[No one] “has the power to transform this divine gift to adapt it and reduce its transcendent value to the cultural and environmental field. No council, no synod, no ecclesiastical authority has the power to invent a female priesthood… without seriously damaging the perennial physiognomy of the priest, his sacramental identity, within the renewed ecclesiological vision of the Church, mystery, communion and mission. The Catholic faith professes that the sacrament of holy orders, instituted by Christ the Lord, is one; it is identical for the universal Church. For Jesus, there is no African, German, Amazonia, or European priesthood.

It is a divine gift that must be received, understood and lived, and the Church has always sought to understand and enter deeper into the real and proper being of the priest, as a baptized man, called to be an alter Christus, another Christ, even more ipse Christus, Christ Himself, to represent Him, to conform to Him, to be configured and mediated in Christ with priestly ordination.

The priest is a man of God who is day and night in the presence of God to glorify Him, to adore Him. The priest is a man immolated in sacrifice to prolong the sacrifice of Christ for the salvation of the world.