The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has responded to doubts that continue to be expressed by some about the teaching that "the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women." The Congregation's answer is unequivocal. This teaching belongs to the deposit of faith and is "to be held always, everywhere, and by all." I ask all in the Church in the United States, especially theologians and pastors who instruct and form our Catholic people in the faith, reverently to receive this teaching as definitive.

We should also be clear about what the teaching is not. It is not a teaching that diminishes the dignity of woman. Human dignity was bestowed equally on both women and men in creation. This too, is the teaching of the Church expressed, in particular, by the Holy Father in his 1988 Apostolic Letter on Women, "Mulieris Dignitatem," where he writes that "both man and woman are human beings to an equal degree, both are created in God's image" (#6), and in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, where it states, "Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity in the image of God" (#369).

To say that women and men have different roles in the Church, or in society at large, is not to say they are unequal. The Holy Father affirms this in his letter "Letter to Women" last June when he wrote that "the presence of a certain diversity of roles is in no way prejudicial to women, provided that this diversity is not the result of an arbitrary imposition, but is rather an expression of what is specific to being male and female." The Holy Father goes on to explain that the limitation of the ministerial priesthood to men "in no way detracts from the role of women, or for that matter from the role of the other members of the Church who are not ordained to the sacred ministry, since all share in the dignity proper to the 'common priesthood' based on Baptism" (#11).

Historically the Church has been a place of great opportunity for women. They have been founders and heads of great religious orders of women. They have been leaders in the development of some of the Churchs' most important ministries, especially healthcare and education. Women have headed Catholic hospitals and colleges, when in the rest of society such opportunities were all but unknown to women. Two examples of women who were truly "Church leaders" are St. Frances Xavier Cabrini and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. As the first U.S. citizens to be canonized, theirs remains a lasting reminder of the contributions women have made and do make to the life of the Church. Today our parishes and dioceses could hardly function without the leadership provided by women.

A constant and conspicuous effort to see that women are given the opportunity to use their God-given gifts in the roles open to them is most beneficial to the Church, unlike continued questioning of a teaching which is definitive and to be held by all.

To those who have questioned this teaching in the past, I ask you now prayerfully to allow the Holy Spirit to fill you with the wisdom and understanding that will enable you to accept it. For the whole Catholic community, the reaffirmation of this teaching is the opportunity for a deeper reflection on the nature of both the ministerial priesthood and the common priesthood of all the faithful. It is also a reminder that the most important and fundamental Christian calling - the call to holiness - is open to all and that both women and men of every state of life have been honored by the Church for answering it.