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Pope John Paul II Declares… Church’s Faithful Must Believe Ordination Of Women Isn’t Possible

November 9, 2016 Our Catholic Faith No Comments

By PAUL LIKOUDIS

(Editor’s Note: In view of Pope Francis’ affirmation on his flight home from Sweden that women cannot be and will not be ordained priests, we reprint here an article by our late news editor Paul Likoudis about the release of John Paul II’s Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. That apostolic letter declared that the priesthood would be reserved to men.
(Likoudis’ article appeared in The Wanderer dated June 9, 1994. Following the article are excerpts from John Paul’s 1994 apostolic letter from www.vatican.va, copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
(Francis referenced John Paul II’s apostolic letter in his inflight press conference.

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In an apostolic letter to the world’s Catholic bishops, Pope John Paul II firmly and sternly declared that the Catholic Church cannot and will not ordain women to the priesthood.
Moreover, he said the “debate” on women’s ordination is over and the Church’s position “is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”
The authoritative six-page letter, dated May 22 and released last week, is titled, On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis). It emphatically reaffirms the Vatican’s 1977 declaration Inter Insigniores, which stated that the Church’s tradition of a male priesthood “did not proceed from sociological or cultural motives,” but that it was established by Christ Himself and is not subject to change.
Those who disagree with the Church’s position should simply accept it, the Pope said, as a “plan to be ascribed to the wisdom of the Lord of the universe.”
“Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places,” the Pope lamented, “it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church’s judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.
“Wherefore,” declared the Pope, “in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren, I declare that 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.”
Reactions varied.
Archbishop William Keeler of Baltimore, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a press release stating his view that the apostolic letter would cause turmoil in some circles of Catholics, and he appealed to those Catholics “who might find this further affirmation of the Church’s authentic teaching difficult to accept” to “receive it lovingly” and “pray for understanding.”
Helen Hull Hitchcock of Women for Faith and Family greeted the letter as very timely and “an unusually clear warning to all who are responsible for the teaching of the Catholic faith — including theologians, priests, and bishops.”
She told The Wanderer that with this letter, the Church is “being a good mother.” Hitchcock likened this recent warning to a mother’s reminder to her children not to play in the street.
“Just because your child wanted to play in the street,” she said, “it would not be the loving thing to do to let him. With this statement the Church is showing her responsibility for all her children. . . . She cannot let those who believe women can be ordained to continue in ignorance.”
Hitchcock also praised the document for re-emphasizing the hierarchical structure of the Church.
“This is important,” she affirmed, “because the fundamental conflict underlying the controversy over ordination to the priesthood, as well as other matters central to the Church’s worship, is the conflict over the essential nature of the Church — what the Church is and what constitutes her authority; whether the Church was intentionally established by Christ and derives her authority directly from Christ. or is, in essence, a human institution, a ‘gathered church,’ deriving authority from the ‘assembled community’ which chooses her ministers and makes all decisions about her ‘sacraments’ and worship.”
James Cardinal Hickey of Washington, D.C., sent a copy of the Pope’s letter, with his own cover letter, to every priest in the archdiocese. He asked the priests to “please read and study the Holy Father’s letter in its entirety so that you may explain it with lucidity and conviction to all those entrusted to your pastoral care.”
In a statement to be published in L’Osservatore Romano, Hickey described the document as a “decisive and conclusive reaffirmation of the Church’s teaching on the ordination of women,” and said the Pope “has authoritatively taught that this doctrine [on a male priesthood] stems from the will of Christ…which is binding on the consciences of all Catholics.”
Denver’s Archbishop J. Francis Stafford described it as “an intelligent, articulate” letter which does not detract from the dignity of women.
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin explained to his Chicago flock that the Pope is “firmly convinced that it is not within his power to change what has been a constant tradition,” and he acknowledged that “this apostolic letter will be a disappointment to some who were hoping for a change even though the official Church has reaffirmed the constant tradition a number of times in recent years.”
Bernardin made a nearly identical comment in 1977, after the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released Inter Insigniores.
As president of the NCCB, Bernardin assured Pope Paul VI that the American episcopacy “welcomes and fully supports the declaration,” and he told the Pope that “we are making efforts to explain the document to our people and to help those who are disappointed with it.”
He closed his 1977 letter with this statement: “We further believe that, with an authoritative answer to the ordination question, it will now be possible to deal more effectively with the other issues pertaining to the role of women in the Church and society.”

Pondering

Milwaukee’s Archbishop Rembert Weakland issued a three-page statement on Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, saying the new papal letter caused him “inner turmoil.”
Weakland commented that the Pope “certainly disagreed with my position that the issue should be left open because of the unresolved theological questions involved, and because of the pastoral problems which would result from an untimely closing of the doors on the issue.”
Nevertheless, the archbishop said that he would be “obedient to this command.”
“Yet, in a spirit of filial loyalty,” he continued, “I must also express my own inner turmoil at this decision. . . .
“As a bishop, I will have to ponder what the phrase ‘this judgment is to be held definitively’ means in terms of its demands on the faithful. This terminology is not traditional in the Catholic Church. . . .
“As a bishop, I would not be loyal to the Holy Father if I did not again point out the pastoral problems I now will face in my archdiocese. These have to be the object of my concern because many will be confused and troubled, discouraged and disillusioned.
“For example, what effects will this declaration have on so many women and men, especially younger women and vowed religious, who still see this question as one of justice and equality? . . . What can I do to instill hope in so many women who are now living on the margins of the Church?
“What effects will this declaration have on theologians who are still concerned about the theological underpinnings of the Pope’s teaching? Will they be able to express honestly their concerns? Will adherence to this judgment of the Holy Father be a requisite for teaching as a Catholic theologian?
“What effects will this declaration have on those men and women for whom the issue of the way in which the Church exercises its authority is already a problem? Many are still wrestling with Humanae Vitae….Are they now to be put against the wall, as it were, over this issue?”
On the plus side, Weakland expressed his hope that this new apostolic letter might “lead to a fresh and new look at the question of jurisdiction and ministry,” insofar as the Pope did agree that women are performing a vital role in the mission of the Church, and he concluded:
“As we all move ahead to ponder and understand this teaching, I realize that it will be a difficult moment for many here in the archdiocese. I hope that those who find it so will let me accompany them on that journey, as painful as it might be.”

The Disappointed Flock

Among the disappointed was Chicago Call to Action board member Robert McClory, who blasted the Pope’s “sheer intransigence.” He predicted the issue of women’s ordination “will remain a hot controversial issue.”
Sidney Callahan, the noted author and psychologist who was recently awarded the American Church’s highest honor, Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal, criticized the letter. She told The New York Times it is “not convincing faithful” because it is based on the argument that “this is the way we have always interpreted God’s plan.”
Also disappointed, surely, are the individuals and groups who placed the half-page advertisement in the May 27 National Catholic Reporter, urging the bishops to “Stop Everything in the Catholic Church Until Women Are Ordained.”
Signed by such notable groups as Catholics for a Free Choice, Chicago Catholic Women, Dignity, Corpus Canada, Women’s Ordination Conference, Creation Spirituality Magazine, and so forth, the ad called on bishops to stop ordaining men until women are ordained, exhorted lay people to boycott Mass until women are ordained, or, where boycotts are not possible, to wear a blue armband signaling their support for women priests.

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Here are some excerpts from John Paul II’s apostolic letter, dated May 22, 1994, the Solemnity of Pentecost:
Priestly ordination, which hands on the office entrusted by Christ to his Apostles of teaching, sanctifying and governing the faithful, 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.
When the question of the ordination of women arose in the Anglican Communion, Pope Paul VI, out of fidelity to his office of safeguarding the Apostolic Tradition, and also with a view to removing a new obstacle placed in the way of Christian unity, reminded Anglicans of the position of the Catholic Church:
“She holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God’s plan for his Church.”
But since the question had also become the subject of debate among theologians and in certain Catholic circles, Paul VI directed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to set forth and expound the teaching of the Church on this matter. This was done through the Declaration Inter Insigniores, which the Supreme Pontiff approved and ordered to be published.
The Declaration recalls and explains the fundamental reasons for this teaching, reasons expounded by Paul VI, and concludes that the Church “does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination.”
To these fundamental reasons the document adds other theological reasons which illustrate the appropriateness of the divine provision, and it also shows clearly that Christ’s way of acting did not proceed from sociological or cultural motives peculiar to his time. . . .
In the Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, I myself wrote in this regard: “In calling only men as his Apostles, Christ acted in a completely free and sovereign manner. In doing so, he exercised the same freedom with which, in all his behavior, he emphasized the dignity and the vocation of women, without conforming to the prevailing customs and to the traditions sanctioned by the legislation of the time.”
In fact the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles attest that this call was made in accordance with God’s eternal plan….
Therefore, in granting admission to the ministerial priesthood, the Church has always acknowledged as a perennial norm her Lord’s way of acting in choosing the twelve men whom he made the foundation of his Church (cf. Rev. 21:14). These men did not in fact receive only a function which could thereafter be exercised by any member of the Church; rather they were specifically and intimately associated in the mission of the Incarnate Word himself. . . .
The Apostles did the same when they chose fellow workers who would succeed them in their ministry. Also included in this choice were those who, throughout the time of the Church, would carry on the Apostles’ mission of representing Christ the Lord and Redeemer.
Furthermore, the fact that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, received neither the mission proper to the Apostles nor the ministerial priesthood clearly shows that the nonadmission of women to priestly ordination cannot mean that women are of lesser dignity, nor can it be construed as discrimination against them. Rather, it is to be seen as the faithful observance of a plan to be ascribed to the wisdom of the Lord of the universe.
The presence and the role of women in the life and mission of the Church, although not linked to the ministerial priesthood, remain absolutely necessary and irreplaceable. As the Declaration Inter Insigniores points out, “the Church desires that Christian women should become fully aware of the greatness of their mission: today their role is of capital importance both for the renewal and humanization of society and for the rediscovery by believers of the true face of the Church.”
The New Testament and the whole history of the Church give ample evidence of the presence in the Church of women, true disciples, witnesses to Christ in the family and in society, as well as in total consecration to the service of God and of the Gospel. . . .
Moreover, it is to the holiness of the faithful that the hierarchical structure of the Church is totally ordered. For this reason, the Declaration Inter Insigniores recalls: “the only better gift, which can and must be desired, is love (cf. 1 Cor. 12 and 13). The greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven are not the ministers but the saints.”
Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church’s judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.
Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Luke 22:32) 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.

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