During an exchange with a reporter this week, Pope Francis reaffirmed the Church’s stance on reserving priestly ordination for men, saying that this policy will likely never change.

USA Today is reporting on the exchange which took place between the Pope and a female reporter on the return trip from Sweden.

After noting that the head of Sweden’s Lutheran Church was female, the reporter asked if the Catholic Church would ever change its stance on a male-only priesthood.

"St. Pope John Paul II had the last clear word on this and it stands," Francis replied.

The reporter then asked "Forever, forever? Never, never?"

"If we read carefully the declaration by St. John Paul II, it is going in that direction," the pope responded.

Francis was referring to an Apostolic letter written in 1994 regarding women priests. In the letter, St. John Paul noted that in spite of the Church’s long history of male-only priests, “in some places it is nonetheless considered open to debate.”

This is not so, the pope wrote. "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, 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."

The Church’s teaching on this subject comes from Scripture, Tradition, and the example of Christ who was considered to be very counter-cultural in his relationships with women at the time and yet still preserved Israel’s tradition of male priesthood when conferring the office upon men. This sacred tradition has been continued ever since.

“The question why women can't be ordained priests is often confused with the issue of equality,” writes David Gregson, PhD, for EWTN. “The Holy Father has made it clear that men and women (as far as their sex is concerned) are equal before God (e.g., Mulieris Dignitatem 6). But equality isn't identity. Men and women have different though complementary functions. Priesthood is a male function, for the reason that a priest is an icon of Christ, and Christ is male. The maleness of Christ is an important sign of His relationship to the Church, His Bride . . .”

Dr. Gregson adds: “However, lest it seem that God has honored men above women, we should recall that of all created beings, including the hierarchy of Angels, God raised a Woman to the highest place, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Though she was not an Apostle, she was made Queen of the Apostles, Queen of Angels, Queen of the universe, and the Mother of her own Creator.”

© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com