Excommunication of seven women confirmed

On Monday 27^th January, the Holy See officially confirmed the sentence of excommunication on seven Catholic women, “ordained priests” on 27^th June last year, within a schismatic community. Following the decree of excommunication, promulgated by Rome on 5^th August 2002, the women appealed against it. Their claim was examined on 4^th and 18^th December 2002 by the “competent authorities” at the Vatican, so we learn in the new decree approved by John Paul II on 20^th December and signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. At the conclusion of the two meetings, the thirteen cardinals present, all members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “unanimously” rejected the appeal, emphasising that this was impossible in a case of excommunication “ferendae sententiae”¹ and the subject of the appeal – the exclusion of women from the priesthood – was no longer an object for discussion.