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The Roman Catholic Church

Bishops waits under umbrellas before Pope Francis opens a Catholic Holy Year, or Jubilee, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, December 8, 2015.
Bishops waits under umbrellas before Pope Francis opens a Catholic Holy Year, or Jubilee, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, December 8, 2015. | (Photo: REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi)

The Roman Catholic Church, the largest denomination in Christianity which also traces its origins back to the first generation of Christians, does not allow for women to become priests.

In a 1998 document, the Catholic Church stated that it "has no authority to confer priestly ordination on women,” and it “is to be held definitively by all the faithful as belonging to the deposit of faith.”

“Ordination to the ministerial priesthood is reserved to men because the Church is bound to follow the example of the Lord, who chose only men as his Apostles,” continued the document.

“Christ's election only of men for apostolic office and ministerial priesthood represented not an accommodation to the cultural circumstances of Palestine in antiquity but a deliberate choice bearing on the very nature of these orders.”

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