1. Priestly ordination, which hands on the office entrusted by Christ to his Apostles of teaching,
sanctifying, and governing the faithful, has in the Catholic Church from the beginning always been
reserved to men alone. This tradition has also been faithfully maintained by the Oriental Churches. 

When the question of the ordination of women arose in the Anglican Communion, Pope Paul VI, out
of fidelity to his office of safeguarding the Apostolic Tradition, and also with a view to removing a
new obstacle placed in the way of Christian unity, reminded Anglicans of the position of the Catholic
Church: "She holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental
reasons. These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing
his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in
choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of
women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church."1 

But since the question had also become the subject of debate among theologians and in certain
Catholic circles, Paul VI directed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to set forth and
expound the teaching of the Church on this matter. This was done through the Declaration Inter
Insigniores, which the Supreme Pontiff approved and ordered to be published.2  

2. The Declaration recalls and explains the fundamental reasons for this teaching, reasons expounded
by Paul VI, and concludes that the Church "does not consider herself authorized to admit women to
priestly ordination."3  To these fundamental reasons the document adds other theological reasons
which illustrate the appropriateness of the divine provision, and it also shows clearly that Christ's
way of acting did not proceed from sociological or cultural motives peculiar to his time. As Paul VI
later explained: "The real reason is that, in giving the Church her fundamental constitution, her
theological anthropology-- thereafter always followed by the Church's Tradition--Christ established
things in this way."4  

In the Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, I myself wrote in this regard: "In calling only men as his
Apostles, Christ acted in a completely free and sovereign manner. In doing so, he exercised the
same freedom with which, in all his behaviour, he emphasized the dignity and the vocation of women,
without conforming to the prevailing customs and to the traditions sanctioned by the legislation of the
time."5  

In fact, the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles attest that this call was made in accordance with
God's eternal plan: Christ chose those whom he willed (cf. Mk 3:13-14; Jn 6:70), and he did so in
union with the Father, "through the Holy Spirit" ( 1:2), after having spent the night in prayer (cf. Lk
6:12). Therefore, in granting admission to the ministerial priesthood,6  the Church has always
acknowledged as a perennial norm her Lord's way of acting in choosing twelve men whom he made
the foundation of his Church (cf. Rev 21:14). These men did not in fact receive only a function which
could thereafter be exercised by any member of the Church; rather they were specifically and
intimately associated in the mission of the Incarnate Word himself (cf. Mt 10:1, 7-8; 28:16-20; Mk
3:13- 16; 16:14-15). The Apostles did the same when they chose fellow workers7  who would
succeed them in their ministry.8  Also included in this choice were those who, throughout the time
of the Church, would carry on the Apostles' mission of representing Christ the Lord and
Redeemer.9  

3. Furthermore, the fact that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church,
received neither the mission proper to the Apostles nor the ministerial priesthood clearly shows that
the non-admission of women to priestly ordination cannot mean that women are of lesser dignity, nor
can it be construed as discrimination against them. Rather, it is to be seen as the faithful observance
of a plan to be ascribed to the wisdom of the Lord of the universe. 

The presence and the role of women in the life and mission of the Church, although not linked to the
ministerial priesthood, remain absolutely necessary and irreplaceable. As the Declaration Inter
Insigniores points out, "the Church desires that Christian women should become fully aware of the
greatness of their mission; today their role is of capital importance both for the renewal and
humanization of society and for the rediscovery by believers of the true face of the Church".10  

The New Testament and the whole history of the Church give ample evidence of the presence in the
Church of women, true disciples, witnesses to Christ in the family and in society, as well as to total
consecration to the service of God and of the Gospel. "By defending the dignity of women and their
vocation, the Church has shown honour and gratitude for those women who--faithful to the
Gospel--have shared in every age in the apostolic mission of the whole People of God. They are the
holy martyrs, virgins, and the mothers of families, who bravely bore witness to their faith and passed
on the Church's faith and tradition by bringing up their children in the spirit of the Gospel".11  

Moreover, it is to the holiness of the faithful that the hierarchical structure of the Church is totally
ordered. For this reason, the Declaration Inter Insigniores recalls: "the only better gift, which can
and must be desired, is love (cf. 1 Cor 12 and 13). The greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven are not
the ministers but the saints".12  

4. Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved
by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its
more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to
debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to
have a merely disciplinary force. 

Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter
which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the
brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare 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. 

Invoking an abundance of divine assistance upon you, venerable Brothers, and upon all the faithful, I
impart my Apostolic Blessing. 

From the Vatican, on 22 May, the Solemnity of Pentecost, in the year 1994, the sixteenth of my
Pontificate.

1. Paul VI, Response to the Letter of His Grace the Most Reverend Dr. F. D. Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury,
concerning the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood (30 November 1975): AAS 68 (1976), 599. 
2. Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Inter Insigniores on the Question of the Admission
of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood (15 October 1976): AAS 69 (1977), 98-116. 
3. Ibid., 100. 
4. Paul VI, Address on the Role of Women in the Plan of Salvation (30 January 1977): Insegnamenti, XV (1977),
111. Cf. also John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici (30 December 1988), 31: 81 (1989), 393-521;
Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1577. 
5. Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem (15 August 1988), 26; AAS 80 (1988), 1715. 
6. Cf. Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 28; Decree Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2b. 
7. Cf. 1 Tim 3:1-13; 2 Tim 1:6; Tit 1:5-9. 
8. Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1577. 
9. Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 20, 21. 
10. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Inter Insigniores, 6: AAS 69 (1977), 115-116. 
11. Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, 27: AAS 80 (1988), 1719. 
12. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Inter Insigniores, 6: AAS 69 (1977), 115.