", torture, dispossesions, exile, hangings and half-hangings, pitch caps and castrations. I'd put my money on it surviving a few ignorant bigots and Protestant Bible Bums. The greatest enemies of the Church are not the bigoted clowns who post here, but rather a cowardly hierarchy and useless leadership. But we'll survive.

glengesh: "I will not be crossing the door of any Catholic Church". Is that a promise?

pilib04: What part of Disney World are you posting from? There are NO "ordained Roman Catholic Women Priests". You're living in some kind of sick fantasy.

As a faithful Irish Catholic supporter of the Pope, you have to be naive not to see the implications of what is going on in the United States. Cardinal Dolan is living in a dream world isolated at the top by the liberals working with the Catholic radical women in the Obama Administration. It is going to happen whether given the okay by Benedict or by the devil at 1600.

If this young priest believes (and I stress "young" because that alone pretty much signals that it's not just about what "old white guys" think) that there should never be female priests in the Catholic Church, then, if Catholic women had enough chutzpah, they would get up and leave the church altogether until these guys re-think their stand. Period. That ought to get the male priests' attention.

I believe the insecure hierarchy of the Roman catholic Church are afraid of women. Their only sense of power comes when they rape little boys. The sooner the Catholic parishioners break away from Rome the better. It is time for a Catholic reformation to modernize the church. Marriage, women priests, and increased power of the nuns should be a priority. The sooner women are in positions of power in the church, the sooner the pedophile priests will be exposed, prosecuted and re moved from the church. It is the parishioners who must make this happen. NOW IS THE TIME !!!

I was raised a Catholic and I still consider myself Catholic, but over time I found that we are being told more lies than truths, and being told not question our "faith" and to simply "obey". Well, if your religion doesn't stand up to questioning and scrutiny, then it is useless, and possibly evil.

The Catholic priesthood is based birmly on the personhood of Christ and it was restricted to males only from the time of the apostolic succession. The late, great pope John Paul 11 re-affirmed this apostolic tradition in his letter "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis" and that this teaching has to be definitely held by the faithful. The Eastern Orthodox churches also have held onto this teaching and it has been faithfully adhered by the Church universal for 2000 years. This is not to discriminate against women as the Catholic Church has consistently lauded and defended the role of women. The respective roles of men and women within the Church are different but complementary to eachother. @Pilibo4, there are no ordained women "priests" in the Catholic priesthood, as such ordinations are canonically null and void.

The first 'Protestants' were Catholic. The Reformation was started by Catholics so there is no real reason to try and reform this body of Intransigents as it has already been done. Go and pick a team you want to play for because the management of this team is not for changing. There are those who will believe in the rectitude and sanctity of the P apacy no matter what; they will keep the RCC in existence ad infinitum in its current form and structure.

A good number of the ordained Roman Catholic Women Priests are of Irish descent.

One. That guy needs to admit and accept he's gay. Two. May he burn in the firey pits of Catholic hell for a very long time. Having a penis or a uterus should not be a determining factor in if someone can be a priest or not :-/ What is this, the stone age?

I'm applauding glengesh, and other sensible commenters here!

There have been women in the US ordained as priests in the Catholic Church, from what I have read in the news. The Vatican so archaic and sexist... gotta get rid of it.

We've got enough predatory pedophiles to fill a cathedral...and I sure don't recall a precedant in Jesus's teachings for their eligibility..(Suffer the children?) but no room for a single woman priest? When Mary Magdaline was his most favored follower?...and Mary his Mother Most honored among all mortals? So to put too fine a point on it...She was fit enough to be the Mother of the Most perfect Christ...But not to robe up and hear confessions at St Pat's in New York? Moron.