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Two prominent cardinals have reaffirmed that only men can be ordained to the priesthood, aligning with Pope Francis’s recent statements.
“Women cannot be called to this office” Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller stated during an interview with Swiss portal kath.ch on 7 June.
Müller, former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, explained that the exclusion of women from priestly ordination is rooted in the sacrament itself.
He emphasised the theological belief that, while all people are fundamentally equal in their relationship with God, only men can embody the role of Christ within the Church.
Just as “a man cannot become a mother and a woman cannot become a father”, it is only men who are called to the priesthood Müller said
“The vocation comes from God. One would have to complain to God himself that he created human beings as man and woman.”
He also referenced the symbolic nature of the Church which is traditionally viewed as female, with Mary, the Mother of God, serving as its archetype. Thus, Müller asserted “Only a man can represent Christ in relation to the Church”.
The Church “must not change this”
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna, echoed Müller’s sentiments.
Speaking at ITI Catholic University in Austria on 1 June, Schönborn expressed his conviction that the Church “cannot and must not change this because it must keep the mystery of women present in an unadulterated way”.
“We were all born of a woman. This will always be reflected in the mystery of the Church.”
He stressed the importance of maintaining the Church’s traditional teaching on this issue, as Pope John Paul II articulated in 1994.
In his apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, John Paul II declared that the Church has “no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women” and that this teaching must be “definitively held by all the Church’s faithful”.
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