Question 69. “I think that the new Pope should allow priests to marry and/or date and for women to become priests. John Paul was a good Pope but too old fashioned, the modern church is suffering because of his old policies.”

Answer: Certainly, celibacy is a Roman Rite Church discipline and as such could conceivably be changed in the future. That said, it must be understood that priests voluntarily accept this discipline. They have many years of formation during which this subject is much discussed and ample time to consider the ramifications of their decision. Committing themselves to a life of celibacy is a voluntary act that faithful priests fully understand prior to ordination. No priest is coerced into taking a vow of chastity.

    The law of celibacy has repeatedly been made the object of attack, especially of recent years, and it is important at the outset to correct certain prejudices thus created. Although we do not find in the New Testament any indication of celibacy being made compulsory either upon the Apostles or those whom they ordained, we have ample warrant in the language of Our Savior, and of St. Paul for looking upon virginity as the higher call, and by inference, as the condition befitting those who are set apart for the work of the ministry. In Matt. 19:12, Christ clearly commends those who, "for the sake of the kingdom of God", have held aloof from the married state, though He adds: "he who can accept it, let him accept it". St. Paul is even more explicit:

I would that all men were even as myself; but every one hath his proper gift from God .... But I say to the unmarried and to the widows, it is good for them if they so continue, even as I.

And further on:

But I would have you to be without solicitude. He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. But he that is with a wife, is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife: and he is divided. And the unmarried woman and the virgin thinks on the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit. But she that is married thinks on the things of this world how she may please her husband. And this I speak for your profit, not to cast a snare upon you, but for that which is decent and which may give you power to attend upon the Lord without impediment. (1 Cor. 7:7-8 and 32-35.)

    Perhaps your statement stems from the recent priestly pedophile scandal. Please keep in mind that the perpetrators of these crimes are sick individuals who have violated their priestly vows. Allowing priests to marry will not impact this group of individuals in the slightest. 

 As for Women in the priesthood:

If you go back and study the idea of priesthood in the Old Testament as well as the New, you realize that the priest in a public capacity was to serve the role of a father figure. In Judges, chapter 18 and elsewhere, priests are called "Fathers" because they provide that kind of supernatural or at least that spiritual provision. They are providers and they are rulers and they are fathers.

Now, nature itself does not bestow the capacity of paternity upon women, and nature was created by God. And nature is what God uses to bring about the supernatural transformation of grace in the New Covenant. So it's appropriate, I believe, and the Church has long taught and always will teach, that the Sacrament of Holy Orders is only proper for men.

On Oct. 15, 1976, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, published the Declaration on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood.

 "For some years now various Christian communities stemming from the sixteenth-century Reformation or of later origin have been admitting women to the pastoral office on a par with men. This initiative has led to petitions and writings by members of these communities and similar groups, directed towards making this admission a general thing: it has also led to contrary reactions. This therefore constitutes an ecumenical problem, and the Catholic Church must make her thinking known on it, all the more because in various sectors of opinion the question has been asked whether she too could modify her discipline and admit women to priestly ordination. … For these reasons, in execution of a mandate received from the Holy Father and echoing the declaration which he himself made in his letter of 30 November 1976, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith judges it necessary to recall that the Church, in fidelity to the example of the Lord, does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination. (Inter Insigniores)

In his apostolic letter, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone; 1994), John Paul II made an unequivocal statement: “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”

Note: Questions were raised by certain parties about the level of Church teaching on this issue and in response the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed by Cardinal Ratzinger issued the following response on October 28, 1995:

Responsum ad Dubium (Response to the Question)

Dubium: Whether the teaching that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women, which is presented in the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis to be held definitively, is to be understood as belonging to the deposit of faith.

Responsum: In the affirmative.

This teaching requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium 25, 2). Thus, in the present circumstances, the Roman Pontiff, exercising his proper office of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), has handed on this same teaching by a formal declaration, explicitly stating what is to be held always, everywhere, and by all, as belonging to the deposit of the faith.

The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, approved this Reply, adopted in the ordinary session of this Congregation, and ordered it to be published.