POPE JOHN PAUL II
APOSTOLIC LETTER ON RESERVING PRIESTLY ORDINATION TO MEN ALONE
"Ordinatio Sacerdotalis"
POPE JOHN PAUL II
1. 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, our 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."[1]
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 , which the Supreme Pontiff approved and
ordered to be published.[2]
2. 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."[3] 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. As
Paul Vi later explained: "The real reason is that, in giving the Church
her fundamental constitution, her theological anthropology-- thereafter
always followed by the Church's Tradition--Christ established things in
this way."[4]
In the Apostolic Letter , 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 behaviour, 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."[5]
In fact, the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles attest that this call
was made in accordance with God's eternal plan: Christ chose those whom
he willed (cf. 3:13-14; 6:70), and he did so in union with the
Father, "through the Holy Spirit" ( 1:2), after having spent the
night in prayer (cf. 6:12). Therefore, in granting admission to the
ministerial priesthood,[6] the Church has always acknowledged as a
perennial norm her Lord's way of acting in choosing twelve men whom he
made the foundation of his Church (cf. 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 (cf. 10:1,
7-8; 28:16-20; 3:13- 16; 16:14-15). The Apostles did the same when
they chose fellow workers[7] who would succeed them in their ministry.[8]
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.[9]
3. 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 non-admission 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
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".[10]
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 to total consecration to
the service of God and of the Gospel. "By defending the dignity of women
and their vocation, the Church has shown honour and gratitude for those
women who--faithful to the Gospel--have shared in every age in the
apostolic mission of the whole People of God. They are the holy martyrs,
virgins, and the mothers of families, who bravely bore witness to their
faith and passed on the Church's faith and tradition by bringing up their
children in the spirit of the Gospel".[11]
Moreover, it is to the holiness of the faithful that the hierarchical
structure of the Church is totally ordered. For this reason, the
Declaration 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".[12]
4. 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. 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.
Invoking an abundance of divine assistance upon you, venerable Brothers,
and upon all the faithful, I impart my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, on 22 May, the Solemnity of Pentecost, in the year
1994, the sixteenth of my Pontificate.
Joannes Paulus Pp. II
NOTES
1. Paul VI,
D. Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, concerning the Ordination of Women
to the Priesthood> (30 November 1975): 68 (1976), 599.
2. Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration
Insigniores> on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial
Priesthood (15 October 1976): 69 (1977), 98-116.
3. , 100.
4. Paul VI,
January 1977): , XV (1977), 111. Cf. also John Paul II,
Apostolic Exhortation (30 December 1988), 31:
81 (1989), 393-521; , No. 1577.
5. Apostolic Letter (15 August 1988), 26; 80
(1988), 1715.
6. Cf. Dogmatic Constitution , 28; Decree
Ordinis>, 2b.
7 Cf. <1 Tim> 3:1-13; <2 Tim> 1:6; 1:5-9.
8 Cf. , No. 1577.
9 Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church , 20, 21.
10 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration
Insigniores>, 6: 69 (1977), 115-116.
11 Apostolic Letter , 27: 80 (1988), 1719.
12 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration
Insigniores>, 6: 69 (1977), 115.
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