I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; the Catholic Church is the most sexist institution on the face of the earth. You might think that Islam holds this coveted honour, but in reality, it doesn’t.

You see, Islam is open about its unequal terms for men and women, and for the most part it doesn’t try to hide behind history or scriptures for its unequal treatment. The Catholic Church on the other hand does. It tries to portray itself as fair, just, and egalitarian, it preaches that all humans are created in God’s image and that by default they are all the same in the eyes of the Lord, but when it comes to giving women equal powers as men, they whimper away and hide behind a book that was written thousands of years ago.

In a recent interview the Pope justified the Church’s rejection of women priests by pointing a helpless finger at the Bible and history. “The Church has ‘no authority’ to ordain women,” he told German journalist Peter Sewald. “...it is not that ... we don’t want to, but that we can’t... because there is no biblical or historical basis for it.” He went on to say that women can shape the Church in more powerful ways than men without having to be priests.

Oh for crying out loud! Isn’t this unnervingly similar to the logic that has created the glass ceiling in the professional world?

This is exactly what women are told when they ask for a promotion or a salary raise to match their male counterparts? “Sweetheart,” they tell you, as they pat you on the head, “it’s not possible for you to be promoted or to be given a raise, but don’t worry, you have so much to offer, you are very talented, and your role is a very important one. Now how about volunteering some more of your free time so that you can shape the company better than men?”

Despite claims of equal opportunities and anti-discrimination laws, inequality between men and women still exists, and the Church, being one of the strongest social influencers, is doing its best to maintain the status quo.

This sorry situation stems from the historical belief that women are inferior by nature. In the past women were openly considered to be less than men in every respect, not just physically but also intellectually and emotionally, and because it was believed that it was the male seed alone that contained the future child, women were looked upon as incomplete. Women were also considered to be in a state of punishment for sin, because, it was believed that every women carried Eve’s curse.

And for the proverbial cherry on the cake, it was also believed that women were impure and unclean because they menstruated every month. This was used as a reason to keep women away from the altar.

By continuing to refuse to ordain women priests, the Church is indirectly (of course) saying that these silly historic beliefs, were, and are still, valid today.

The point is this - The Church can change whatever it wants. Its hands are not tied as the Pope would like us to believe. For instance, up to the 1800s the Church preached that God allowed slavery, now it condemns it. Up to a few years ago, the Church taught us that children who die before being baptised go to Limbo for eternity, now they decided that they don’t. And, after years of condemning the use of condoms, the Pope told the German journalist that it is acceptable to use them, ‘in certain cases’.

So yes, even in the case of women priests, the Church can change its mind, but of course it won’t, at least not yet. And despite its holier than thou front, the Church won’t change for the same reasons that industries won’t change – it simply doesn’t pay those in authority to share their power, and they will hold on to it, all of it, until it pays them not to.