There are many positions in the Catholic Church which makes the Church what it is. Some positions that makes up this authority is the Pope, Cardinals Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. All of these positions are taken up by males, which, especially in this modern era, can disturb and infuriate society. 

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It is common among the secular society, and even in some Catholics groups, to think that the church is anti-women. The Church does not think that women are less intelligent or less physical or less emotionally capable of these duties; however, the Catholic Church has three main reasons why women are not allowed to be equal to men in these roles. Firstly, despite the Church having authority, it feels it does not have permission or authority from God to make this major change to the leadership of the church. Secondly and thirdly, as per tradition, Jesus only chose men to be the church leaders and throughout the centuries the apostolic succession held onto that tradition. 

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Even though in our modern day, and with equal rights standing firm, it may seem like a poor excuse not to make the change in leadership; better still, the Church believes that Jesus started this tradition, and if He does not yet allow women into these leadership roles, then the Church must hold onto that. 

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One major reason why Jesus established the priesthood consisting only of men is because, as I will be explaining in the topic of the Priesthood and In Persona Christi, priests and those that celebrate the Eucharist, and who listen to our confessions are acting "in the person of Christ". Therefore, it just would logically make sense that they are men, as Jesus was a man.

 

The more brighter news to share is that these leadership roles that i'm speaking about are only a small portion of the church that doesn't allow women to take on a leadership role, and if something doesn't require ordination to the priesthood, that doesn't actually prevent a woman stepping into a role. There are many opportunities for women in the church, such as an altar server, minister of the Eucharist, lector and the list goes on.