Christ did not call any women as his apostles - the first Bishops of the Church. Yet Jesus was no respecter of social convention. He associated with tax collectors and prostitutes. He ate on the Sabbath. He publicly disagreed with the Pharisees. Is it therefore credible to believe that Christ didn't call women to be his apostles only because of the social conventions of the time, especially when most of the other religions of that time had priestesses themselves?

From earliest times the Church has held this to be true. All the early Fathers of the Church confirm this. Writing in 215AD Hippolytus wrote; "When a widow is to be appointed, she is not to be ordained, but is designated by being named a widow.... Hands are not to be imposed on her, because she does not offer the oblation and she does not conduct the liturgy.² Similarly the Council of Laodicea in 360AD clearly stated that:"The so called *presbyteresses¹ or *presidentesses¹ are not to be ordained."

For 2000 years the Church has consistently taught that women are equal to men but simply have a different role to perform. The founder of the Catholic Church, Jesus Christ, had many female disciples such as Mary Magdalene. It was women like her who stayed close to him at the foot of the cross while most of the apostles fled.

Throughout its history women have found the Church to be a constant defender and promoter of their dignity. The highest place of honour in the Church belongs to a woman. Our Lady - the Mother of the Church.

In 1994 Pope John Paul II in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis restated that this teaching is not just a matter of discipline, neither is it a matter open to debate, when he stated ³I 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." This has been the tea ching of the Church for 2000 years.