VATICAN CITY, MAY 30, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican's doctrinal congregation has decisively decreed that the ordination of women is invalid.
The general decree "On the Delict of Attempted Sacred Ordination of a Woman" was published today on the front page of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. It states that the decree "comes into force immediately."
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith states in the brief text that it is acting to protect "the nature and validity of the sacrament of holy orders."
The texts affirms that "he who shall have attempted to confer holy orders on a woman, as well as the woman who may have attempted to receive Holy Orders, incurs in a 'latae sententiae' excommunication," that is, an automatic excommunication.
The decree is signed by the dicastery's prefect, Cardinal William Levada, and the secretary of the Vatican congregation, Archbishop Angelo Amato.
In an interview with Vatican Radio, Archbishop Amato said the reason for the text is the existence of instances of so-called ordinations of women in some regions of the world. In addition, it constitutes "an instrument of help for bishops, in order to ensure a uniform answer in the whole Church."
He added that the decree underlines that the ordination of a woman to the priesthood is invalid or null, and that "only baptized men can by ordained validly."
The Church reaffirms this exclusivity for a "unique fundamental reason," the archbishop explained. "The Church does not feel authorized to change the will of its founder, Jesus Christ."
The decree, which also mentions the same penalty applies to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, said that "The ancient Eastern Churches and the Orthodox Churches observe the same discipline of the Catholic Church."
Medicine
In regard to the automatic excommunication, the prelate clarified that the excommunicated person is barred "from taking part in any way as minister in the celebration of the sacrifice of the Eucharist or in any other ceremony of public worship," from "celebrating sacraments or sacramentals and from receiving the sacraments," as well as from "exercising functions in offices or ministries or ecclesiastical endeavors no matter what they are" or from "acts of governance."
He added that the "excommunication is a medicinal punishment," as "it calls to repentance, conversion and reparation for the sin."
Excommunication "is lifted when the persons concerned show sincere repentance and commit themselves to follow the correct doctrine and discipline of the Church," concluded archbishop Amato.
In 1994 Pope John Paul II issued the apostolic letter "On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone," in which he stated that the priesthood "has in the Catholic Church from the beginning always been reserved to men alone. This tradition has also been faithfully maintained by the Oriental Churches."
He added, "I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."
IN OTHER WORDS: "THE CHURCH HAS NO AUTHORITY WHATSOEVER TO CONFER PRIESTLY ORDINATION ON WOMEN(idiots) AND THAT THIS JUDGEMENT IS TO BE DEFINITIVELY HELD BY ALL THE CHURCH FAITHFUL."
Excuse me, but what part of this do you women NOT understand. If Jesus, who was a radical by the way, chose women as part of the 12, HE WOULD HAVE!!! BUT HE DIDN'T!!!!!!!
More later.....need to lie down.
10 comments:
They are never going to 'get it' for it is pride that is driving this YELL for 'women priests.'
And we all know who the instigator of pride is...hmmmm.
Peace to you Ebeth:)
Marie..PS: I am now thinking about your list below lol.;)
the one woman "priest" in the article on my blog when this all came out the other day, really disappointed me and really made my stomach churn with her absolute arrogance and self love and hateful attitude towards the hierarchy of the Church. to me, anyone who is female "priest" and states that the Church needs to be changed from within is self serving, arrogant, and disappointing beyond recognition! that is a totally disrespectful attitude towards God, and His Vicar, Benedict XVI. and its disrespectful towards all Catholics. You don't see the most Holy Virgin as a priest do you ?
NO! as women we ought to try to live a holy life and not a life as a "priest". no where in the Holy Bible does it EVER state that a woman was a priest at any time! these ultra modernist feminists are truly scarey people. they are self serving and don't care about thousands of years of tradition and obviously, people like the woman in question, if they had any insight at all, they would realize that the love they have is not for Jesus Christ or the Church, its only for themselves. if she does not repent, well, when her soul meets Jesus after her death, i would not want to be in her shoes.
I think that those who believe that women should be priests do not understand (accept?) church authority. I once heard a purported Marian visionary speak. His apparitions are, of course, not accepted but everything he said was consistent with church teaching. He had a number of rosaries which he said Our Lady had blessed but that she had said that they should also be blessed by a priest. He had said, "If you have blessed them why do they need to be blessed by a priest?" Her reply? "Because I am not a priest."
We should not be surprised that we do not fully understand God's reasons for everything. The Creator of the universe decides what He will. Our own minds are completely inadequate to comprehend the mind of God.
Yes, it is like Satan tempting Eve in the garden.
People do not understand because they are choosing self-desires over truth.
We need to talk this up more, don't you guys think? I want to raise the bar and be the majority voice and overpower them..........
Hugs to you all!
deanna,
who chose self desire over worshipping God? satan.
the same can be said then about this issue. its self desire and self promotion, and a complete lack of respect for the authority of the church, and its also schismatic. i for one will never condone their actions, nor will i ever condone associating with such a person.
that is my humble opinion. when the female priests draw catholics away from the church into their fold, they are committing a serious grave sin. satan loves this kind of act, and furthermore, he loves the chaos it creates, and the fact that a soul has been lost. the more these so called "priests" draw people away from the church into their fold, the more satan rejoices. we must not allow these people to influence us in anyway, shape or form, and we must stay true to God and His true church the Catholic Church and we must stay faithful to it and obedient to Christ's Vicar on earth, the Holy Father.
I remember someone telling me that many women believe that God is calling them to the priesthood. My thought on that is if I believe God is asking me to do something that the church says no to, it isn't God's will but my own will.
I agree that we need to talk about this, but in what forum and how do we get our voices heard over the din of "it's not fair" whinning going on. I was talking to my pastor about a different topic and he pointed out that when we do not agree with the Church, it is our responsibilty to re-form our conscience to be in line with the Church, not the Church to change according to our desires.
exactly deanna, exactly.
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