Stacy Innerst, Post-Gazette Robert P. Lockwood is director for communications, Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, and general manager of the Pittsburgh Catholic.

"Does the Catholic Church just look for trouble?"

That's the question a friend popped me with recently after she had read that a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests plans to conduct a faux-ordination to the priesthood tomorrow on a river boat in Pittsburgh.

I explained to her that this is not a Catholic ordination for a lot of reasons -- the alleged bishops involved aren't bishops, the candidates have not been accepted by the church and the whole thing is being done completely outside the authority and oversight of the church.

But I had to be straight with her. It is not an ordination primarily because the church does not ordain women to the priesthood.

And that's when she asked her question, slightly exasperated.

In this day and age, it does seem to be "looking for trouble" when the Catholic Church does not ordain women, especially in the face of a priest shortage. Some people seem to believe that the church is holding on to such a teaching out of either stubborn contrariness or entrenched sexism.

But the fact is that the church does not ordain women because it has been committed for 2,000 years to honor the teaching of Christ. It has nothing to do with discrimination or prejudice. Rather the teaching comes out of a love for Christ and the gift of the priesthood that he has given us.

The Catholic Church believes that the reservation of the priesthood for men is not only rooted in a rich theological understanding of Jesus as true God and true man, and how the priesthood sacramentally and theologically represents the person of Christ, but also in the very intention and practice of Jesus in creating the ministerial priesthood.

Despite claims of some flimsy archaeological opinions reminiscent of history according to "The Da Vinci Code," women have never been ordained priests in the 2,000 years of the church. They have never served in the ministerial priesthood in those sacramental matters reserved for priests and bishops since the earliest days of the church. Jesus raised women to unparalleled status in the world of his day, yet he did not call any women to the specific ministry entrusted to his apostles.

Rest assured, if there had been legitimate and validly ordained Catholic women priests or bishops we would know it. After all, the story of Pope Joan, an alleged ninth-century female pope, has had extraordinary legs and it is an absolute fabrication. If there had historically been female priests and bishops, it simply could not be hidden from anyone.

Supporters of women's ordination state that it is only a few words of Catholic Canon Law that prevent women from being priests, making it appear quite literally a man-made precept like abstaining from meat on a Lenten Friday.

That's not it at all. The church believes -- and has believed since the time of the apostles -- that Jesus as a priest is unequaled and excelling all others. Through baptism, all laity are part of this priesthood of Christ, male or female.

But from among those who share the common priesthood of the baptized, a few are chosen by God and confirmed by the church to exercise the ministerial priesthood. This ministerial priesthood is a gift from God and not something that someone "earns," "deserves" or has a "right" to receive by completing advanced education or through devoted service to the church.

From the very beginning, the church has reserved this ministerial priesthood for men as a real declaration of Christ's lordship over the church. The church believes it is being faithful to a plan that comes from the wisdom of the Lord.

And that's why the church cannot snap its fingers and change what is part of the deposit of the faith revealed by Jesus, taught by the Apostles and preserved through the generations by the church.

The ministerial priesthood is a call from God to a small number of the faithful. But for all the other faithful millions sharing in the common priesthood of Christ, we are called to offer ourselves to God in every aspect of our lives, serving Christ in all that we say and do. Laymen and women aren't second-class Catholics; we aren't somehow less in dignity or in the call to holiness and service than the ministerial priesthood.

Those who take part in tomorrow's unfortunate ceremony will abuse the sacrament of Holy Orders, undermine the unity of the church and place themselves outside the church. This separation is not a mandate of church authorities, nor is it the result of an opinion held by those involved. Rather, by conducting and taking part in such a ceremony, it is the choice of the participants to place themselves outside the Catholic community of believers.

We hope to welcome them back when they realize that their ceremony has not made them priests or deacons, but simply cuts them off from the sacraments and the communion the sacraments create.