Klaus Gamber

"Another reason, perhaps the most important one, why only men and not women can become priests in the Church is based on the fact that, when offering the Eucharistic sacrifice on the altar, the priest acts in persona Christi, the Heavenly High Priest (cf. Heb. 2:17). ‘Christ is here preparing the supper,’ says John Chrysostom (De Jud. 6), ‘for it is not by the work of a man that what is on the altar becomes the Body and Blood of Christ. When he approaches the altar and presents his priestly supplication there, he is only the interpreter and representative of the Saviour, but the grace and power that accomplishes everything is that of the Lord.’Now, since Jesus here on earth as a man was precisely a man, a woman cannot represent him at the altar, even if she were fully worthy. On the contrary, a man is suitable to do so, not because of his character or because he is worthy but solely because this is the will of Jesus by virtue of priestly consecration."