Rev. Tucher

I did a post a year ago about women being ordained in the Roman Catholic Church.  Well, the Roman Catholic Church is now coming down on that.

On May 29, the Vatican declared that any women who attempt “ordination” or any bishops who attempt to “ordain” women are automatically excommunicated from the Church by their actions. The decree from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is said to be absolute, universal and immediately effective.

From the decree:

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
General Decree

Regarding the crime of attempting sacred ordination of a woman

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to protect the nature and validity of the sacrament of holy orders, in virtue of the special faculty conferred to it by the supreme authority of the Church (see canon 30, Canon Law), in the Ordinary Session of December 19, 2007, has decreed:

Remaining firm on what has been established by canon 1378 of the Canon Law, both he who has attempted to confer holy orders on a woman, and the woman who has attempted to receive the said sacrament, incurs in latae sententiae excommunication, reserved to the Apostolic See.

If he who has attempted to confer holy orders on a woman or if the woman who has attempted to receive holy orders, is a member of the faithful subject to the Code of Canon Law for the Eastern Churches, remaining firm on what has been established by canon 1443 of the same Code, they will be punished with major excommunication, whose remission remains reserved to the Apostolic See (see canon 1423, Canon Law of the Eastern Churches).

The current decree will come into immediate force from the moment of publication in the ‘Osservatore Romano’ and is absolute and universal.

William Cardinal Levada
Prefect
Angelo Amato, S.D.B.
Titular Archbishop of Sila
Secretary

A good friend and brother in the ministry wrote a recent post about “undressing” in a 7-11 convenience store.  When I say “undress,” I meant he removed his plastic tab collar of his clerical shirt.  A man there was practically offended at what he had done because my friend was a “holy man of God.”  In short, “his priest would never lower himself by taking off his Godly clothes while in public.”  Here are some questions for your pondering.

• What makes a pastor?  Is it the “Godly clothes” which anyone can buy online or is it the call by the Holy Spirit?

• What makes me a “holy man of God?”  Is it because I’m a pastor that I can call myself a “holy man of God?”

• Is a pastor the only “holy man of God?”  Does that mean that laity are not “holy people of God?

I don’t expect to get any answers, but that’s just my pondering right now.