The Beauty Of Clarity: The Truth About Holy Orders

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(T)he 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(.)—Ordinatio Sacerdotalis

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The zeitgeist demands conformity to the "equal means same" ideology. Jesus' choice of men only to lead His Church is a major hurdle for advocates of "women's ordination".


Cardinal-Elect Ladaria Ferrer, Prefect of the CDF, instructs the ignorant.

[ An excerpt from CNA/EWTN News ]


CDF Prefect: It’s ‘Definitive’ That Women Can’t Be Ordained as Priests

‘Christ wanted to give this sacrament to the twelve apostles, all men, who, in turn, transmitted it to other men,’ Cardinal-elect Ladaria explained.

Hannah Brockhaus/CNA/EWTN News

VATICAN CITY —The teaching of the Catholic Church on the impossibility of ordaining women to the priesthood, now or in the future, is clear — and to sow confusion by suggesting otherwise is a serious matter, wrote the Vatican’s top authority on doctrine.

In a May 29 article in Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Cardinal-elect Luis Ladaria, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote that “Christ wanted to give this sacrament [of holy orders] to the twelve apostles, all men, who, in turn, transmitted it to other men.”

“The Church has always recognized herself bound by this decision of the Lord, which excludes that the ministerial priesthood can be validly conferred on women.”

Taking this into account, as well as Pope St. John Paul II’s 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, which states that all Catholics must “definitively” follow this teaching, Cardinal-elect Ladaria said, “it is a matter of serious concern to see the emergence in some countries of voices that question the finality of this doctrine.”

To argue that the Church’s prohibition on women priests has not been defined “ex cathedra” and that a pope or council could change the teaching in the future “creates serious confusion among the faithful,” and undermines the authority of the magisterium, he said.

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Pray for those who, by attempting to ordain women, defy Jesus Christ and His Church. Pray for our separated brethren, especially those in the continuing Anglican movement, who desperately need the clarity of the Magisterium to help them purify their understanding of Holy Orders so that they may see in the constant teaching of the Church a way to resolve their differences and, most importantly, another reason to return home to the Catholic Church.


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Ordinatio Sacerdotalis

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.—Pope St. John Paul II, May 22, the Solemnity of Pentecost, 1994.

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Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer SJ (born 19 April 1944) is a Spanish Jesuit, theologian and a prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. After a thirty-year career teaching theology, he joined the Roman Curia in 2004 as Secretary-General of the International Theological Commission. An archbishop since 2008, he became Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in 2017. On 20 May 2018 Pope Francis announced he would make him a cardinal on 29 June.—Wikipedia

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We have the task of promoting and defending the Faith, preaching the Faith. This is an eminently pastoral role. It involves promoting the Catholic Faith so that it is increasingly known and, when there are problems, defending this Faith as well. Many times I heard Pope Benedict XVI, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger and Prefect of the Congregation, say that "we must defend the Faith of simple believers*, not the Faith of theologians". They already have their ways of knowing how things are! It seems to me that this is a very valid and correct intuition. So that description of Pope Francis is easy to understand. Naturally, we also deal with disciplinary matters that have a great impact on many people and so, here too, we have an eminently pastoral role. Of course, this does not mean we do not have to make a close study of the dossiers, but we do so with the salus animarum (“salvation of souls”) in mind always. This is always the primary purpose of all our work.—Vatican News, Vatican Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith: interview with the Prefect, Archbishop Luis Ladaria SJ, by Alessandro Gisotti. Translated by Seàn-Patrick Lovett.

* simple believers. Those who love Jesus and keep the commandments of the Lord (John 14:23); those who are faithful to the unchanging teaching of the Church.

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