Mary Magdalene: The Disciple

I was reading up on recent news and was angered to find that when Vatican City found out that most of the Anglican priests that wanted to join the Catholic Church were women, the bishops got really angry and of course prevented them from entering the Church. I wanted to understand why the Catholic Church does not allow women priests. They say that it's because Jesus only appointed male disciples (He could have appointed His mother but He didn't) and that He himself was a man, and since all priests are representatives of Jesus on Earth they must be men. But I think that Jesus did have women disciples that were not mentioned in the Gospels for obvious reasons: most notably Mary Magdalene. When Mary saw that Jesus had resurrected she went to the disciples' homes and told them. When Jesus was killed, all the disciples, it says in John, went into hiding and locked the doors in fear of persecution by the Romans and Jewish leaders. Mary Magdalene, though, not only knew where they all lived, but was able to give them this important message. In addition, she follows Jesus in Luke 8:2. Obviously, the disciples recognized her as one of Jesus' important followers (maybe even disciple) although the Gospel writers were too afraid to mention her involvement. Another woman disciple was the Samaritan woman at the well who, upon hearing Jesus' self-proclamation as the messiah, spread the Good News around Samaria.