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From INTER INSIGNIORES:
(The italics in the text are by John Wijngaards)
5. For these reasons, in execution of a mandate received
from the Holy Father and echoing the declaration which he himself made in his
letter of 30 November 1975 (6), the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith judges it necessary to recall that the Church, in fidelity to the
example of the Lord, does not consider herself authorized to admit women to
priestly ordination. The Sacred Congregation deems it opportune at the
present juncture to explain this position of the Church. It is a position which
will perhaps cause pain but whose positive value will become apparent in the
long run, since it can be of help in deepening understanding of the respective
roles of men and of women.
Note 6. Cf. AAS 68 (1976). pp.599-6OO; cf.
ibid., pp.600-601.
For the full text, see: INTER INSIGNIORES.
From the
Commentary by the Sacred
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the Declaration Inter
Insigniores:
14. Pope Paul VI himself had already recalled the same
teaching. He did so at first in parenthetical fashion, especially in his
address on 18 April 1975 to the members of the Study Commission on the Role of
Women in Society and in the Church and the Committee for the Celebration of
International Women’s Year: ‘Although women do not receive the call
to the apostolate of the twelve and therefore to the ordained ministries, they
are nonetheless invited to follow Christ as disciples and co-workers . . .We
cannot change what our Lord did, nor his call to women.(14)
Note 14. AAS 67 (1975), p.265.
For the full text, see: Official Commentary on INTER INSIGNIORES.
From ORDINATIO SACERDOTALIS (May 22,
1994):
Pope John Paul II
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. Lk 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.
For the full text see Ordinatio Sacerdotalis
From Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’s letter, October
28, 1995
"It is a matter of full definitive assent, that is to say, irrevocable,
to a doctrine taught infallibly by the Church. In fact, as the Reply explains,
the definitive nature of this assent derives from the truth of the doctrine
itself, since, founded on the written Word of God, and constantly held and
applied in the Tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the
ordinary universal Magisterium (cf. Lumen Gentium, 25). Thus, the Reply
specifies that this doctrine belongs to the deposit of the faith of the Church.
It should be emphasized that the definitive and infallible nature of this
teaching of the Church did not arise with the publication of the Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. . . . In this
case, an act of the ordinary Papal Magisterium, in itself not infallible,
witnesses to the infallibility of the teaching of a doctrine already possessed
by the Church."
For the full text seeLetter by Cardinal Ratzinger.
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