In Seminary Halls, All Eyes Are on the Newest Pontiff gets on my nerves a little bit. Not that the media has things wrong, that it is trying to stir up controversy, or that it is highlighting the existing controversy, but that there are seminarians and priests out there they can use for quotes and source material. These priests are out there, these seminarians will be going out there, and teaching people that contraception is okay, abortion a personal choice, and that women in the priesthood is just the Church being slow to change. They will say this despite the clear teaching of the Church being just the opposite. Abortion is evil. Contraception has lead to the pervasiveness of the culture of death, as well as being fundamentally wrong itself. Female clergy is a theological impossibility. And it is not the case that the Church is denying women equal rights. This is not a question of "rights." Just as the Church has not "chosen" to "deny" you the ability to remarry after a divorce, so also the Church has not "chosen" to "deny" women the "right" to be ordained. It is a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of marriage or the priesthood to speak of either in those terms.
Men and women are not the same. They each deserve just compensation. They deserve equal access to work, according to their abilities (I am sorry ladies, if you cannot lift the heavy suit cases, you are not a fully functional replacement a guy who can, if you work as a baggage handler.). Whatever might have been the case before women had franchise, you could not justly deny them the vote today. Men and women are "equal" in that regard also. However the sexes also differ. As I noted above, most women cannot do the physical work of a man. Employers should be allowed to take that into account, though they should also allow exceptions. If you can't lift (for example) 70 pounds, it is not sexism to deny you the job. If you are working as a police officer or firefighter, I sincerely doubt it is fully coincidence that the police shootings recently have had to do with male criminals taking the weapons away from female cops. Coming back on topic, the Church has taught, consistently, that men alone can be priests. Jesus broke cultural taboos left and right. He talked to Samaritans, Samaritan women, lepers, and sinners of every sort. If He had wanted female priests, you would see them in the Bible. And no, Dan Brown's stories simply do not hold up.
Priests who ignore and/or deny this do us no favors. They confuse us, they make issues of things that otherwise would be fairly clear cut. The push for feminist theology would not be nearly as pervasive if it did not find support from the priests, who should know better. Communism and socialism would not be nearly as prevalent in Latin America if the liberation theology was condemned from the pulpit. In the last century, Archbishop Oscar Romero learned, as he was elevated in the Church, that you cannot compromise with evil governments. He was martyred for his stand for justice. But he did so without embarrassing the opposite evil. Our priests must learn from his example, from the example of our Holy Father John Paul II, who called communism evil, who did so despite an assassination attempt. They must learn to lead us according to the Truth again. That way, when we fail, we will at least know that we have done so, and will at least be able to find our way back to God.
UPDATE 20050426-0802: Vincas rightly points out that deacons are clergy, and that it was the priesthood alone I was refering to.