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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Cardinal backtracks on women priests


The Patriarch of Lisbon has backtracked on his statement that there are no theological reasons why women cannot be priests.

In a letter to the Zenit News Agency Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo stated he had perhaps not been as clear as he would have liked and had not meant to suggest that Pope John Paul II’s statement that women would never be priests was up for negotiation.

In an interview last month with OA, the monthly magazine of the Portuguese Order of Attorneys, Cardinal Policarpo said there could be women priests “when God wills,” however, it was better “not to raise the issue.”

He added: “I think that there is no fundamental obstacle” to women priests. “It is a fundamental equality of all members of the Church. The problem is a strong tradition that comes from Jesus and the ease with which the Reformed Churches have granted priesthood to women.”

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