Vatican decree on women's ordination and excommunication

The following is an NCR translation of the decree from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's top doctrinal office, issued today regarding excommunication for those involved in attempts to ordain women as Catholic priests. The decree was published on May 29 in L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, and is effective immediately.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
General Decree

Regarding the offense of attempted holy ordination of a woman
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in order to safeguard the nature and validity of the sacrament of holy orders, and in virtue of the special faculty conferred upon the congregation by the supreme authority of the church (see canon 30, Code of Canon Law), in the Ordinary Session of December 19, 2007, has decreed:
In keeping with the disposition of canon 1378 of the Code of Canon Law, both the person who attempts to confer holy orders upon a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive holy orders, incur the excommunication latae sententiae, reserved to the Apostolic See.
If the one who attempts to confer holy orders upon a woman or the woman who attempts to receive holy orders is subject to the Code of the Canons of the Eastern Churches, in keeping with canon 1443 of that code, that person will be punished with major excommunication, the remission of which is reserved to the Apostolic See (see canon 1423, Code of the Canons of the Eastern Churches).
The present decree takes effect immediately from the moment of its publication inn L’Osservatore Romano.

William Cardinal Levada
Prefect
Angelo Amato, s.d.b.
Titular Archbishop of Sila
Secretary

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