According to some modern critiques, the Catholic Church's largely male hierarchy and refusal to ordain women implies "inferiority" of women. New feminism and feminist theology deal extensively with Catholic attitudes towards women. Yet, the Blessed Virgin Mary remains the most important human figure in the Catholic church after Jesus Christ who is regarded also as true man. The New Testament which deals with this era refers to a number of women in Jesus' inner circle – notably his mother Mary (for whom the Catholic Church holds a special place of veneration) and Mary Magdalene who discovered the empty tomb of Christ. The church says that Christ appointed only male Apostles (from the Greek "apostello" "to send forth"). The New Testament is instructive of the attitudes of the church towards women. Among the most famous accounts of Jesus directly dealing with an issue of morality and women is provided by the story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery, from verses of the Gospel of John. The passage describes a confrontation between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees over whether a woman, caught in an act of adultery, ought to be stoned. Jesus shames the crowd into dispersing, and averts the execution with the famous words: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." According to the passage, "they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last", leaving Jesus to turn to the woman and say "go, and sin no more." This passage has been immensely influential in Christian philosophy. Jesus' own attitude to women is found in the story of Jesus at the house of Martha and Mary. The Gospels suggest Jesus broke with convention to provide religious instruction directly to women. Mary sits at Jesus' feet as he preaches, while her sister toils in the kitchen preparing a meal. When Martha complains to Mary that she should instead be helping in the kitchen, Jesus says that, "Mary has chosen what is better" (). According to historian Geoffrey Blainey, women were probably the majority of Christians in the 1st century after Christ. The 1st century Apostle Paul emphasised a faith open to all in his Letter to the Galatians: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Jesus Christ." Other writings ascribed to Paul appear to both recognise women leadership in the early Church () and to put limits upon it ().