A brief apostolic letter to the bishops of the Catholic Church on reserving priestly ordination to men alone. It rehearses the constant tradition: that Christ chose the Twelve from among men, that the Apostles did otherwise, that the Church has always so understood herself, and that this is a matter not of the dignity of women — which the same pontificate had defended at length — but of the Church's lack of authority over the form Christ himself gave to the ministerial priesthood. It closes with a formal declaration that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the faithful.