Title: Holy Thursday, Footwashing, and the Institution of the Priesthood – Catholic World Report
Headings: Holy Thursday, Footwashing, and the Institution of the Priesthood
Holy Thursday, Footwashing, and the Institution of the Priesthood
Basis for Holy Orders
Christ’s Countercultural Teaching
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Content: In Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, Pope John Paul II wrote: Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful. The reasons given in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis come directly from a 1975 letter of Pope Paul VI to Dr. F. D. Coggan, then Archbishop of Canterbury: She [the Church] holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God’s plan for his Church. In Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, John Paul also quotes an address of Paul VI from 1977: “