Vatican to excommunicate female priests!

[Alyssa]

Vatican to excommunicate female priests

Explicit decree punishes women, bishops who ordain them

 

Reuters

updated 3:48 p.m. ET, Thurs., May. 29, 2008

 

VATICAN CITY -

 

The Vatican issued its most explicit decree so far against the ordination of female priests on Thursday, punishing them and the bishops who try to ordain them with automatic excommunication.

The decree was written by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and published in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, giving it immediate effect.

 

A Vatican spokesman said the decree made the church's existing ban on female priests more explicit by clarifying that excommunication would follow all such ordinations.

Excommunication forbids those affected from receiving the sacraments or sharing in acts of public worship.

 

Rev. Tom Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University, said he thought the decree was meant to send a warning to the growing number of Catholics who favor admitting women to the priesthood.

"I think the reason they're doing this is that they've realized there is more and more support among Catholics for ordaining women, and they want to make clear that this is a no-no," Reese said.

 

The church said it cannot change the rules banning women from the priesthood because Christ chose only men as his apostles. Church law states that only a baptized male can be made a priest.

Proponents of women's ordination said Christ was only acting according to the social norms of his time.

 

They cite the letters of Saint Paul, some of the earliest texts of Christianity, to show that women played important roles in the early church.

Copyright 2008 Reuters. Click for restrictions.

 

URL: Vatican to excommunicate female priests - The Vatican - MSNBC.com

[jajajaja]

Wow e Wow.

[Alyssa]

i know seriously

[stacey]

hmmmm I dont even know what to say to that.

[jajajaja]

I'm not Catholic so I can't comment too much but I am seriously surprised there hasn't been much progress. I know it's the Catholic church- it's not like they are evolutionary with their progress forward but comeon- this is 2008. In Jesus' time, women weren't considered equals to men. Even if Jesus had been a forward thinker in the rights of women, the people would not have followed so it was pointless to choose one as an apostle.

 

It's contradictory how revered Mary is but yet the church cannot accept women as priests. Ok I already commented more than I intended. LOL

[starchild]

That's just stupid. The Jesus only rolled with men point is debatable IMO. Men wrote the text people take as gospel truth...pun intended.

 

But hey, every religion gets something wrong...take what you believe and leave the rest I guess. I'll spare you all from my "how organized religion ruined the world" speech

[Sandra E.]

This is insane, I'm speechless!

[Dbld78]

Having been raised in an Irish Catholic family and marring into a VERY strict Irish Catholic family (which does include a priest)...I've done my time and have come to many conclusions on my own through out my life. I truly believe exactly what MoWife stated above... one or the other will happen. Priest get a seriously bad rap and the priest hood is dwindling in numbers and it's not for a lack of people wanting to be priests it's the rules that they have to live by and eventually they will allow them to get married but I think that may happen LONG before they allow women into the priesthood.

 

I've learned to take the good with the bad in my religious up bringing and am not a practicing Catholic I like to refer to myself as a "Recovering Catholic" but I do have to attribute the morals and the lessons that I did learn through my religion and family to the person that I am today. And will certainly raise my children the same way and leave them to make their own decisions as they become adults.

 

I like to consider myself a religion buff, I love anything and everything that deals with organized religion I find it FASCINATING!!! I love it, I can't get enough of it, I just love to pick the brains of people who believe in things that to me are so far fetched and wonder what makes them believe this.....? I am blown away every time I'm told that I am going to hell because I have not been "Saved" or because I'm Catholic.... I LOVE IT!!!!

[Chiquita]

Haha Jami.. I bet we have written the same speech

[MikkiStreak]

"The church said it cannot change the rules banning women from the priesthood..."

 

Really? The church can't change the "rules"? Hmmm.... if I recall correctly, that's what VATICAN II did--- it re-wrote a LOT of Catholic "rules" that had been in place up to that point!

 

"...because Church law states that only a baptized male can be made a priest."

 

Ah yes, this is what it really boils down to.... the CHURCH LAW states what can/can't be done. But notice, it's called "church law" not "God's law"... oh wait, that's because they think the Church IS Christ!!!

 

I was born and raised a Catholic.... and am now a "recovering" Catholic...