NOTIFICATION ON THE DIACONAL ORDINATION OF WOMEN

VATICAN CITY, SEP 17, 2001 (VIS) - Made public today was the following Notification by the Congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith, for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments and for Clergy, signed by the respective prefects, Cardinals Joseph Ratzinger, Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez and Dario Castrillon Hoyos. The Notification was approved by the Pope on September 14.

"1. Our offices have received from several countries signs of courses that are being planned or underway, directly or indirectly aimed at the diaconal ordination of women. Thus are born hopes which are lacking a solid doctrinal foundation and which can generate pastoral disorientation.

"2. Since ecclesial ordination does not foresee such an ordination, it is not licit to enact initiatives which, in some way, aim to prepare candidates for diaconal ordination.

"3. The authentic promotion of women in the Church, in conformity with the constant ecclesial Magisterium, with special reference to (the Magisterium) of His Holiness John Paul II, opens other ample prospectives of service and collaboration.

"4. The undersigned Congregations - within the sphere of their proper authority - thus turn to the individual ordinaries, asking them to explain (this) to their own faithful and to diligently apply the above-mentioned directives."

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