Pope Joan

"The female sex is in some respects inferior to the male sex, both as regards body and soul..."

"If the two sexes are designed by nature for a homogeneous organic co-operation, then the leading position or a social pre-eminence must necessarily fall to one of them. Man is called by the Creator to this position of leader, as is shown by his entire bodily and intellectual make-up."

From the official position of the Roman Catholic Church on the subject of the unsuitability of women serving as priests.

Partial Chronology of the Popes:
844 - Pope Sergius II
847 - Pope Leo IV
853 - Pope John VIII (Pope Joan)
855 - Pope Benedict III


If you're not familiar with the story click on the link below.

So kids, what cha think? True? False? Hit me with your theory stick!

www.healpastlives.com...

I don't think it matters who is superior or inferior when it comes to being a priest. It's what is in your heart that counts. It's about having compassion for others. Men and women priests both have their good and bad points. but as most of any congregation consists of women i think it is a good thing to have women priests, they can then minister to other women that feel uncomfortable sharing their personal problems with a man.
cheers.

I think if you uxse the "Search" feature you'd find other threads abuot this subject...

Anyway, a source far less biased:

en.wikipedia.org...

Also, I see you just quoted the "official position of the Roman Catholic Church on the subject of the unsuitability of women serving as priests" from the website you referred to. But that site, nor you, gives any reference source for the quotes. I have never heard them before. What are they taken from please? Just to make sure that they are the "official position of the Roman Catholic" of course, and not some out-of-context quote from an unauthorised writer who maybe just happened to be RC, or, even, just made up....?

It sounds like something out of the Catechism(sp?) If that helps at all.

Pope John Paul II wrote in 1994:
"[The Church] holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church."

Sorry, I should've done the proper research- but was too lazy.

Also I'm rather new here...so again my apologies for NOT doing a search on the topic.

Oh well...'it' happens. But your warm and gracious post will stick w/ me for awhile.

Duplicate post - sorry!

[edit on 27-11-2007 by d60944]

The quotes seem to be from the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1912/13, which states more fully (my italics):

The female sex is in some respects inferior to the male sex, both as regards body and soul. On the other hand, woman has qualities which man lacks. With truth does the writer on education, Lorenz Kellner, say: "I call the female sex neither the beautiful nor the weak sex (in the absolute sense). The one designation is the invention equally of sensuality and of flattery; the other owes its currency to masculine arrogance. In its way the female sex is as strong as the male... On account of the moral equality of the sexes the moral law for man and woman must also be the same. To assume a lax morality for the man and a rigid one for the woman is an oppressive injustice even from the point of view of common sense. Woman's work is also in itself of equal value with that of a man, as the work performed by both is ennobled by the same human dignity.

The second one is in here:

If the two sexes are designed by nature for a homogeneous organic co-operation, then the leading position or a social pre-eminence must necessarily fall to one of them. Man is called by the Creator to this position of leader, as is shown by his entire bodily and intellectual make-up. On the other hand, as the result of this, a certain social subordination in respect to man which in no way injures her personal independence is assigned to woman, as soon as she enters into union with him. Consequently nothing is to be urged on this point of equality of position or of equality of rights and privileges. To deduce from this the inferiority of woman or her degredation to a "second-rate human being" contradicts logic just as much as would the attempt to regard the citizen as an inferior being because he is subordinate to the officials of the state.

(from www.newadvent.org...)

But the article runs to many times the length of these excerpts, and is wide-ranging, and not so "soun-bytey". But, yes, it sounds like it reflects a very old-fashioned point of view. Thank heavens the Encyclopedia is not a binding authority. :-D

As well as the quote from 1994, there is also Pope John Paul II's 1988 apostolic letter, "Mulieris Dignitatem." Both of which are more authoritaive than the Encyslopedia is.

But anyway, I don't see the connection with the legend of Pope Joan.
Except that the website quoted has a women-priests agenda to push and wants to use the legend to try to back it up and uses the sound bytes to make the church look as bad as possible. Hardly the stuff of serious debate.

[edit on 27-11-2007 by d60944]

Oh oh oh..I see..you want Canon Code Law stuff...shoot that's easy e'nuff...as you've proven. NOW..again, your thoughts ON the subject at hand?? Hmm?

I'll check w/ a Catholic Priest tomorrow night (my time)...a scholar to boot.

I'm kinda curious as to what he has to share.

P.S. Damn, I KNEW I should've stuck w/ the astology of the Catholic Church- And how priests, back in the day, who retire and cast astrological charts...now THAT I can do an original quote.

[edit on 27-11-2007 by moonvibe]