International Movement We are Church

Movimiento internacional
Somos-Iglesia

Movimento
Internacional Nós somos Igreja

Movimento
Internazionale Noi siamo Chiesa

Mouvement international
Nous sommes Eglise

Internationale Bewegung Wir
sind Kirche

Press release Juni
4, 2008

We are Church! Jesus Christ did not ordain men or women to the
ministerial priesthood but to care for and nurture each other as brothers and
sisters.

We Are Church statement on the Decree of
the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) against Women’s Ordination

Please contact:

– Raquel
Mallavibarrena/Chair (Spain)
+34-649332654 rmallavi@mat.ucm.es

–
Christian Weisner/ Media contact (Germany)
+49-172-518 40 82 media@we-are-church.org

– Hans
Peter Hurka (Austria)
+43-1-3154200 hans_peter.hurka@gmx.atDiese

– Kaare
Rübner Jorgensen (Denmark) ruebnerjo@webspeed.dk

– Vittorio
Bellavite (Italy)
+39-02-70602370 vi.bel@IOL.IT

– Maria
Joao Sande Lemos (Portugal)
+351.21 396 71 69 mjoaosandel@gmail.com

– Valerie
J Stroud (UK) +44-1634-715278 valeriejstroud@we-are-church.org

– Anthony
Padovano (United States)
+1-973-539-8732 tpadovan@optonline.net

“As long
as the attitude of our church leadership hardens in this way, the Roman
Catholic Church, and the Christian church overall, lose credibility and the
ability to evangelise effectively”, says the International Movement We Are
Church about the latest Decree of the Holy Office on women’s ordination. In the month of May, dedicated to the
foremost woman in Christianity, it is shameful that the Vatican can employ such
weak and inadequate reasoning to deny women the opportunity to minister to the
People of God.

The whole
Catholic reform movement has called consistently for the removal of
the Can. 1024 from the Roman Catholic Church law (Codex Iuris Canonici CIC) and
the repeal of the excommunication of women who have received the Sacrament of
Holy Orders.

Although decided in
December 2007, the Decree has only just been published. It condemns both the women who “attempt” to
receive Holy Orders and the Bishops who “attempt” to confer the Sacrament. Disgracefully, the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith maintain they are promulgating the wishes and will of
Jesus Christ.

However, nothing survives to demonstrate that Jesus
expressed such wishes or particularly favoured men. Jesus sent
both women and men out to announce his teachings and to remember His example
and teaching in celebrating the Eucharist together. One of the tragedies in the Roman Catholic
Church today is that more and more of its members are deprived of this central
Sacrament of the Christian life because there are not enough Pastors to assist
and lead them.

In the early church there
were female Apostles (Mary of Magdala, Thekla, Nino), female Presbyters (eg Ammion, Epikto, Laeta) and even
Bishops (Theodora and another unnamed
woman) and other female office holders.
There is evidence up to the 9th Century of inscriptions on tombs,
churches and in literary texts. (See the
dissertation by Ute E. Eisen„ “Amtstraegerinnen im fruehen Christentum“
“Female ministers /officeholders in early Christianity”,
Goettingen/Germany 1996)

Academic study and
archaeological research over the last two centuries has shown the error in the
arguments put forward by the Roman Catholic hierarchy to exclude women from
Holy Orders. History shows that the
Church does change its mind over its doctrine and thus Can. 1024, “Only a
baptised man can validly receive sacred ordination” can be seen as sexist,
discriminatory and thus worthy of amendment.

In 1994, Pope John Paul II
in the Apostolic letter “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis” stressed that only
men could be validly ordained. The ban
he placed on further investigation and discussion has had no effect. On the contrary, the question of the ordination
of women is increasingly raised. Statements
by the hierarchy that women cannot receive Holy Orders which they say are
“absolutely necessary and irreplaceable in the life and mission of the Church”
no longer convince anyone but the most gullible of believers.

>>> Wording of the
Decree in Latin: http://www.radiovaticana.org/ted/Articolo.asp?c=208819

***********************

Background
information

The
International Movement We Are Church – a grassroots church reform
movement of lay persons, priests, and persons in religious orders – was
started in Austria and Germany in 1995 and then spread out in Europe and all
continents. We Are Church is represented in more than twenty countries
and is in touch with other reform movements all over the world. Its goal is to
keep continue the process of reform in the Roman Catholic Church, a process
which has been opened with Vatican II Council (1962-1965) and came to a
standstill in recent years. Website: http://www.we-are-church.org

**************************************************
If you want to cancel this newsletter or change your email-address,

please
contact media@we-are-church.org