The Left’s Latest Call for the Ordination of Women

Kenneth D. Whitehead

by Kenneth D. Whitehead on December 31, 2012 · 4 comments

But is the inability to ordain women to the sacred priesthood really a definitive Church teaching? In his apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, issued on May 29, 1994, Blessed Pope John Paul II confirmed the teaching of Inter Insigniores, and, indeed, went beyond it, when making the following declaration:

In order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s 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 confirm priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be held definitively by all the Church’s faithful.

“No authority whatsoever…to be held definitively…” It would be hard to think of stronger language by which the mind of the Church could be made more clear, yet opposition to the Church’s teaching as well as arguments in favor of female ordination continued on then and continue on now. More than a year after Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, on October 28, 1995, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, over the signature of Cardinal Ratzinger, issued a Responsum ad dubium specifying that “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 forthinfallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium” (emphasis added).

That’s “infallibly.” The teaching will not and cannot be changed. Women cannot be ordained. Yet none of this prevented the NCR from launching its campaign anyway, claiming all the while that its position represented the sensus fidelium. Such are the times.

It is ironic that the NCR issued its claim to represent the sensus fidelium on December 3, 2012. For on December 7, 2012, four days later, Pope Benedict XVI, in an address to the International Theological Commission, in effect issued an “answer” to the NCR editorial (although the pope could well have been entirely unaware of it). The pope said:

Today…it is particularly important to clarify the criteria used to distinguish the authentic sensus fidelium from its counterfeits. In fact, it is not some kind of public opinion of the Church, and it is unthinkable to mention it in order to challenge the teachings of the Magisterium, this because the sensus fidei cannot grow authentically in the believer except to the extent in which he or she fully participates in the life of the Church, and this requires a responsible adherence to her Magisterium.

This article was originally published here at Crisis Magazine on December 31, 2012.

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Kenneth D. Whitehead

By Kenneth D. Whitehead

Kenneth D. Whitehead is a former career diplomat who served in Rome and the Middle East and as the chief of the Arabic Service of the Voice of America. For eight years he served as executive vice president of Catholics United for the Faith. He also served as a United States Assistant Secretary of Education during the Reagan Administration. His most recent book is Affirming Religious Freedom: How Vatican Council II Developed the Church’s Teaching to Meet Today’s Needs (St. Paul’s, 2010).

Tagged as: Best of Week, priesthood, women's ordination

  • rosebud

    Recall St. Don Bosco’s well known vision; A ship (Church) chained/ anchored to 2 pillars; 1) Eucharist – our Joys, works, & trials as a continuation/ participation in Jesus’ offerring of His life (see Col. 1: 24) 2) Mary – Archetype of the Church/ Mother of us “The Body of Christ” on Earth These Pillars distinguish our Church from other creeds and are a glaring difference from the “Pillars” of our Church’s enemy; 1) the hidden holocaust in the womb 2) the redefining of marriage – which includes a blurring of any difference between the genders. Our Church remaining chained to the pillars, assures that She will remain “The Spotless Bride” of our Lord & Savior.

  • Peter Nyikos

    I wonder whether the people who agitate for women priests even think about Transubstantination. Does the editorial in NCR even mention it? Does it try to claim that women were empowered by Jesus to bring it about?

    In the Judaism of Jesus’s time, and earlier, priests were responsible for sacrifices, and the Catholic Church has emphasized the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist since the earliest times. Moreover, the all-male priesthood goes back to over a thousand years before Jesus.
    The Jews, unlike many neighboring peoples, never had women priests, and their priesthood went all the way back to Aaron, the brother of Moses.

  • mountainangel

    Our modern culture has gone far astray from the teachings of the Catholic Church. There are faithful Catholics. Our Lord said that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church. These women who wish to be priests, who wish to change the church and make it modern, should be very careful. They should think of the heresy they would be committing. The Church founded by Jesus Christ does not have to answer to modern opinion.

  • Jess Holmes

    Interesting post. This controversy over female ordination will come to a head one way or another. In my opinion it’s only a matter of time before it becomes acceptable within the catholic church.