ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 25, 1997 TAG: 9701270126
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: VATICAN CITY
SOURCE: Associated Press
BISHOP ANGELO SCOLA said male priesthood is "objectively linked to the male sex of Jesus.''
Marshaling its arguments to quash a debate that won't go away, the Vatican on Friday presented its most comprehensive case yet against women becoming Roman Catholic priests.
The Vatican called out its chief guardian of orthodoxy, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and other officials for a news conference to present a book that stitches together recent major papal pronouncements on the issue, along with essays by theologians and scholars.
The church's long-standing argument, essentially, is that Christ was male and wanted his priests to be male, and the church can't overrule that.
``The Church does not have the power to modify the practice, uninterrupted for 2000 years, of calling only men'' to the priesthood, Bishop Angelo Scola told reporters.
``This was wanted directly by Jesus,'' said the bishop, who heads the Vatican's prestigious Lateran University. He cited traditional arguments that Jesus decided to choose only men for the 12 apostles and that the priesthood is ``objectively linked to the male sex of Jesus.''
The news conference was held to promote a series of books presenting the documents of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Ratzinger heads. They deal with issues such as homosexuality, the Holy Trinity, contraception and role of the theologian.
The Vatican's most recent publication is a comprehensive edition on the all-male clergy. Scola called it ``an obligatory point of reference'' on the matter.
Ratzinger clarified the gravity with which the church views those who reject the ban on women priests. It is not heresy, he said, but a ``clearly erroneous'' position that is incompatible with the faith.
Despite the Vatican's many efforts in recent years to quell the debate, the issue of female ordination will not go away.
In 1976, the doctrinal office issued a major statement on the subject. When the Anglican Church opened the door to women priests, John Paul responded with a 1994 apostolic letter seeking to end the discussion. After some clergymen expressed doubts, Ratzinger formally reiterated that John Paul's stand against women priests was definitive.
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