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To: agere_contra; sayuncledave
That needs a little unpacking. The non-ordination of women does not have the same doctrinal level as (say) the doctrines on the Trinity, the Incarnation, the nature of the Eucharist and so forth.

The teaching is one iota short of an "infallible" proclamation. In the 1994 Apostolic Letter, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, the Holy Father said:

4. Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force.

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.

I say that it is one iota short because it does not explicitly pronounce an anathema on dissenters (although per canon law, dissent would fall within the definition of heresy). One possible reason for his declaration (vice definition) is that this was already part of the Church's deposito fidei and does not need to be re-defined.

9 posted on 09/01/2011 4:52:13 AM PDT by markomalley (Nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good-Pope Leo XIII)
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To: markomalley

Very nicely put, Mark.


16 posted on 09/01/2011 6:50:10 AM PDT by sayuncledave (A cruce salus)
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