Catholic Church’s Stand on Women Priests

I agree that the Catholic Church is making a mistake in not allowing women to become priests (editorial, June 6). Women in all walks of life should have the same right as men to gain external power for themselves.

What too many women do not realize, however, be they nuns or politicians or police officers or whatever, is that, since the beginning of time, their femininity has empowered them in a much more important way than the Pope or society’s laws can ever do.

I suspect that nuns, to a greater degree than priests, have influenced Catholic children and strengthened their faith. It is the wives and mothers who have anchored the family over the centuries, and it is probably no coincidence in these times when women are increasingly seeking the empty power of wealth and prestige and physical superiority that morality and compassion and concern for the rights of others are declining rapidly in our population.

TRAVIS A. HASKINS

Villa Park

* It is the Pope’s decree that women cannot be priests because there were no women apostles at the time of Christ, yet there was also no Pope at that time, but no one would suggest the office of Pope should not exist.

SHARON DAVIS

Los Angeles

* The Pope insists that females should not be priests because Jesus chose males to be his apostles (May 31). Right--and one betrayed him, another denied knowing him and the rest deserted him when he needed them most. Meanwhile, the women in his life remained by his side while he died on the cross. Maybe he made the wrong choice.

KAREN LINDELL

Hacienda Heights

* The latest gem from His Holiness is his unbending assertion that women will never be priests in the Catholic Church. To quote John Paul: “The church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women . . . .”

I find that justification to be rather contradictory, considering the Pope’s previous pronouncements about women. For example, he had no problem ordering millions of Catholic women to abstain from using contraceptives. He also forbade his female followers to have abortions. The result is that millions of Catholic women are relegated to the status of breeding stock and fetal incubators. It also has condemned millions of children to be born to parents who either do not want them, or are incapable of providing a safe, loving environment for them to grow up in.

THOMAS WHEELER

Upland