Vatican Dashes Hopes For Female Priests

Warns That Women Taking Part In Ordinations Will Be Excommunicated

(AP)  The Vatican insisted Friday that it is properly following Christian tradition by excluding females from the priesthood. And it issued a new warning that women taking part in ordinations will be excommunicated.

It dashed the hopes of women seeking to be priests and of those who see women priests as an option for the Church as it struggles to recruit men.

A top Vatican official said the church acted after what it described as "so-called ordinations" held in various parts of the world.

Monsignor Angelo Amato of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said the Vatican wanted to provide bishops with a clear response on the issue.

The church has always banned the ordination of women by stating that the priesthood is reserved for males. The new decree is explicit in its reference to women.

"The Church does not feel authorized to change the will of its founder Jesus Christ," said Amato in an interview prepared for Vatican Radio that was released to reporters. The reference is to Christ's having chosen only men as his Apostles.

Asked whether the Roman Catholic Church was going "against the tide" in respect to other Christian confessions, Amato said the Roman Catholic Church was in "good company" with Orthodox and ancient eastern churches and that it was the Protestants who are breaking with tradition.

In March, the archbishop of St. Louis, Missouri, excommunicated three women - two Americans and a South African - for participating in a woman's ordination. They were part of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement, which began in 2002.

The decree was published Thursday by Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, which in a headline called the ordination of women a "crime."

The congregation said it acted to "preserve the nature and validity of the sacrament" of ordination.

The decree - signed by the congregation's head, American Cardinal William Levada - said anyone trying to ordain a woman and any woman who attempts to receive the ordination would incur automatic excommunication.

Pope Benedict XVI led the doctrinal office before becoming pontiff in 2005. Like his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, he has consistently rebuffed calls to change traditional church teachings on divorce, abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage and the requirement that priests be male and celibate.

"We didn't expect anything different now, but in 20 to 30 years they will be expressing their regrets when they will need more priests," said Vittorio Bellavite, an Italian spokesman for the international reform group We Are Church.

The Vatican released figures this week showing that the number of priests increased slightly worldwide between 2000 and 2006, with the growth in Africa and Asia. It said the number remained stable in the Americas dropped nearly 6 percent in Europe.

Catholics who are excommunicated cannot receive the sacraments. Amato said the penalty can be lifted if those so punished are sincerely repentant.

[torocaca]

The Catholic Church with its falsey-justified existence has ruined innocent people, murdered them, misled them, lied to them, controlled them, and abused its own member/victims for some 1600 years.
It has been nothing better than a murdering, torturing, misleading, false CULT, based on lies, myth, false stories, etc, as expected from all religion.
The world will be so much better off when there is no trace of the totally FRAUDULENT Catholic Church''''s influence, existence and bloody history.
Posted by damnedrelign at 11:30 AM : May 31, 2008



Replace "catholic church" with "religion" and your statement is complete.

It wasn''t Catholics in MA that persecuted the natives.

It wasn''t Catholics in Salem that persecuted and burned women at the stake simply because they had pimples and red blotches on their body.

It wasn''t Catholics who nearly exterminated the "natives" of this land and put the remaining survivors on "reservations" where most of their decendants live to this day.

Since there is no objective proof that any god exists, all religions are cults.

What we have is the "god delusion."

When one person is delusional, we call it insanity. When several people are delusional, we call it religion.

[beehive21-2009]

Catholic priest are perverts ,why would any sane person what to belong too the Catholics, or any other religion.Any book man wrote, is full self supporting lies, Bull ***.

[feelfree4u]

This is irrefutable proof that the Catholic Church also *** women.

[fake-id-2009]

"...and the requirement that priests be male and celibate."


I guess sexx with young boys allows the priests to remain "celibate."

For every rule there is a loophole...

[ringading3]

The Roman Catholic Church will NEVER sanction the ordination of either women or openly active homosexuals. Women and homosexuals should join a church where they can vote to determine matters of morals and doctrine, but don''t try to say they are Roman Catholics.

[fake-id-2009]

"The Church does not feel authorized to change the will of its founder Jesus Christ," said Amato in an interview prepared for Vatican Radio that was released to reporters. The reference is to Christ''s having chosen only men as his Apostles.


LOL!!! We don''t know that for sure. What we do know is that women had even less rights then compared to now.

As for Christ choosing only men...women didn''t have the freedom to "wander about" that men had. That''s very evident in the middle east today.

"If any man come to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."

Comedian Julia Sweeney expressed her bewilderment in her "Letting Go of God" stage show: "Isn''t that what cults do? Get you to reject your family in order to inculcate you?"

[drivelphobe]

Just reinforces the perception that the Catholic church is run by gay men, leaning towards pedophilia and abuse of young males. If women were involved, it would cramp their style.

[jettskiman]

What a load of ***. Let women do anything they want. I go to church(once in a while) do you think I would care if it was a female saying mass. Hell no!

[sharncedar]

The women of lighter build can dress up as little boys - I''m sure the Vatican will have a position for them if not in the priesthood then in front of the priesthood.

[feelfree4u]

RE: "The Roman Catholic church is acerbating medieval views. Such views have no place in modern America."

Posted by Snapper4298

Very well put.

[thisandthat1]

How can women be Priests? In order to qualify, you have to be a sexual deviant man who likes to abuse 12 yr old boys.

[galloglaigh]

I agree that women should not be ordained.
Posted by deacon20081 at 05:36 PM : May 30, 2008


From your login name, I can understand why you would think and say that.

However, religions of all kinds have suppressed women''s rights and treated them as inferiors since day one. The christian religion is no different.

It''s ironic that, in this country, freed slaves were given the right to vote long before women.

Freed slaves were GIVEN the right to vote but women had to FIGHT for theirs.

[sandy19731]

Unlike to Protestant churches where deacons are "elders and helpers" Permanant Deacon''''''''s are Ordained Clergy and we are ministers. I agree that women should not be ordained. As for the "independant catholic church" or "womenpriests" they are simply wrong to believe that the Church will accept Openly Gay men and Lesbians they ordain. The majority of these people were refused Holy Orders in the Roman Catholic Church for numerous reasons and validly so.

Posted by deacon20081 at 05:36 PM : May 30, 2008

So, are you married?

[snapper4298]

It all boils down to women being considered harlots and temptresses and all that garbage. In reality, it''s the old boys club trying to keep women in their place as 2nd class citizens.

When it comes to religion it''s irrelevant. In politics it''s dangerous. Look at Saudi Arabia.
Women are not even allowed to drive.

Yeah, I know we can joke, and believe me my wife''s driving is funny. But this is serious. The Roman Catholic church is acerbating medieval views. Such views have no place in modern America.

[snapper4298]

Just because something is traditional it doesn''t mean it''s right. What''s the difference between tradition and law?

I have serious suspicions about men who only want to interact with men. It goes beyond misogyny. It''s highly questionable, creepy behavior.

I tend to find that if women aren''t invited, it aint no fun.

[edjansen7]

Clearly, the (Roman) Catholic Church is changing even while it reasserts its changelessness. But static resistance is a far cry from the dynamism of the early church. Prisca, Lydia, Thecla, Phoebe, and hundreds of women like them opened house churches, walked as disciples of Paul, "constrained him," the scripture says, to serve a given region, instructed people in the faith, and ministered to the fledgling Christian communities with no apology, no argument, and no tricky theological shell games about whether they were ministering in persona Christi or in nomini Christi.

%u2026The church must not only preach the gospel; it must be what it says. It must demonstrate what it teaches. It must be judged by its own standards.
%u2026As John XXIII says in "Pacem in Terris," "Whenever people discover that they have rights, they have the responsibility to claim them." And Proverbs teaches clearly, "If the people will lead, the leaders will eventually follow." Therefore, what must we do now as priestly people? We must take responsibility. We must take back the church. We must lead leaders to the fullness of Christian life! Joan Chittister, OSB

[ringading3]

I am proud of the Roman Catholic Church, and these "very proud" women have left the Church. Don''t be deceived by their words. All true Catholics acknowledge the leadership of Peter''s successor.

[soldat44]

Women are simply not equipped to "liberate" altar-boys.

Posted by FeelFree4U at 07:26 PM : May 30, 2008

Don''t give up your day job.

[soldat44]

Unlike to Protestant churches where deacons are "elders and helpers" Permanant Deacon''''s are Ordained Clergy and we are ministers. I agree that women should not be ordained. As for the "independant catholic church" or "womenpriests" they are simply wrong to believe that the Church will accept Openly Gay men and Lesbians they ordain. The majority of these people were refused Holy Orders in the Roman Catholic Church for numerous reasons and validly so.

Posted by deacon20081 at 05:36 PM : May 30, 2008

My apologies Deacon for mis-reading your comments. i guess I have read so many hateful comments that I failed to read yours more closely.

Once again, I sincerely apologize. Peace be with you.

[jamurphy4]

Just stop going to church for a few weeks, and watch good old Popey change his mind.. Money talks, and ANY church is first in line to make any change if the price is right..