CDF prefect confirms: ordination of women is impossible, teaching is permanent

May 29, 2018

The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has reaffirmed the permanent authority of the Church’s teaching that women cannot be ordained to the priesthood, in an article published in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.

Archbishop Luis Ladaria—who will soon receive a cardinal’s red hat from Pope Francis—argues that the Church is bound by the decision of Jesus Himself, who chose only men priestly ministry. He cites the writings of Pope John Paul II, who taught in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis that the Church cannot ordain women, as well as the current Pontiff, who in Evangelii Gaudium confirmed the male-only priesthood. This teaching, the CDF prefect said, is “a truth belonging to the deposit of faith.”

Arguments for the ordination of women, Archbishop Ladaria writes, are harmful to the faithful because they cause confusion—not only about the nature of Holy Orders but about the teaching authority of the Church.

 

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Further information:

• The definitive character of the doctrine of "Ordinatio sacerdotalis" (L'Osservatore Romano)