“Nevertheless we have heard with impatience that disrespect for
sacred things have come to this level that even women are tolerated to
administer at the sacred altars and that a sex which is not competent deals
with all the matters which have been entrusted only to the service of
men.”
Letter to the bishops of Lucania, in J. D. Mansi,
Sacrorum consiliorum nova et amplissima collectio (Paris, 1901ff.
), vol. 8.44, cap. 26. Accordingly the liturgical ministry of women is
considered to be disrespectful of divine, holy “things. ”
“Recently some news has come to our ears, which has caused no small
amazement, namely that abbesses, resident in the dioceses of Burgos and
Palencia (in Spain), bless their own nuns, hear their confessions on crimes,
and reading the Gospel give public sermons. Since this is both incredible and
absurd, and not to be tolerated by us, I am sending to your discretion, through
these apostolic writings, the order to suppress this firmly with apostolic
authority so that it does not happen again. For although the most blessed
Virgin Mary was so much more worthy and excellent than all the Apostles, the
Lord did not entrust to her, but to the Apostles, the keys of the kingdom of
heaven.”
