I AM continually and unfortunately saddened by priests (Fr Mervyn Ziesing, Opinion, CL 7/11/10) who are willing to accept the Church’s authority to ordain them, but then refuse to accept that same authority when it comes to issues like ordination.
Pope John Paul II in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis said the Church has no authority to ordain women, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith replied in an ad dubium whether this papal decree was belonging to the deposit of faith, and stated that it was.
This means that as Catholics this is part of what we must believe.
There were priestesses in most of the religions, outside Judaism at the time of the Jesus and his apostles, so to say that this would have been unthinkable in that time, is erroneous.
All the people entering Christianity, who were not Jews, would have been open to this concept, but this did not occur.
As Catholics, priests and laity, we too often are involved in internecine battles – especially we the laity who too often want to take the role of the ordained priesthood, rather than undertaking our role in the common priesthood in evangelising the world, as we have been called to by Jesus, and more recently by the Second Vatican Council.
The Pope, as the successor of Peter, has said that the ordination of women is not possible, may we move on and focus on our mission of bringing Christ to the world.
A BURTON
Carina, Qld
