[joeysteele]

Originally Posted by Nicky91

i'm sure you have quite some female cardinals, priests out there



feels kinda sexist, that the pope always has to be male

We don't have female Priests Nicky, in fact there's still a rule of celibacy for male Priests forbidding marriage for them.
(Although I believe there can be dispensations if married Priests from other religions convert to Catholicism).

The Catholic church has as one of its bases that the first leader of the church was Peter the apostle.
He is believed to be, and has been given the status of being in effect the very first Pope.
Therefore all his successors need to be male.
Standing in the place of St. Peter.