Parish Priest and Brother.
             The local community that this report will focus on is the Sandgate/Shorncliffe area. This area is slow in adapting to the pace of our modern society and is highly populated with the elderly. This causes an adverse affect to the influx of new members, particularly youth. The main reason for this is the elderly influence on the community not allowing room for advancement. The church has been unable to establish any groups or events that attract more members. Therefore, the community is set in its ways, and has not grown with our contemporary society.
             The body of the report is broken down into subheadings in order to examine the issue of the non-allowance of women to join the ministerial priesthood in the RCC.
             The treatment of women in Jesus' time was undeniably the result of chauvinistic males. The restrictions women were bound to, had to comply with the social and cultural regulations of that time. Women were regarded as inferior to men, and denied roles of importance, as these roles were reserved for men only. Jesus however treated women equally to a certain extent, rarely complying with the prejudicial customs of his time. If Jesus was able to begin a trend of equality towards men and women, why has the Roman Catholic Church made a decision that goes against the will of Jesus?
             It can be seen from the scriptures that Jesus courageously broke with cultural and social ties as he converses with women on several occasions. Such as is the gospel of John 4: 27. To the astonishment of his disciples, Jesus publicly converses with a Samaritan woman. Not only were the Samaritans regarded as filth, (Samaritans: A mixed blood race resulting from the intermarriage of Israelites left behind when the people of the Northern Kingdom were exiled) but women were not highly regarded also. On another occasion, Jesus broke the Jewish tradition at the time, by allowing a woman to be taught.
             Rabbi Eliezer "Rathe...