Did St. Pope John Paul declare the ordination of male priests only an infallible doctrine?

[Snoqualmie]

I was under the impression that St. John Paul declared the ordination of “male priests only” as an infallible doctrine of the Church in 1994. I also thought that The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith officially proclaimed their assent in 1995.

Two local priests have told me that I have misunderstood and that St. John Paul only stated his personal opinion and the teaching is not infallible.

Can you clarify this for me?

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith October 28, 1995:

Dubium: Whether the teaching that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women, which is presented in the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis to be held definitively, is to be understood as belonging to the deposit of faith.

Responsum: In the affirmative.

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 forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium 25, 2). Thus, in the present circumstances, the Roman Pontiff, exercising his proper office of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), has handed on this same teaching by a formal declaration, explicitly stating what is to be held always, everywhere, and by all, as belonging to the deposit of the faith.

The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, approved this Reply, adopted in the ordinary session of this Congregation, and ordered it to be published.

Rome, from the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the Feast of the Apostles SS. Simon and Jude, October 28, 1995.

• Joseph Card. Ratzinger
  Prefect

• Tarcisio Bertone
  Archbishop Emeritus of Vercelli
  Secretary