Response to Archbishop Ladaria’s Statements on Ordinatio Sacerdotalis

May 29, 2018

For Immediate Release

Contacts: Kate McElwee, Executive Director
kmcelwee@womensordination.org +1.607.725.1364, +39 393 692 2100 (Rome, Italy)

Katie Lacz, Program Associate
klacz@womensordination.org 518-928-4088 (Colorado, U.S.)

The Women’s Ordination Conference is deeply dismayed by the 29 May 2018 article published by Luis Ladaria, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in the Vatican’s L’Osservatore Romano, reiterating the Vatican’s ban on the priestly ordination of women.

Archbishop Ladaria’s arguments are unconvincing and simply nothing new. How long can the Vatican hide behind its sexist arguments that because Jesus was a man, he intended only men to become priests?

The Gospels contain no account of ordination, let alone priestly ordination as it is recognized today. Along with the twelve apostles, Jesus called women such as Mary of Magdala, Mary of Bethany, and others as partners in ministry. Mary Magdalene acted in the priestly role of sharing the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection to the first followers of Jesus.

To suggest that women are unable to fully image Christ on earth because of their bodies is a theologically flawed and dangerous statement. This fundamental inequality contradicts our baptismal equality and the divine order as expressed in Genesis: “So God created humankind in [God’s] image, in the image of God he created them; male and female [God] created them” (1:27).  

Further, any claim that Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is universally and infallibly held simply ignores our Church’s modern history, the conditions for infallibility, and the continued yearning of the majority of the People of God. Pope John Paul II acknowledged the question was “at the present time in some places … considered still open to debate”  in his 1994 document, even as he attempted to close the door on such debate.

More importantly, matters of doctrine must be created and accepted with the consultation of the sensus fidelium, the sense of the faithful, as a body of people who through their baptism and the movement of the Spirit can identify what is true to the heart of the Gospel. The continued presence of a strong movement clamoring for the ordination of women shows that Ordinatio Sacerdotalis is far from definitively held as doctrine by the faithful of the Church.

Lastly, we note that Archbishop Ladaria, who was appointed by Pope Francis in 2016 to lead a study commission on the issue of women deacons, has omitted mention of that subject in this article.  As we continue to await news from that commission, we hope this omission is significant.

In light of this continued misogyny, we stand with the women who refuse to be sidelined in their faith, and all those who firmly hold open the door for equality and justice.  

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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.