Statement on the Decree of
Excommunication
To the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Palazzo
To the Cardinals:
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Prefect)
Alfonso López Trujillo
Ignace Moussa I. Daoud
Giovanni Battista Re
Francis Arinze,
Jozef Tomko
Achille Silvestrini
Jorge Medina Estévez
James Francis Stafford
Zenon Grocholewski
Walter Kasper
Crescenzio Sepe
Mario Francesco Pompedda
pez Trujillo,
To the Bishops:
Tarcisio Bertone
Rino Fisichella,
Your Eminences,
Right Reverend Bishops,
In December 2002, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with
the express approbation of the Pope, ratified the excommunication of the
seven women who were ordained as priests on 29 June 2002. The Decree of
Excommunication was communicated to the spokeswomen for the group in
January 2003.
In our response to the Decree, we refer above all to point 2b of your
document, which is the aspect of the document which is fundamental to
your judgement and your procedure.
You accuse us of "formally and stubbornly denying the doctrine which the
Church has always taught and lived and which John Paul II definitively
laid down", namely that "the Church in no way has the power to
administer priestly ordination to women." (This statement is based
on
the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis,
no. 4). The "denial of
this doctrine" qualifies as "the rejection of a truth that belongs to
the Catholic faith" and therefore deserves a just punishment (cf. can
750 § 2; 1371 no. 1 CIC; John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Ad tuendam
fidem, no. 4a). In this manner, the women
concerned contradict Church
doctrine about the "teaching office of the Successor to Peter" ? and "do
not in fact recognize the irrevocability of the papal declarations about
doctrines which must be absolutely held by all believers".
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith therefore demands of us,
in agreement with the Pope, that we women should "firmly recognize and
hold" (Ad tuendam fidem
no. 4) a doctrine which demonstrably denies the
full dignity of women as well as their equality with men (cf Gal 3:
26-28). This denial has long been shown by a careful study of the
sources. Every exclusion, and in this case by the central authority of
the Church (cf .1024 CIC) on the grounds of gender,
is an unjustifiable,
violent encroachment on the freedom and dignity of a person; it
inflicts great suffering on those concerned, i.e. on women, and must
therefore be considered a grave offence. Not for nothing did Vatican
Council II in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church (GS no. 29)
formulate the following:
Since all people have a spiritual soul and are created in God's image,
since they have the same nature and the same origin, since, redeemed by
Christ, they rejoice in the same divine vocation and destiny, therefore
the fundamental equality of human beings must be recognized more and
more. Every form of discrimination in the societal and cultural
constitutional rights of the person, whether it be on grounds of sex or
race ? must be overcome and
defeated, since it contradicts the plan of
God ? (cf also LG no. 32).
That the exclusion of women from all offices of ordination (according to
can. 1024, CIC) and the underlying doctrine itself, are both based on a
grave form of sexist discrimination, is to be judged not by you, but in
the first place by the women who are affected by this law. To expect
that we, under the threat of the punishment of excommunication, will say
yes to such discrimination and that we will recognize the exclusion of
women as "truth that belongs to the Catholic faith", is inhuman,
indeed
perverse - and deserves the strongest resistance, for the sake of the
dignity of women.
Unfortunately, we cannot recognize that you have truly become acquainted
with the long history of discrimination against women in the Church,
which has been set forth in countless scientific works of research -
in that case you would have had to arrive at different conclusions about
the place of women in the Church.
You trace an argument in your Decree, following principles in line with
your "closed system", very far from the reality of society, which has
long recognized the equal human dignity of women and their human rights
as worthy of protected interest and has aligned its laws and regulations
accordingly (cf the
German Constitution, Art 3, # 2). Moreover you
completely overlook the fact that in wider Church circles, the admission
of women to ordination has been declared as urgently necessary for the
survival of the Church. (We refer to results of opinion polls as well
as votes and decisions by Church Synods, Diocesan Forums, etc.) Through
the law which has been drawn up by men (can. 1024 CIC) the works of the
Holy Spirit are blocked. No one, not even you who hold the teaching
office in the Church, can forbid the Spirit to call women to priestly
ministry.
Since you stubbornly defend this law and the underlying doctrine which
discriminate against women and you inflict the most severe canonical
penalties for its transgression, you are causing serious harm to the
Church. In this way the "spirit" of the Inquisition, with its
great
errors and reign of terror has not been overcome in the course of the
history of the Church, right up to the present day, as we must painfully
experience.
For more than forty years - even before
the beginning of the Second
Vatican Council (1962 - 65) - we have brought forward sound arguments
against the exclusion of women from the priesthood, but there has been
absolutely no change in the thinking of the leading officials in the
Church. Therefore we see ourselves as called and challenged, in our
human and Christian dignity, to transgress the law discriminating
against women (can. 1024), because it does not come from God, but has
been imposed by men within the Church on women. Moreover, we find
support in the scriptural text: "We must obey God rather than human
beings." (Acts 5, 29)
It is not we who have done harm to the Church and the faithful by
leading the way and causing "scandal", as you maintain, when we
actively
defend our damaged human dignity, but you, because to this day in your
doctrine and law, you do not regard women as fully human and full
members of the Church.
Give God the glory, whose divine power in the Spirit calls to priestly
ministry whomever s/he wills (cf 1 Cor. 12, 11) and be willing to call
into question your ways of thinking and your outworn inhuman laws and
structures of the Church.
Many people in the Church await your insight and your willingness to be
converted!
With friendly greetings,
Dr. theol. Ida Raming
Dr.
Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger
Sr. Adelinde Roitinger
Dagmar Celeste
Pia Brunner
(english translation: Dr. Pauline Fisher