The most prominent critic of the Church's exclusion of women from the priesthood was the Jesuit theologian, Karl Rahner (died 1984), who emerged as one of the great 'Church Fathers' of the 20th century.

In a chapter in his Concern for the Church (New York: Crossroad, 1981), written in response to the 1976 declaration of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Rahner challenged the Vatican's central argument against women's ordination, namely, that because Christ and the Apostles did not ordain women, the Church is not authorised to ordain women.

Rahner insisted that we cannot draw any "definite and unambiguous" conclusions from Jesus's choice of men for the college of the Twelve. It is one thing to say that only men were members of the college of Twelve, but it is quite another to say that, therefore, only men can serve as the "simple leader of the community and president of the eucharistic celebration in a particular congregation of a later period".

Rahner argued that one also has to take into account the vast cultural differences between Jesus's time and later periods of Church history, particularly with regard to the role of women in society. It would have been sociologically unthinkable for women to have exercised pastoral leadership in first-century Jerusalem, but the reverse would be the case in late 20th century America or Europe, and in many other parts of the globe (see Responses to 101 Questions on the Church by Rev. Richard P. McBrien).

At about the same time, the Pontifical Biblical Commission also came to the conclusion that biblical grounds alone were insufficient for excluding the ordination of women.

Fr Raymond E. Brown (died 1998), who was widely regarded in academic circles - both Catholic and non-Catholic - as the outstanding Biblical scholar of his generation, had stated many times that the issue of whether women should be eucharistic celebrants cannot be decided either positively or (as is done more frequently) negatively on the basis of those whom the evangelists described as present at the Last Supper.

The evangelists' description of the supper corresponds to issues they were dealing with; it is with great peril applied to later Church problems that never entered their minds (see Death of the Messiah, Vol. 2 p. 1156).

Many believe, not without reason, that women will eventually be ordained to the priesthood, but I am not expressing any personal views on this very debatable issue. The current official teaching and practice of the Catholic Church is clear, and no one - whatever one's views - can pretend that they are otherwise.

The face of the Church may change slowly, but it changes.