Pope John Paul II has taken a dramatic step to quell liberal dissent in the Catholic Church with an edict that insists on obedience to Catholic teaching on fiercely contested issues such as women priests and euthanasia, with "just punishment" for those who fail to obey.
The document defines a category of obligatory teachings for Catholics to remain "in full communion" with the church. The teachings, which include banning prostitution and sex outside marriage, are to be regarded as infallible.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said in an explanatory note: "Every believer is required to give firm and definitive assent to these truths." Whoever denied them "would no longer be in full communion with the Catholic Church".
The apostolic letter was published under the Pope's personal authority in Italian and Latin on Tuesday, and was particularly addressed to all who teach the Catholic faith - theologians, clerics and laity. Punishment would range from warnings to excommunication, Cardinal Ratzinger said.
The document was being seized upon yesterday as evidence of the pontiff's increasingly authoritarian efforts to combat liberal debate, particularly in Europe and North America. The hugely successful reform movement, We Are the Church, gathered 2.3 million signatures across Europe in support of issues such as women priests, married priests and more democracy in the church.
Only last month, the Pope's visit to Austria, where the movement began, was marred by low turn-out and media criticism.
"This document is clarification of Catholic teaching. It is called `To Defend Faith'; it is a reactive text to recent debate. It is saying you shouldn't even be talking about these issues," said a spokesman for the Catholic Church's Media Office in England.
Liberal Catholics are concerned that the Pope, plagued by ill-health, is doing all he can to bequeath to his successor a theological straitjacket which will handicap any attempts to undertake reform on key issues such as celibacy or women priests.
"There is a lamentable mindset in the Vatican at the moment. It's a dreadful period," said John Wilkins, editor of the Catholic weekly the Tablet.
"There's been tremendous centralisation of the Catholic Church this century, and this papacy has been an extension of that."
But Mr Wilkins believes that the document will only undermine the credibility of the papacy as Catholics simply ignore it.
What will particularly alarm theologians and bishops is that the document hugely expands the controversial doctrine of infallibility to any teachings relating to faith and morals.
The document also represents a sharp rebuke to the growing trend of a la carte Catholicism in Europe and North America whereby church members simply ignore papal teaching on controversial issues, most notably contraception.
