Cardinal Walter Brandmüller on Women’s Ordination

May 22, 2018 

For Immediate Release

Contact: Kate McElwee, Executive Director
kmcelwee@womensordination.org +1.607.725.1364

The Women’s Ordination Conference must speak out against any suggestion that the ordination of women, or even the discussion of it, is heretical. We therefore affirm that Cardinal Walter Brandmüller’s recent comments that those who advocate for women’s ordination “fulfill the elements of heresy” are offensive, sexist, and flat-out wrong.

However, given his status as one of the four so-called “dubia” cardinals who publicly challenged Pope Francis’ exhortation on family life, Amoris Laetitia, we recognize him for the outlier that he is.

Pope Francis felt no need to respond to Cardinal Brandmüller’s accusation that the exhortation caused “grave disorientation and great confusion” among Catholics. In the spirit of Pope Francis, we at the Women’s Ordination Conference feel no need to dignify Brandmüller’s comments with a further response.

There is no confusion that the Church needs to model inclusion at every level, and certainly no confusion that God calls women to be priests.

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Founded in 1975, the Women’s Ordination Conference is the oldest and largest organization that works to ordain women as priests, deacons and bishops into an inclusive and accountable Catholic Church.