Courtney McGrailDear Editor, Once more, the question of women priests in the Catholic Church has arisen (‘Green Party chief rejects Pope on women priests’ IC 20/11/2016).
We still proclaim at Sunday Mass that the Church has four marks: she is one, holy, Catholic and apostolic. Why do we believe this? Because at the Last Supper, Christ told his apostles “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you” (John 14:26) and “but when the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to the complete truth” (John 16:3).
St Paul, knowing that truth was promised to the Church, would write to Timothy “the Church of the living God, which upholds the truth and keeps it safe” (1 Timothy 3:15).
One of the functions of the Catholic priest is to represent Christ by virtue of the power received through the Sacrament of Orders and offer Mass in the name of Christ and the members of Christ’s mystical body, being the sacrifice of Calvary rendered sacramentally present on our altars.
The Catholic Church teaches that Christ instituted two sacraments on the night of the Last Supper – the Eucharist and Holy Orders. Christ called only males to be apostles. From the Last Supper when Christ conferred priestly powers on men as his apostles, the Catholic Church has done the same: all through its history, the unbroken tradition of the Church has excluded women from the episcopal and priestly office.
This constant tradition and practice is of divine law, unlike priestly celibacy, and is of such a nature as to constitute a clear teaching of the infallible ordinary magisterium of the Church.
It is irreversible Catholic doctrine, which the late Pope St John Paul II confirmed that the doctrine belongs to the deposit of faith.
Yours etc.,
Gerry Glennan,
Dun Laoghaire,
Co. Dublin