A reader writes:
A friend is questioning why the ordination of women is not allowed in the Catholic Church, and I referred him to Ordinatio Sacerdotalis from 1994 and Cardinal Ratzinger’s response from 1995. In the Cardinal’s response, there is a reference to a “dubium,” which begins “Whether the teaching that the Church has no authority . . .”
My Latin isn’t very good. What is a “dubium”? Is it a “doubt” or something “doubtful”? And what does it mean in this particular context?
A lot of folks have this question, because a kind of shorthand ecclesiastical jargon is being used here. Normally these documents don’t make big headlines, and so most folks aren’t familiar with them or the terminology associated with them, but here’s the scoop:
The full name for this kind of document is a Responsum ad Dubium, which in Latin means "A Response to a Doubt" or, somewhat more freely, "An Answer to a Question." They’re a kind of Vatican Q & A that the Holy See uses to clarify certain issues.
Since Responsum ad Dubium is kind of a mouthful, though, one of them may colloquially be called a Responsum or a Dubium, even though the latter doesn’t make much sense when translated literally as "Doubt."
Incidentally, the plural forms of these would be Responsa and Dubia.
Hope this helps!
