01:00 AM EDT on Friday, August 19, 2005

Regarding the Aug. 16 letter "Catholic dogma and CORPUSRI," by John J. Walsh: Mr. Walsh, chairman of CORPUSRI (Corps of Retired Priests United for Service Rhode Island), is factually incorrect in asserting that Catholic "church law" can be changed to allow for women priests. He is also incorrect in suggesting that the church can redefine its hierarchical structure.

Pope John Paul II stated in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis that only men can be priests, and that "this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful."

When a pope speaks on matters of morals and faith, his word cannot be changed. This is also a Catholic teaching. The Catholic Church holds that it is not admissible to ordain women as priests, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons include: the example, recorded in the Sacred Scriptures, of Christ's 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.

In calling only men as His Apostles, Christ acted in a completely free and sovereign manner. He exercised the same freedom with which, in all His behavior, He emphasized the dignity and the vocation of women, without conforming to the prevailing customs or to the traditions sanctioned by the legislation of the time.

Regarding the church hierarchy, Pope John Paul II also stated, in an audience of Oct. 22, 1993, that "Christ wanted his church to be sacramentally and hierarchically structured, and for this reason no one has the right to change what the divine Founder has established."

PAUL KOKOSKI

Hamilton, Ontario

The writer is a member of the Catholic Civil Rights League.