Poll-Release Monday #60

You have probably noticed that I've only been updating the poll every two weeks instead of every week. I think this is better because it gives people more time to vote and takes the pressure off of me to keep up with this so frequently. Honestly, I'm not sure how people post 4 and 5 times a day. Pretty crazy.

Anyway, here is this week's poll question. We're done with Holy Orders, so we turn now to the liturgy:

• True or false?: Proper song and music in the liturgy, although acting as signs in regard to liturgical action, are not elements which can promote the sanctification of the faithful.

Let me know what you think by voting in the poll in the sidebar.

As for the previous poll, here are the results:

• True or false?: The ordination of women remains an option which the Church may choose in the future.
  • True: 4 (9%)
  • False: 40 (91%)

The correct answer is:

• FALSE, cf. CCC no. 1577: "Only a baptized man (vir) validly receives sacred ordination" (CIC, can. 1024). The Lord Jesus chose men (viri) to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry (Cf. Mk 3:14-19; Lk 6:12-16; 1 Tim 3:1-13; 2 Tim 1:6; Titus 1:5-9; St. Clement of Rome, Ad Cor. 42, 4:44, 3: PG 1, 292-293; 300). The college of bishops, with whom the priests are united in the priesthood, makes the college of the twelve an ever-present and ever-active reality until Christ's return. The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible (Cf. John Paul II, MD 26-27; CDF, declaration, Inter insigniores: AAS 69 [1977] 98-116).

The Church is pretty clear on this point: She could not ordain a woman to the priesthood even if She wanted to. It is not in the Church's power to do so. This is how strictly tied the Church is to all that is objectively true. For more on this topic, see the following articles:

• Inter Insigniores (Declaration on the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood)
• Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (Apostolic Letter on Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone)
• A True Catholic Feminist: A Woman's Place in the Church
• Authoritatively No Authority to Ordain Women
• C. S. Lewis: Priestesses in the Church?
• Concerning the Reply of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the Teaching Contained in the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis
• Female Priests in the New Testament?
• Ordination Is Not a Right: Why the Church Cannot Make Women Priests
• Priesthood and the Masculinity of Christ
• Sexual Symbolism
• Some Observations Concerning the Catholic Theological Society of America Report on Tradition and the Ordination of Women
• Some Scriptural Arguments for the All-Male Priesthood
• Sullivan and Infallibility
• The All-Male Priesthood
• The Fittingness of Christ as Male
• The Male Priesthood
• Vatican Ban on Woman Priests Is Infallible
• Why Can't Women Be Priests?
• Why Not Women Priests?
• Why Was Christ a Male and Why Did He Ordain Only Men?
• Why Women Can't Be Priests
• Women Priests: No Chance
• Women, Ordination, and Angels
• Women's Ordination: It's Infallible
• Women's Ordination: Taking "No" for an Answer

Pax Christi,
phatcatholic