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In his Apostolic Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis
(1994), the Holy Father Pope John Paul II, declared 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.” This
definitive statement leaves no “wiggle room” for those who would
like to continue debating the question. As the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith made clear in 1995, the statement that the
Church has no authority to ordain women as priests, is not merely a
matter of Church discipline (which can be changed), but belongs to
the deposit of faith
(which cannot). “This teaching requires definitive assent, since,
founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning
constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church, it
has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal
Magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on
the Church Lumen Gentium
25, 2). Thus, in the present circumstances, the Roman Pontiff,
exercising his proper office of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk
22:32), has handed on this same teaching by a formal declaration,
explicitly stating what is to be held always, everywhere, and by
all, as belonging to the deposit of the faith” (Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith, Concerning
the Teaching Contained in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis).
This Apostolic Letter alludes to the reasons
given in the Declaration Inter
Insignores, by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith in 1976. They include, in addition to the testimony of
Scripture and Tradition, the example of Christ, who though
counter-cultural in many respects, continued Israel’s tradition of
a male priesthood in reserving the Office of Apostle to men. That
the Apostles did not regard this as a divine oversight is evident
from the fact that they themselves ordained only men. And so the
Church has continued this Sacred Tradition down to the present.
The question why women can't be ordained
priests is often confused with the issue of equality. The Holy
Father has made it clear that men and women (as far as their sex is
concerned) are equal before God (e.g., Mulieris
Dignitatem 6). But equality isn't identity. Men and women
have different though complementary functions. Priesthood is a male
function, for the reason that a priest is an icon of Christ, and
Christ is male. The maleness of Christ is an important sign of His
relationship to the Church, His Bride. As in nearly all cultures a
man takes the initiative in winning a wife, so Christ took the
initiative in winning souls and establishing His Church. For this
reason, marriage is a “mystery” or sacrament of the Church (Eph
5:32).
St.
Paul develops this theme in his parallel between a local church and
the family. A "bishop" (or "overseer," which
applied to both bishops and priests in NT times) is expected to keep
his own family in order, "for if a man does not know how to
manage his own household, how can he care for God's church?" (1
Tim 3:5) Male headship in the family is an axiom of both Scripture
and Tradition, and if the Church is the Household of God, and Christ
is Head of the Church, then His headship in the Church can be
represented only by men.
However,
lest it seem that God has honored men above women, we should recall
that of all created beings, including the hierarchy of Angels, God
raised a Woman to the highest place, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Though
she was not an Apostle, she was made Queen of the Apostles, Queen of
Angels, Queen of the universe, and the Mother of her own
Creator.
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