[Leo] Vatican refuses to form ‘definitive judgment’ on women deacons vs. John Paul II, Benedict & Sarah: “'['female diaconate...ruled out'] settled definitively...John Paul II'"

Vatican refuses to form ‘definitive judgment’ on women deacons

On Ordinatio Sacerdotalis

Responsum ad Dubium
Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
October 28, 1995

Dubium: Whether the teaching that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women, which is presented in the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis to be held definitively, is to be understood as belonging to the deposit of faith.

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Responsum: In the affirmative.

This teaching requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium 25, 2). Thus, in the present circumstances, the Roman Pontiff, exercising his proper office of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), has handed on this same teaching by a formal declaration, explicitly stating what is to be held always, everywhere, and by all, as belonging to the deposit of the faith.

The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, approved this Reply, adopted in the ordinary session of this Congregation, and ordered it to be published.

Rome, from the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the Feast of the Apostles SS. Simon and Jude, October 28, 1995.

+ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

Prefect [https://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_df95os.htm#:~:text=October%2028%2C%201995,Feast%20of%20the%20Apostles%20SS.]

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Cardinal Sarah on Ordaining Female Deacons

In the book he co-authored with the Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, From the Depth of Our Hearts, Cardinal Sarah made clear that the female diaconate has been ruled out by the Catholic Church. The “possibility of women being ordained as priests or deacons,” Sarah stated, “was settled definitively by Saint John Paul II in the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis dated May 22, 1994.”

[https://collegeofcardinalsreport.com/evidence/cardinal-sarah-on-ordaining-female-deacons/#:~:text=In%20the%20book%20he%20co,dated%20May%2022%2C%201994.%E2%80%9D]