Vatican: Womenpriest ordination results in latae sententiae excommunication

  • Thread starter Thread starter nobeerinheaven
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
N

nobeerinheaven

Guest
Reuters:
The Vatican issued its most explicit decree so far against the ordination of women priests on Thursday, punishing them and the bishops who try to ordain them with automatic excommunication.

The decree was written by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and published in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, giving it immediate effect.

A Vatican spokesman said the decree made the Church’s existing ban on women priests more explicit by clarifying that excommunication would follow all such ordinations.

Excommunication forbids those affected from receiving the sacraments or sharing in acts of public worship.

…

Excommunication is usually “ferendae sententiae”, imposed as punishment.

But some offences, including heresy, schism, and laying violent hands on the Pope, are considered so disruptive of ecclesiastical life that they trigger automatic excommunication, or “latae sententiae”.

The decree says that women priests and the bishops who ordain them would be excommunicated “latae sententiae”.
Click to expand...
The whole article is here. Great news - this should be a clear moment to teach all faithful Catholics not to mock the sacrament of priestly ordination by saying it may validly apply to women. 👍
 
nobeerinheaven said:
The whole article is here. Great news - this should be a clear moment to teach all faithful Catholics not to mock the sacrament of priestly ordination by saying it may validly apply to women. 👍
Click to expand...
:mad: How do you know???

(That there’s no beer in heaven… sorry, couldn’t resist! 😛 )
 
GemmaRose said:
:mad: How do you know???
Click to expand...
Holy Mother Church has settled this. NO WOMEN PRIESTS.
The Church says it cannot change the rules banning women from the priesthood because Christ chose only men as his apostles. Church law states that only a baptized male can be made a priest.
Click to expand...
 
**
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Click to expand...
**
General Decree
On the delict of attempted sacred ordination of a woman

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in virtue of the special faculty granted to it by the Supreme Authority of the Church (cf. Can. 30, Code of Canon Law), in order to safeguard the nature and validity of the sacrament of Holy Orders, decreed, on the Ordinary Session of December 19, 2007:

In accordance with what is disposed by Can. 1378 of the Code of Canon Law, he who shall have attempted to confer holy orders on a woman, as well as the woman who may have attempted to receive Holy Orders, incurs in a latae sententiae excommunication, reserved to the Apostolic See.

If he who shall have attempted to confer Holy Orders on a woman or if the woman who shall have attempted to received Holy Orders is a faithful bound to the Code of Canons of the Oriental Churches, he is to be punished with the major excommunication, whose remission remains reserved to the Apostolic See, in accordance with can. 1443 of the same Code (cf. can. 1423, Code of Canons of the Oriental Churches).

The present decree enters in force immediately after its publication in L’Osservatore Romano.

William Cardinal Levada
Prefect
Angelo Amato, s.d.b.
Titular Archbishop of Sila
Secretary​

(Published in L’Osservatore Romano of May 29, 2008)

(Latin version available in HTML format at Rorate Caeli.)
 
I’m actually surprised it took the Vatican this long to lay the hammer down on those who would dare defy the church in such a blatant manner.

Next up: Gay Marriage and Abortion revisited. Stay tuned.
 
I guess I am just very sensitive on the subject. Our new priest has told us (he said this to me also in an RCIA class I was sponsoring a new convert in:( ) he personally believes that women “should” be ordained.:mad:
 
KathleenElsie said:
I guess I am just very sensitive on the subject. Our new priest has told us (he said this to me also in an RCIA class I was sponsoring a new convert in:( ) he personally believes that women “should” be ordained.:mad:
Click to expand...
You should talk to your Bishop about that, I think. Particularly as this public dissension could seriously scandalize the new convert.
 
KathleenElsie said:
I guess I am just very sensitive on the subject. Our new priest has told us (he said this to me also in an RCIA class I was sponsoring a new convert in:( ) he personally believes that women “should” be ordained.:mad:
Click to expand...
I don’t think it’s so terrible to hold this opinion, nor to share it on a personal one-to-one basis. What is importance is obedience to what the Church teaches, and so to say it to “us,” to say it at an RCIA class, is :bigyikes: just not right.

I admit that if the Church “changed its mind,” I would be knocking on the seminary’s doors. However, until that time, I remain obedient… I will not join one of these groups and get myself “ordained,” I won’t go to one of their “Masses,” I won’t even go to one of their websites. I don’t want any of their newsletters (which I assume they must have), nor would I want to be on any of their mailing lists. If they hold meetings, and I knew about them, and the meeting was within walking distance of my home, I would not go.

I can’t help the way I feel, however obedience is in the will, and obedience is what the Lord desires.
 
GemmaRose said:
I don’t think it’s so terrible to hold this opinion, nor to share it on a personal one-to-one basis. What is importance is obedience to what the Church teaches, and so to say it to “us,” to say it at an RCIA class, is :bigyikes: just not right.

I admit that if the Church “changed its mind,” I would be knocking on the seminary’s doors. However, until that time, I remain obedient… I will not join one of these groups and get myself “ordained,” I won’t go to one of their “Masses,” I won’t even go to one of their websites. I don’t want any of their newsletters (which I assume they must have), nor would I want to be on any of their mailing lists. If they hold meetings, and I knew about them, and the meeting was within walking distance of my home, I would not go.

I can’t help the way I feel, however obedience is in the will, and obedience is what the Lord desires.
Click to expand...
I have heard it suggested hypothetically (not without some gravity) “if” the Church’s position should change on this matter the first 10,000 women who applied should all be rejected.
 
KathleenElsie said:
I guess I am just very sensitive on the subject. Our new priest has told us (he said this to me also in an RCIA class I was sponsoring a new convert in:( ) he personally believes that women “should” be ordained.:mad:
Click to expand...
Here’s what’s particularly interesting about the pronouncement. The document says that a person “incurs in a latae sententiae excommunication, reserved to the Apostolic See” in this instance. This is a more serious form of excommunication. Some excommunications can be lifted by bishops. This one cannot. One would have to approach the Holy See itself through a written letter and apply to have the excommunication lifted. Permission would then be given for the person to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Holy See would then inform the local bishop of its decision.

Now, if you read between the lines, this was probably worded that way to ensure that a sympathetic, liberal bishop will NOT be able to remove the excommunication…
 
In the past 33 years since my return to the Catholic Church, I have heard many people demand that ordination be open to women.

Yet, what I have never heard is, “lets pray for womens ordination.”
And certainly I will never hear, “lets pray for God’s will to be done, on womens ordination.”

It pretty much should tell us why it will never happen.

Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
In the past 33 years since my return to the Catholic Church, I have heard many people demand that ordination be open to women.

Yet, what I have never heard is, “lets pray for womens ordination.”
And certainly I will never hear, “lets pray for God’s will to be done, on womens ordination.”

It pretty much should tell us why it will never happen.

Jim
Click to expand...
God’s will has been done. The Pope spoke to the issue. It is settled.
 
a person “incurs in a latae sententiae excommunication, reserved to the Apostolic See” in this instance. This is a more serious form of excommunication. Some excommunications can be lifted by bishops.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the interesting information, which I did not know.

It’s wonderful that this issue has been so clarified. It makes things clear for everybody.

Thank you God, Annem
 
Rolltide said:
Here’s what’s particularly interesting about the pronouncement. The document says that a person “incurs in a latae sententiae excommunication, reserved to the Apostolic See” in this instance. This is a more serious form of excommunication. Some excommunications can be lifted by bishops. This one cannot. One would have to approach the Holy See itself through a written letter and apply to have the excommunication lifted. Permission would then be given for the person to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Holy See would then inform the local bishop of its decision.

Now, if you read between the lines, this was probably worded that way to ensure that a sympathetic, liberal bishop will NOT be able to remove the excommunication…
Click to expand...
With what they did :eek: , they’re lucky that their excommunication can be lifted by anyone!
 
mercygate said:
I have heard it suggested hypothetically (not without some gravity) “if” the Church’s position should change on this matter the first 10,000 women who applied should all be rejected.
Click to expand...
I’ll make sure to be the ten thousandth and first! 😛
 
GemmaRose said:
I don’t think it’s so terrible to hold this opinion, nor to share it on a personal one-to-one basis. What is importance is obedience to what the Church teaches, and so to say it to “us,” to say it at an RCIA class, is :bigyikes: just not right.

I admit that if the Church “changed its mind,” I would be knocking on the seminary’s doors. However, until that time, I remain obedient… I will not join one of these groups and get myself “ordained,” I won’t go to one of their “Masses,” I won’t even go to one of their websites. I don’t want any of their newsletters (which I assume they must have), nor would I want to be on any of their mailing lists. If they hold meetings, and I knew about them, and the meeting was within walking distance of my home, I would not go.

I can’t help the way I feel, however obedience is in the will, and obedience is what the Lord desires.
Click to expand...
I understand what you’re saying, but I think you are slightly off the mark here. Compare these two possibilities:

  1. *]The ordination of women
    *]The ordination of married men in the Latin Rite

    I believe that it is true that one can be of the opinion that married men should be allowed to be ordained, so long as - like you say - one remains obedient to the current teaching of the Church. But this is not true of the former possibility: the ordination of women. The difference? It is defined dogma that women may not be priests, whereas the exclusion of married men from ordination is discipline. Women will never be allowed to be ordained in the Catholic Church, because dogma can never change. We can be as sure that this is dogma than we can about anything that the Church solemnly and publicly declares; the Assumption, for instance. If you disagree, then please pm me and we can go through it, if you want to.

    Pax.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top