Paul Dionne’s historical fiction, “The Priestess and the Pope,” suggests that the Catholic Church should ordain women, “again,” and that failure to do so would be ignorant or misogynist (July 31). That is not true.

The male Catholic priesthood has nothing to do with the relative dignity or merits of men and women, and “choosing” only men as priests is not something artificially imposed by a narrow-minded hierarchy.

Catholics believe that in each sacrament, Christ transforms a person in some particular way: washes away sins, heals, strengthens, binds two into one, etc. In the sacrament of Holy Orders, Christ changes the man so that he is able to represent Christ’s spousal relationship with the church.

Only men are Catholic priests because Christ came to us as a man in order to woo his bride, the church. Jesus loved his bride so passionately that he humbled himself, sacrificed his life, and offered up his body in order to win her back to himself.

As a sign of his continuing presence and love, he left the sacraments and a male priesthood. Thus, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, the Catholic priest, an unmarried man, speaks Jesus’ words to his beloved bride: “This is my body, which is given up for you.”

There is nothing ignorant or misogynist in this image of a man who loves his bride so much that he will lay down his power, his life, his body for her.

That is why Catholic priests are men.

Mike Tyne, Sumner