World : Ban on Women Priests Reaffirmed

Pope John Paul II reaffirmed the church’s ban on women priests today and said some feminist beliefs hampered women’s freedom and progress.

The pontiff, in a 200-page “Apostolic Exhortation” based on a 1987 synod in the Vatican on the role of lay Roman Catholics, said, “In her participation in the life and mission of the Church a woman cannot receive the sacrament of orders, and therefore cannot fulfill the proper function of the ministerial priesthood.”

In a clear reference to some aspects of the feminist movement, he said women should distinguish between what truly responds to their dignity and what is carried out in the name of freedom and progress but actually harms them.