Two Conditions Render Difficult This

The Pope-and We Know This Well-is Without Doubt The Most Serious Obstacle On The Ecumenical Road.

Without Repeating Everything That We Have Already Mentioned, It Is Appropriate First Of All To Emphasize The Following Point: For The Church, The First Means Of Evangelization Is The Witness Of An Authentically Christian Life, Given Over To God In A Communion That Nothing Should Destroy And At The Same Time Given To One's Neighbor With Limitless Zeal. As We Said Recently To A Group Of Lay People, “modern Man Listens More Willingly To Witnesses Than To Teachers, And If He Does Listen To Teachers, It Is Because They Are Witnesses.

The Catholic Church Holds That It Is Not Admissible To Ordain Women To The Priesthood, For Very Fundamental Reasons. These Reasons Include: The Example Recorded In The Sacred Scriptures Of Christ Choosing His Apostles Only From Among Men; The Constant Practice Of The Church, Which Has Imitated Christ In Choosing Only Men; And Her Living Teaching Authority Which Has Consistently Held That The Exclusion Of Women From The Priesthood Is In Accordance With God's Plan For His Church.

For Peace Is Not Simply The Absence Of Warfare, Based On A Precarious Balance Of Power; It Is Fashioned By Efforts Directed Day After Day Toward The Establishment Of The Ordered Universe Willed By God, With A More Perfect Form Of Justice Among Men.

The Unique And Indivisible Existence Of The Lord Glorious In Heaven, Is Not Multiplied, But Is Rendered Present By The Sacrament In The Many Places On Earth Where Mass Is Celebrated. And This Existence Remains Present, After The Sacrifice, In The Blessed Sacrament, Which Is, In The Tabernacle, The Living Heart Of Each Of Our Churches.