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London, 24th June 2005 (CNA)
- The secret ordination of a woman in an
undisclosed location in Central Europe this week
was "not just illicit but invalid," said
Archbishop John Foley, president of the Pontifical
Council for Social Communications in
Rome.
In an interview with the BBC, the
archbishop explained that just as it is
biologically impossible for a man to conceive, it
is theologically impossible for a woman to be a
priest.
"As a man I cannot conceive... is that
unfair? By divine decision... there is this
difference," he was quoted as saying.
The reporter had interviewed people at a
local church about women priests. According to the
reporter, everybody she polled supported the
idea.
The archbishop reacted to the reporter’s
random interviews, saying that the question of
women priests cannot be judged or resolved with
surveys. "The question is, what did Jesus want?
What did he reveal? And what does the Church
authoritatively teach? That's the norm by which we
must judge, not by opinion polls."
The ordination was held as an act of
defiance against the Catholic Church. Three years
ago, seven women claimed to be priests after an
ordination ceremony that was held on a boat on the
Danube River. The Vatican moved quickly and
then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger excommunicated the
Danube Seven.
Now, some of these women claim they are
bishops and performed the ordination of the single
woman this week in an improvised chapel on the
second floor of a private home. About a dozen
people attended.
The young woman, a teacher of religious
education, she admitted that the ordination
worried her.
"I hope that in five years, in 10 years,
things will change because there are many women
who would like to go the same way, and the way
will be a little better prepared for them,” the
woman told the BBC on condition of her anonymity.
According to the BBC, the young woman was
not able to explain why it was worth going through
with the ordination, when she would be unable to
perform any of the duties of a priest
legitimately. |
