Is the Church’s stance on excluding women from ordination based on dogma or tradition?
Pope John Paul II wrote in 1994 in his apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, “Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.”
Therefore, I believe the answer to your question then is both. A dogma is “a teaching of the Church revealed implicitly or explicitly by Sacred Scripture or Sacred Tradition, to be believed by the faithful by virtue of solemn definition or the Church’s ordinary Magisterium” (from Catholic Encyclopedia). So actually, any dogma must be founded in Sacred Scripture or Sacred Tradition, and in this case the principle is founded in both. In Sacred Scripture we find Jesus, the Son of God, who chose among all his disciples after a night of prayer twelve Apostles who were all men. The Apostles themselves chose men as their successors. These successors are the same as today’s bishops and priests. In fact, we have no tradition of doing anything else but ordaining men. For that reason, Pope John Paul II made his authoritative statement above stating that neither he nor the Church has any power to change what Jesus and the Apostles began. Even the Pope must be faithful to what has been handed on to him: Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.
The argument is sometimes made that the culture in which Jesus lived did not permit women in a leadership role, but today’s culture does. This argument implies Jesus was influenced by the culture or that he was either too weak to go against it or unwilling to do so for some reason. I think that is rather arrogant of us to think thus and goes against scriptural evidence of Jesus treating women with great respect (see today’s gospel of the woman at the well). The Church affirms the dignity of women, their status as equals beside men, and their role in leadership. In fact, our greatest and most honored saint is the Blessed Virgin Mary, and our parishes would fall apart without the help and leadership of women! To be a priest is not to be elevated above others–to be considered “better” than other members of the Church. To be a priest is to be called to serve others by teaching and administering the Sacraments. The mark of true greatness is measured only by our love shown in acts of service to God and to our sisters and brothers. To the vocation of love, no one is excluded.
-Fr. Greg
