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The Catholic Church doctrine on the ordination of women, as expressed in the current canon law and the ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'', is that: "Only a baptized man (in Latin, ''vir'') validly receives sacred ordination."〔''Codex Iruis Canonici'' canon 1024, c.f. ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' 1577〕 The Church teaches that this requirement is a matter of divine law, and thus doctrinal regarding priesthood. The question of whether only males can receive ordination to the diaconate is open to discussion, although there is a fundamental unity between deacon, priest, and bishop in the single sacrament of Holy Orders, which is interpreted as meaning that women cannot validly be ordained as deacons.〔''Canonical Implications of Ordaining Women to the Permanent Diaconate'', Canon Law Society of America, 1995.〕〔Commentary by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the Declaration ''Inter Insigniores''.〕〔''Lumen gentium'' 28〕 Pope Francis speaking of priestly ordination of women has more recently stated that "with regards to the ordination of women, the church has spoken and says no...That door is closed."〔"Pope Francis and women's ordination", http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/pope-francis-and-womens-ordination〕 == History == Some supporters of women's ordination have asserted that there have been ordained female priests and bishops in antiquity.〔() article by Fr. William Most from Catholic Culture, retrieved on August 21, 2006〕 The church's position is that, although "a few heretical sects in the first centuries, especially Gnostic ones, entrusted the exercise of the priestly ministry to women: this innovation was immediately noted and condemned by the Fathers who considered it as unacceptable in the Church."〔 In response some supporters of women's ordination argue those sects were not heretical but orthodox.〔(Women's Ordination Conference )〕 There is evidence that women were ordained by some groups within the Christian community. For example, Pope Gelasius I apparently condemned the practice of women officiating at altars; inscriptions near Tropea in Calabria refer to "presbytera", which could be interpreted as a woman priest or as a wife of a male priest.〔 Furthermore, a sarcophagus from Dalmatia is inscribed with the date 425 and records that a grave in the Salona burial-ground was bought from presbytera Flavia Vitalia: selling burial plots was at one time a duty of presbyters.〔 There have been some 15 records so far found of women being ordained in antiquity by Christians; the church, as noted, states those ordinations were by heretical groups, while the Women's Ordination Conference contends those same groups were orthodox.〔 There is also the church of Santa Praxedis, where "Theodora Episcopa"—''episcopa'' is the word for "bishop" in feminine form—appears in an image with two female saints and Mary. Ecclesiastical tradition explains that Theodora was mother of Pope Paschal I, who built the church in her honour and graced her with the title ''Episcopa'' due to her being the mother of a Pope. Dorothy Irvin has argued that Theodora was an unmarried woman, because she wears a coif in the image;〔 this argument is inconclusive, however.〔() Turris Fortis: When Women Were What?〕 Setting aside these theological considerations, advocates for the ordination of women have pointed to vocations declining in Europe and North America and have made the utilitarian argument that women must be ordained in order to have enough priests to administer the sacraments in those areas. Supporting this argument, they made public the story of a Czech woman Ludmila Javorová, who, in the 1990s, was with four or five other women ordained by the late Bishop Felix Maria Davídek in the 1970s, as priests in the underground Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia. There is at least one organization that calls itself "Roman Catholic" that ordains women at the present time, Roman Catholic Womenpriests;〔(Roman Catholic Womenpriests :: Welcome! )〕 and several independent Catholic jurisdictions have been ordaining women in the United States since approximately the late 1990s. These organizations are independent of and unrecognised by the Roman Catholic Church. There are several others calling for the Roman Catholic Church itself to ordain women, such as St. Joan’s International Alliance,〔()〕 Circles,〔()〕 Brothers and Sisters in Christ,〔(Brothers and Sisters in Christ )〕 Catholic Women's Ordination,〔(Catholic Women's Ordination )〕 and Corpus,〔(Corpus )〕 along with others. Recently (April 19, 2009), Womenpriests elected four bishops to serve the United States: Joan Mary Clark Houk, Andrea Michele Johnson, Maria Regina Nicolosi, and Bridget Mary Meehan. The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a decree in 2008 declaring such "attempted ordinations" invalid and that, since Canons 1378 and 1443 apply to those who participate in these ordinations, all were excommunicated.〔http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2008/05/general-decree-of-congregation-for.html〕 Edward Peters, a doctor of canon law, explains that their excommunication results in virtue of a combination of other canons〔http://www.canonlaw.info/2008/05/excommunciation-for-female-ordinations.html〕 which arise from application of Canons 1378 and 1443. In response, Womenpriests said its members are "loyal member of the church who stand in the prophetic tradition of holy disobedience to an unjust law."〔editors, "In the Beginning," ''National Catholic Reporter'' May 1, 2009, 4.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Catholic Church doctrine on the ordination of women」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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