The priest emphasized that “the priesthood is not a functional matter that anyone can do, like changing a tire. Receiving it configures the being.”
Imitating Christ for two millennia
The second argument provided by Bronchalo regarding the ordination of women is based on the fact that “the Church has lived out a constant practice for two millennia in giving the sacrament of priestly orders only to men, imitating Christ in his choice.”
“We are depositories of a faith that we have received and that we transmit. That’s why the Church does not feel empowered to change matters that come from Christ himself,” the priest added.
He also pointed out that in the Catholic Church, 24 ritual Churches coexist and “in all those churches during all this time, it has always been understood that the priesthood is given to men because Christ himself wanted it that way.”
From the Fathers of the Church
Third, Bronchalo pointed out that “the magisterium of the Church has continually referred to the fact that priestly ordination is for men” — not only as St. John Paul II did in recent times, but also at other times in the history of the Church. Thus, in the first centuries, Fathers of the Church such as St. Irenaeus, Tertullian, or St. Augustine speak “of the reasons for ordination being reserved to men.”
Women such as St. Catherine of Siena, a doctor of the Church, have also supported the exclusive ordination of men. The saint “spoke of the wonder of being priests, in order to exhort men to exercise their ministry well,” the priest noted.
Bronchalo concluded that the drawing “is out of bounds and is confusing” because “rather than uniting, which is what the synod seeks, what these things do is divide,” adding that “I wish they would remove it or they could give an explanation to those who feel confused.”
‘Everything that is not the Church’
Father Silva of the Archdiocese of Madrid commented on Twitter:
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“Don’t you find it endearing that on the @Synod_va page they’ve put a representation of non-Catholic churches with all their errors summarized in a single image? So we can know everything that is not the Catholic Church. Interesting strategy.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
The Catholic News Agency (CNA) Staff are a team of journalists dedicated to reporting news concerning the Catholic Church around the world. Our bureaus are located in Denver, Washington, and Rome. We have sister language agencies in Kenya, Germany, Peru, Brazil, and Italy. CNA is a service of EWTN News. You can contact us at news@catholicna.com with questions.