No theological obstacles to women priests says cardinal

There are no theological reasons why women cannot be priests, the Patriarch of Lisbon said last week, however the time for such a change in church tradition is not right.

In an interview with OA, the monthly magazine of the Portuguese Order of Attorneys, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Portugal, Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo said there could be women priests “when God wills,” however, it was better “not to raise the issue.”

Cardinal Policarpo stated: “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.”

He noted that Pope “John Paul II at one point seemed to settle the matter” with his Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. Written in 1994 after the Church of England opened the priesthood to women, the Pope stated the Roman Catholic Church would never do so.

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