Why Only Men Are Called to the Priesthood

In a time when the maternal chaos threatens to swallow the souls of men and the boundaries of the sacred are being erased, the Catholic Church still stands as the last untouched refuge. Her priesthood alone remains reserved for men – a holy space in which man is still called to true initiation. Yet even here danger looms: the priesthood itself has unfortunately already become feminized. The outer form remains male, but the inner strength, the hard paternal discipline and the profound boundary experience are often replaced by soft, maternal tones. Thus even this final space is under threat.

The Last Refuge of the Male Sanctuary – The Priesthood

Brothers, recognize the deep truth: In a world that has dissolved all male spaces – ancient rites, brotherhoods, crafts and defense – only the priesthood of the Catholic Church remains as a place consecrated exclusively to men. This is no accident of tradition, but divine wisdom. Here man is not softened, but introduced into the paternal order. Here still lives the possibility that he may become a guardian who strengthens healthy families with mother and father, because he himself rediscovers the Father in Heaven. Yet this possibility is increasingly endangered.

The Tragic Failure of Uninitiated Fathers

Yet here a painful reality reveals itself: Uninitiated fathers and older men can no longer initiate the younger ones. What remains is an empty ritual. The uninitiated man bears tell-tale signs: He lacks firm boundaries, struggles with self-discipline, constantly seeks validation, competes inappropriately with other men, idealizes or demonizes women, and feels chronic uncertainty about his masculine identity. He often compensates with hyper-masculine behavior or withdraws into passivity – yet none of these paths closes the deep developmental gap. Despite adult responsibilities he remains psychologically adolescent.

This developmental arrest has grave consequences. Uninitiated men seek pseudo-initiations in destructive behavior: excessive risk-taking, drugs, violence or sexual conquest. Others flee into eternal adolescence and avoid all adult responsibility. Neither path leads to authentic masculinity as Carl Gustav Jung understood it – as conscious initiation, not as regression or mere compensation.

The Feminization of the Priesthood and the Absence of Living Transmission of Initiation

In the priesthood itself this living transmission of initiation is precisely what is missing. Many who approach the altar today were never truly initiated. They have not lived through the boundary experience, and therefore cannot lead the younger ones into the depths. What remains is often only the outer form – a rite without soul penetration. The man is not truly swallowed by the maternal chaos, that Nigredo in which the formless, the anima-like flowing embraces him and threatens to tear him apart. Without this conscious being-swallowed there is no true rebirth in the Father. It remains at words, at intellectual assent, at liturgical routine – but not at the mystical transformation that makes the man a complete servant of Christ.

Worse still: the priesthood has unfortunately already become feminized. Instead of strict paternal authority and courageous confrontation with chaos, maternal elements creep in – soft emotionality, excessive care, avoidance of hard truth, dialogue instead of decision, feeling instead of sacrifice. Priestly presence loses its archetypal sharpness. The altar is no longer experienced as a place of boundary experience, but as a space of adaptation to the modern, softened world. Thus even the last bastion of the paternal threatens to become a mere shadow of itself.

From the Intellectual to the Experienced: The Death of the Dead Rite

Unfortunately the conscious dimension of the boundary experience is often missing today. Many approach the altar only with the intellect – through books, debates and theological analyses. It remains a dead ritual. It serves no purpose, for initiation is not an intellectual exercise. The man must consciously be swallowed by the maternal chaos. He must descend into the Nigredo of the soul, where the formless, the anima-like flowing embraces him and threatens to tear him apart. Only from this abyss can he be raised up by the grace of the Father and introduced into the religious tradition – not merely as doctrine, but as living, soul reality.

The Archetypal Depth: Anima, Chaos and the Call of the Father

Carl Gustav Jung has given us the soul truth: The path of man to individuation leads through the encounter with the Anima, that inner feminine force which is at once alluring and devouring. In the priesthood of the Church this process finds its sacred correspondence. The candidate must not be gently guided, but called into the mysticism of sacrifice. He must die – to the ego, to the worldly, to the maternal pull. Only then will he be reborn in the Body of Christ, as a complete man who recognizes Truth, Beauty and the Good in their eternal union.

The Path to One’s Own Initiation: Courage to Seek Mature Mentors

Modern men must seek their own initiation, since society no longer provides it. This requires the search for older, psychologically mature men as mentors – those who have themselves passed the test and who challenge boundaries. It requires the study of male wisdom traditions and the finding of genuine male communities that support authentic development instead of reinforcing mere identification. The uninitiated person must actively seek his own initiation.

Without this conscious engagement with the initiation process, men remain in a state of developmental arrest. They function as adults, yet lack the psychological transformation that turns boys into true men.

The Burden of the Generations: The Unlived Life of the Fathers

The greatest burden a child must carry is the unlived life of the parents. Uninitiated fathers cannot initiate their sons and thus create generations of psychologically incomplete men who pass their developmental gaps on to the next. Here the deep responsibility becomes visible: Only the initiated man can break the cycle.

Courage for the Boundary Experience: Rediscovery of the Divine

Why is the priesthood of the Church the last bastion of the paternal? Because the profane world has emptied all other spaces of initiation. Only the Church, in her Catholic fidelity, preserves the apostolic succession and the male altar. She calls us to conversion: Back to the symbolic Father, to the rediscovery of the Divine in His paternal majesty.

Courageously and optimistically we may confess: This initiation is not lost. It waits for those who do not merely think it, but want to experience it in heart and body – even though the living transmission is often missing today and the priesthood itself is threatened by feminization. All the more urgent is the call to conscious boundary experience.

The Path to Wholeness: Love as Holy Union

Brothers, let us no longer linger in the merely intellectual! Seek the depth. Enter the space of the priesthood as seekers who consciously allow themselves to be swallowed by chaos, so that they may emerge from it as sons of God. In the Church love unites itself as wholeness – Animus and Anima, man and woman in their God-given distinction, which only in the holy hierarchy becomes harmony. May this knowledge motivate you to cross the threshold. For in the priesthood the light of eternity still shines: Truth, Beauty, the Good – and the grace that makes man the true servant and father in the Spirit, when he courageously submits to the full, unshortened initiation.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.