No Priestly Ordination Of Women - Final Or Not So Final?

The Nationl Catholic Reporter published an article on November 1, 2016, entitled  Pope Francis confirms finality of ban on ordaining women priests.  The article reported that "Francis expressed his thoughts on the subject in response to a question Tuesday from a journalist aboard the papal flight back to Rome after a two-day visit to Sweden." [1]  Quoted below is the exchange between the pope and the journalist  [2]:

"Is it realistic to think that there might be women priests also in the Catholic church in the next few decades?" the journalist asked the pope.

"On the ordination of women in the Catholic church, the last word is clear," Francis responded, before mentioning John Paul's 1994 apostolic letter banning the practice, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. "It was given by St. John Paul II and this remains."

"But really forever?" the journalist asked. "Never?"

"If we read carefully the declaration made by St. John Paul II, it goes in that direction," Francis replied.

"But women can do many other things better than men," the pope continued, before repeating remarks he has said in the past about the Catholic church having two dimensions: a Petrine, apostolic dimension led by the bishops and a Marian dimension, which he called "the feminine dimension of the church."

"People ask me: 'Who is more important in the theology or in the spirituality of the church: the apostles or Mary, on the day of Pentecost?' " he said, adding: "It is Mary!" Emphasizing the point, he continued, "More!"

The pope had the chance to answer the journalist's two short questions above with a simple "yes" or "no" but he deflected them by referencing Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, an Apostolic Letter declaring "that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful." [3]

Instead of a "yes" or a "no" answer, imagine what this pope could hear in reply if he asked if he would end up in Heaven forever after his death: according to the Gospel of Matthew, the answer is clear.

Quoted below is from the Gospel of Matthew:

The Answer to Prayers. 

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asks for a loaf of bread,

or a snake when he asks for a fish?

If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.

The Narrow Gate. 

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many.

How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few. [4]

If the pope reads carefully the Gospel of Matthew, in which direction does he think he will be going?


[1] https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/pope-francis-confirms-finality-ban-ordaining-women
[2] Ibid.
[3] https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1994/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_19940522_ordinatio-sacerdotalis.html
[4] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/7:1 (references omitted).