"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. 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."
Thanks A.A. There are a number of religious in my diocese who claim that Pope John Paul II failed to close the issue with "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis." How do you respond when folks tell you that this is not an infallible teaching? The argument seems to be that other bishops had "little or no knowledge of the contents of the letter before it was published," and that a teaching must be accepted by the faithful before it becomes infallible? The proponents of priestesses seem to be invoking an "ordinary magesterium of the Church," and I've no idea what that means.
Quote from http://www.womenpriests.org/.
"Nine out of ten Catholic scholars in the world support the ordination of women."
The "ordinary magisterium" is what has always been accepted and taught as the Catholic faith, even if there's not a specific 180-proof Papal proclamation about it. Rejecting the Ordinary Magisterium became popular when the liberals decided to dissent from Humanae Vitae. They insist that only a declaration of dogma, like the declaration of the Immaculate Conception or the Assumption, is "infallible."