On Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone

A very short apostolic letter to the bishops of the Catholic Church 'on reserving priestly ordination to men alone', dated 22 May 1994, the Solemnity of Pentecost. It recalls that the Catholic Church, and the Eastern Churches, have always reserved priestly ordination to men; that when the question arose in the Anglican Communion, Paul VI had restated the Catholic position; and that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had set out the reasons in the declaration Inter Insigniores (1976). It gives the grounds in summary: Christ's free choice of men alone as his apostles, the constant practice of the Church, and the living teaching authority, adding that Mary's not receiving the apostolic mission shows that the reservation implies no lesser dignity for women. It then closes with a formal declaration 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.'