Did St. Paul condemn female catechism teachers?

The text of 1 Timothy 2:12 does not indicate that women cannot teach at all. This is obvious when you consider that the same St. Paul specifically instructed the Corinthian church concerning how women were to teach properly in the community in 1 Corinthians 11:5: “But any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled dishonors her head.”

Some can be confused by Paul’s use of “prophesies” here, but remember: to “prophesy” for Paul does not only mean to predict the future as the prophet Agabus did in Acts 11:27–28; rather, its more common meaning is to “proclaim the mind of God,” which is what a teacher is called to do. Thus, women are called to “prophesy” as all Christians are, because every baptized person is a member of the universal priesthood of believers (see 1 Pet. 2:5–9; CCC 1268).

Moreover, this becomes even clearer when we understand that, in 1 Timothy 2, St. Paul was about to delineate the qualifications for bishops and deacons in the next several verses and following 1 Timothy 2:12 (see 1 Tim. 3:1–13). Thus, properly understood, it means that women cannot teach in the context of the pastoral ministry in the liturgy. This ministry belongs to bishops, priests, and deacons alone.

Most people cannot preach at Mass, whether they are women or men. But that does not mean that they are not “prophets, priests, and kings,” understood properly. All Christians are. Again, all Christians are members of the universal priesthood of the faithful by virtue of their baptisms. And thus all Christians are called to “teach” in the sense of performing the spiritual work of mercy: “to teach the ignorant.” But only the few, the called, are members of the ordained clergy, who are called to teach formally by way of the homily at Mass.