<p>All true, Irish. Jesus was a rebel. He obviously could have cared less what people thought of him. On another point, if Jesus knew he was starting a church (which if you read the bible you obviously know this is true), and if he really believed men and women’s roles should be the same in all areas, and that women <em>should</em> be priests, are you saying he’d start it off on such disparate footing?</p>
<p>Also - the Catholic church cannot and never has “created” doctrine. It only can publicly clarify something that has always been definitely held by the church (and passed down and “held fast what was taught you by word of mouth or by letter.” The church isn’t making new stuff up, it’s just putting down on paper something the church has always considered true. So, even if any pope truly believed women should be allowed to be priests, if the early church never believed it, he can’t just change that.</p>
<p>The protection of the church’s protection in teaching Truth is a NEGATIVE protection. The entire deposit of faith was set down firmly when Jesus was assumed into heaven. Nothing new could be learned, only doctrine developed, which continued to happen in the early church (and, much more rarely, in the last few centuries). They were getting a lot down on paper then, including scripture and the eventual canon of the bible by around 400 AD. </p>
<p>So you really just aren’t going to see this one (women priests) change. The new testament has a line that says, “The pillar and foundation of truth is the church.” But which church?</p>