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1. Well done, Cardinal Rigali! This is the only way to clean out the Church of left-wing dissenters who care nothing for orthodoxy, tradition and truth. I say, let there be more so we don't end up like the Anglicans who are heading for extinction! With strong decisive leadership like this you will eventually see no vocations crisis in Philadelphia. In fact, vocations to the priesthood abound only in dioceses with orthodox bishops. It is the Left who have produced the spirititul desert in the post-Vatican II era - a desert of destroyed religious orders, empty seminaries, fruitless schools, apostate universities, declining mass attendances, etc., etc., etc.

   Posted By: Micahel Bernard

2. This excommunication is simply confirming Catholics in their privilege to guard the integrity of the deposit of faith. It is surely time to warn those who trade on the name 'Catholic' - but do not adhere to all our deposit of faith - you cannot continue to espouse a para-Catholic church.

   Posted By: Fr Patrick Austin, MSC

3. There are no such thing as "women priests". And you compound the error in your headline by putting inverted commas around "pseudo-ordination" and "falsely claim" as if to dissociate yourself from Cd Rigali's factual statements.

   Posted By: Ronk

4. What nonsense, your Eminence. There is nothing in scripture or theology to preclude women's priestly ordination. It is the discipline of the present church, not an ontological bar, that stops such a thing. Church history clearly points to women's ordination in the first 6 centuries, at the very least.

   Posted By: Tony LeClerc

5. "Church history clearly points to women's ordination in the first 6 centuries, at the very least".
   
   Tony, could you source this comment please?
   

   Posted By: Sharon

6. Don't mask your sexist ultra-patriarchal agenda under the curtain of God-says... nothing in the scripture, nor in early Christian foundation pre/excludes women from the Priesthood. In fact, we all share the priesthood of Jesus.

   Posted By: TJ Lawson

7. What nonsense, Tony LeClerc! Perhaps you need a crash course on the priesthood(as your local priest).
   
   My understanding is that priests by virtue of their ordination act as another Christ, alter Christus (among other roles). How can a woman act as another Christ? Christ was after all a Man.
   
   Christ and the church are as Husband and Wife (we as their children grow inside the wife[church], outside but with the guidance of the husband[Christ]).
   
   Perhaps a member of the clergy can clarify these above points for my benefit and everyone else's.
   
   The magisterium teaches us that the Church cannot allow the 'ordination' of women because it is God's directive not a discipline of the church as you [Tony] wrongly claim!
   
   Men and Women are different [shock!] and as such we have different roles to play in life and in the Church. Let us all realise this!
   
   But Tony please enlighten us as to what evidence in church history there is of the ordination of women? I would suggest there is no valid evidence.

   Posted By: Matthew Alexander

8. Tony LeClerc, you are wrong. No matter how many times dissidents like yourself exploit the early Christians to justify your ideas, you will fail; history is not on your side.
   
   The so-called 'female deaconesses' were the then equivalent of nuns and consecrated laywomen. They assisted other women in their preparation for Baptism and Extreme Unction. They were sometimes called upon to collectively pray for the souls of the departed. Crucially, the sacrament of Holy Orders was never conferred upon them.
   
   If our Lord truly sought to ordain women, why did he not confer that sacrament upon His Blessed Mother, Our Lady? Similarly, why did he not ordain Mary Magdalene or the women of Bethany? Despite surrounding pagan societies featuring priestesses, our Lord chose twelve men as his apostles. He did this not because he was misogynistic, but because he recognised the natural complimentarity between the sexes. Just as God allows women bring forth new life through childbirth, He acts through ordained men to make his son, Jesus Christ, present in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
   
   In what should be the final bulldozer of your argument, St. John Chrysostom (A.D. 347-407) said this:
   
   "[W]hen one is required to preside over the Church and to be entrusted with the care of so many souls, the whole female sex must retire before the magnitude of the task, and the majority of men also, and we must bring forward those who to a large extent surpass all others and soar as much above them in excellence of spirit as Saul overtopped the whole Hebrew nation in bodily stature" (The Priesthood 2:2 [A.D. 387]).

   Posted By: Aquino

9. Could Tony Le Clerc please supply the names of any women ordained in the first six centuries, as he so claims. The reality is, that he won't be able to for the simple reason that there were none in the Great Church. The claim of women's ordination in the early Church is just another leftist myth.

   Posted By: Michael Bernard

10. If men and women were created equal as Genesis teaches how is it Christ intended a "male only" priesthood for all time? The whole thing just doesn't add up.It's hard to believe that a church full of supposedly intelligent and holy people can stand by and allow this to happen.

    Posted By: Bill Brady

11. Bill Brady, please enlighten us about the passage in Genesis.
    I suspect you are using, or have been subjected to, a post facto exegesis.
    
    I concur with the responders to Tony Leclerc. There will be no evidence of this assertion.

    Posted By: Peter

12. Very well said, Aquino; and thanks for that wonderful quote from St. John Chrysostom.

    Posted By: paul

13. Bill Brady,
    
    It's also hard to believe in the trinity, but we do. I'm sure that Jesus, if he wills it, will explain both that and the fact that he didn't ordain any priests to us when we stand before him in judgement.
    
    TJ,
    
    God bless and enlighten you!

    Posted By: Paul Keen

14. Hey Michael B, don't blame us leftists for inventing the myth. It was invented by Catholicophobes of all political persuasions.
    
    Bill Brady, I suggest you look up the difference between "equal" and "identical".
    
    And regardless of what any commenter here says, it is infallible unchangeable dogma that a woman "priest" is a contradiction in terms, i.e. impossible. No pope has the power to invent a Christian priestesshood. Anyone is free to argue otherwise, but you need to be aware that in doing so, you are stating "I am not a Catholic".

    Posted By: Ronk

15. Yes,Bill Brady,women and men were created equal,but obviously different.The sperm and the egg are equal,but it is the woman who has the privilege of carrying the babe in her womb and bringing it to birth. Let's honour the Church by following Jesus' decision to call only men to the priesthood!

    Posted By: M.M.

16. (1)AQUINO, it is a brave person who states without SOME qualification that the "female deaconesses" (sic) of the early church were not sacramentally ordained.
    
    Whilst I tend to the opinion that they were not, the question is not without its grey areas. In some eastern churches the ordination prayer for deaconesses was exactly the same as that for deacons.
    
    It is simplistic to equate them with nuns or consecrated laywomen. They constituted an order within the church quite distinct from the monastics or consecrated/charismatic laywomen.
    
    Actually, the 19th century Anglican/Protestant deaconesses are more like religious sisters undertaking apostolic work once performed by their long suppressed religious orders.
    
    However, be that as it may, to argue that deaconesses were sacramentally ordained does not necessarily lead one to the false opinion that women can be ordained to the ministerial priesthood.
    
    
    I would suggest, AQUINO, a little more reading on the subject.
    
    (2) As an eastern Catholic, I am somewhat concerned at the use of an "icon style mosaic" to head this article dealing particularly with an extreme form of disobedience and disregard for ecclesial order.
    
    Iconography - the sacred art of Eastern Christianity - should not be used as gratuitous decoration.
    
    (3) Along with several others, I too would like some SPECIFIC details of early Christian women ordained to the priesthood other than in the occasional heterodox gnostic cult. I am waiting, TONY LeCLERC, with trembling anticipation.

    Posted By: Marco Elliott

17. There is a dilemma at the heart of this campaign for women priests, which is if one is a genuine candidate for the priesthood, be they male or female, he/she would be unlikely to act in a manner that could lead to excommunication.
    Their best chance is to argue on the basis that it is a discipline that could be changed; however this is unlikely in the foreseeable future.

    Posted By: Alex

18. Just you watch us, Bill Brady!
    
    There are plenty of Catholics the world over who know, respect and obey the Church's sacred tradition and are not misled by revisionist 'history' and slavish capitulation to political correctness and secular fashion.

    Posted By: Jimmy

19. Tony LeClerc please read John R. Willis, The Teachings of the Church Fathers. In it you will find, and I quote "... a deaconess does not bless,nor do any of those things which priests or deacons do; she only minds the doors and ministers to the priests when they baptize women, for decency's sake... (from the Constitution of the Apostles p 434)
    
    Also about so-called "women priests" I quote from the same book " In the early Church women could be consecrated to God in a special manner as deaconesses or widows; however, they received no order properly so called."
    
    I quote also from Vatican Council II Vol.2 documents p 332 "The Catholic Church has never felt that priestly ordination can be validly conferred on women. A few HERETICAL sects in the first centuries, entrusted the exercise of priestly ministry to women: this innovation was noted and condemned by the Fathers who considered it unacceptable in the Church. " "Jesus Christ did not call any woman to become part of the Twelve ..It was NOT in order to conform to the customs of his time, for his attitude towards women was quite different from that and he deliberately and courageously broke with it..... Even his Mother, who was so closely associated with her Son was not invested with the apostolic ministry...In the Upper Room, it was not she who was called to enter the College of the Twelve at the time of election that resulted in the choice of Matthias. ...We can never ignore the fact that Christ is a man . the Church's constant teaching declares that the bishop or the priest, does not act in his own name in "persona Propria: he represents Christ who acts through Him: "the priest truly acts in the place of Christ The priest alone has the power to perform the sacrifice of Christ taking the role of Christ, to the point of being his very image when he pronounces the words of consecration. For Christ himself was and remains a MAN."
    St Paul speaks in scripture that Christ is the Bridegroom, the Church is his bride and compares Christ's love to that of married love in which Christ sacrifices himself for love of his Bride, the Church.
    Tell me what do you call a marriage that has a FEMALE Bridegroom and a FEMALE BRIDE. IT IS AN HOMOSEXUAL/LESBIAN or PERVERSION of the true and intended marriage relationship which is an abomination is God's eyes. God wills the spiritual marriage of the Holy Eucharist (presided by a Priest who is MALE) , the bridegroom, to reflect HIS love for the Church, His Bride which is female. Any other practice is PERVERSE , EVIL and ABOMINABLE and has its roots from the occult and HELL.
    Women priests are rightly called PRIESTESSES and the only religion that have priestesses are PAGAN or linked to WITCHCRAFT and the OCCULT.
    Wake up and stop being fooled by the lies of others who are also being deceived by the Devil!

    Posted By: RR

20. It is untrue that the Bible and Church tradition are against Ordination of women. !tim. 3:8-13, 5:2, Rom. 16:1 Women were Ordained by laying on of hands to to Orders such as the Diaconate.
    - Equality of Men and women before God is not the same as the Gender and gender roles equality. Women are capable Ministers of the word just as men are.
    - Jesus never called any one to Ordained Priesthood as distinguished from discipleship and apostolate.
    
    Rev. Fr. Bernard
    Nairobi - Kenya.

    Posted By: Fr. Bernard

21. What a bunch of very insecure men.
    Jesus did not exclude women, in fact- he bridged not just the sexist society of its time, he 'Touched' a women, received 'service' from women, allowed women outside the then boundaries of law, cultures, religion and society- to serve him... Did Jesus bar women from ministry?! REALLY?
    
    It is the Pharisees of his time who had great problems for the equality he was trying to bring about- transcending race, sex, cultures and even religion;
    But no, some very insecure men (and some minority of patriarchal women) find that too challenging… So, they decided that MEN are ‘special’ and should be given a ‘special’ position -what a whole lot of cultural lies!
    
    I’ve got news for you- Jesus challenges you. He is not a status quo God/Human, wake up and smell the real air.
    

    Posted By: TJ Lawson

22. Matthew Alexander,
    Is there any function in the Jesus of the Gospels that is sexual? Because, unless he had a sexual 'ministry', it is really the only role the women cannot assume (well...some would argue otherwise, but I am quite conservative in that matter); or else, what you are suggesting is that somehow because of Jesus sex, Manhood is more superior than Womanhood.
    What exactly are you putting forward?
    Dominant Man, Subservient Women?
    Back to the good old 1950s and before, where women is used and abused for men's disposal, and manhood was determined by the way they suppressed and dominated their women?
    Somehow, I suspect Jesus is far more secure as God/Human than some of his fellow men here.
    

    Posted By: TJ Lawson

23. TJ Lawson: where did you get the idea that Jesus preached a gospel of "equality"? As you state it, you reduce his message and mission to a purely secular one in accordance with faddish political correctness.

    Posted By: Sienne

24. Rev Fr Bernard, you think that "Jesus never called any one to Ordained Priesthood". Where do you think your priesthood originated from, if not from Jesus? If your "priesthood" originated from someone else, you are not a Catholic priest.

    Posted By: Ronk

25. Fr Bernard, you are mistaken. The Bible does not say in 1 Timothy, nor Romans, nor any other book, anything remotely like “Women were Ordained by laying on of hands” as you asserted.

    Posted By: Ronk

26. A religious priest once told me that early abbesses of monasteries had received priestly ordination. I am not for female "ordination", and was at the other end of disgraceful happenings in Victoria, Australia when a convert to Catholicism brought in a female Anglican priest to help Catholic women. This "priest" then got caught up in bitchiness, scandal and gossip pitting women against women - behaviour not seen among male clergy. Keep them out!

    Posted By: Les Canton

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