A Few Good Men

In these times the Catholic Church is in dire need of a “Few Good Men.” The Church needs men who are bold and courageous; who will project the full truth of the Gospel. As the Church is hurting for men to dedicate their lives to the service of the Church; the dioceses actually needs to become more discriminating in who they accept into seminary. No longer can mediocre candidates for the priesthood simply be allowed to wade into the background of the pool of priests because there is no more background to fade into. Now we know that we need Priests to celebrate for us the most holy of sacraments, the Eucharist. Priests baptize us, hear our confessions, marry us, and at the end of our lives-they anoint us.

Priests

Why Women Can't Be Priests

Now there are many theories as to recover the priest shortage; however, there are two theories which need to be forcefully rebuked. The first theory, which is theologically possible, is to end the discipline of priestly celibacy. Now, the church does have married priests in the Eastern Rites; however we are talking about the Latin Rite. Now celibacy is a long and venerable discipline of the Latin Rite which owes its florescence to the monastic traditions of the west. Celibacy affords a priest the ability to fully devote himself to the service of the Church and his sheep. Celibacy also forces a candidate for the priesthood to contemplate the severity of the life decision they are about to make. For more on celibacy and the priesthood, go here.

The second theory to fix the priest shortage is to allow women “priests.”
Why Women Can't Be Priests
The sad thing about this suggestion is that it indicates a total failure of Catholic education. Most Catholics know in their heart that it just “wouldn’t be right” to have a woman behind the altar, but don’t know why and they are easily swayed when those supporting women’s “ordination” say that women would fix the priest shortage. Now first we must address why it is impossible to have women priests.

We know that Jesus is the Son of God and that when we are at Mass, the Priest acts in persona Christi. Christ was the Son of God (keyword=Son) and we then use His son’s to act in persona Christi. Furthermore, a priest (male) is “married to the Church.” The Church is referred to as a female entity (Holy Mother Church). There then exists a major theological problem in saying that a female can “marry” Holy Mother Church and act in persona Christi—God’s Son. (Though this is another problem our society is currently struggling with.) To quote from the earlier linked article:

If Jesus had wanted women as priestesses, he would have had the ideal candidate
in Mary. Here was a woman who could have spoken the words of consecration
literally: "This is my body. This is my blood.”

Then we need not even ask whether women would help the priest shortage because it would be theologically impossible to “ordain” a woman—if a “pioneering” bishop ever laid his hands on the head of a woman with the intention of ordaining her-no matter how “pretty” the ceremony was-absolutely nothing would come out of it. Pope John Paul II settled this matter in his Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis:

Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.

Finally we must ask whether there really and truly is a shortage of priests. It is clear that in the United States and Western Europe there has been a declining percentage of Priests/Faithful; however, in total the number of Priests and Seminarians has continued to increase on all continents and the percentage of Priests/Faithful has exploded in Africa, Asia, and other parts in the “Third World.”

"In 1978 there were 63,882 seminarians; at present there are 108,517, an increase of 69.87 percent. The increase in Africa and Asia, in fact, is incredible. Over the last twenty years, these two continents have seen an increase of 238.50 percent and 124.01 percent, respectively."

--Why Women Can't Be Priests