I had a 2 hour drive with a good non-catholic Christian friend of mine today. We are also co-workers, so most of our conversations center around work. Today was different.
I don't know what brought it up, but we started talking about the Catholic faith. I was holding my own, talking about those topics I am confident in answering, and telling him I will research and get back to him on those I was unclear on. Then came the "whopper" (in my mind, because I was not prepared to go into heavy duty apologetics.)
We were talking about the similarities of the Anglican church and the Catholic church and out of the blue he asked why women can't be ordained as priests in the Catholic church. I was stumped for a few minutes. I couldn't breathe! I didn't want to get it wrong, because if my friend was really looking for the Truth, I wanted to make sure he got it. I took a deep breath and asked the Holy Spirit to help me.
All of a sudden, it was like the "fog" that had clouded my mind disappeared! I told him the reason why the Catholic Church teaches (and will always hold to the Truth) that women cannot be priests is that:
1. God chose the form of a man for his Incarnation.
2. When dispensing the Sacraments, priests act "in persona Christe". How can a woman act in the "person of Christ" if Christ is a man?
3. Jesus chose only men as his Apostles.
Did I miss anything? Is there a stronger argument? I actually felt pretty good about my answer as my friend reacted with an understanding assent that what I had said made sense.
All in all, it was a pretty good day on the apologetics front for someone not really into the "teaching by words" method. Thank You, Holy Spirit!
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