The Vatican
insisted Friday that it is properly following Christian
tradition by excluding women from the priesthood as it
issued a new warning that women taking part in
ordinations will be excommunicated.
The move dashed
the hopes both of women seeking to be priests and of
Catholics who see that as an option for a church struggling
to recruit men.
A top Vatican
official said the church acted after what it described as
''so-called ordinations'' held in various parts of the
world.
Monsignor Angelo
Amato of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
said the Vatican wanted to provide bishops with a clear
response on the issue.
The church has
always banned the ordination of women by stating that the
priesthood is reserved for males. The new decree is explicit
in its reference to women.
''The church does
not feel authorized to change the will of its founder,
Jesus Christ,'' Amato said in an interview prepared for
Vatican Radio that was released to reporters. The
reference is to Christ's having chosen only men as his
Apostles.
Asked whether the
Roman Catholic Church was going ''against the tide'' in
respect to other Christian confessions, Amato said the
church was in ''good company'' with Orthodox and
ancient Eastern churches and that it was the
Protestants who are breaking with tradition.
In March the
archbishop of St. Louis excommunicated three women -- two
Americans and a South African -- for participating in a
woman's ordination. They were part of the Roman
Catholic Womenpriests movement, which began in 2002.
The decree was
published Thursday by Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore
Romano, which in a headline called the ordination
of women a ''crime.''
The congregation
said it acted to ''preserve the nature and validity of
the sacrament'' of ordination.
The decree --
signed by the congregation's head, American cardinal
William Levada -- said anyone trying to ordain a woman and
any woman who attempts to receive the ordination would
incur automatic excommunication.
Pope Benedict XVI
led the doctrinal office before becoming pontiff in
2005. Like his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, he has
consistently rebuffed calls to change traditional
church teachings on divorce, abortion, euthanasia, gay
marriage, and the requirement that priests be male and
celibate.
''We didn't
expect anything different now, but in 20 to 30 years they
will be expressing their regrets when they will need more
priests,'' said Vittorio Bellavite, an Italian
spokesman for the international reform group We Are
Church.
The Vatican
released figures this week showing that the number of
priests increased slightly worldwide between 2000 and
2006, with the growth in Africa and Asia. It said the
number remained stable in the Americas but dropped
nearly 6% in Europe.
Catholics who are
excommunicated cannot receive the sacraments. Amato
said the penalty can be lifted if those so punished are
sincerely repentant. (AP)