Apostolicae curae
Apostolicae curae Latin for 'With Apostolic care'Anglican orders are confirmed to be invalid | |
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Apostolicae curae is the title of an apostolic letter, issued in 1896 by Pope Leo XIII, declaring all Anglican ordinations to be "absolutely null and utterly void". The Anglican Communion made no official reply, but the archbishops of Canterbury and York of the Church of England published a response known by its Latin title Saepius officio in 1897.
Leo XIII deemed Anglican
The view of many Anglican bishops and defenders was that the required references to the sacrificial priesthood at the heart of the Roman argument never existed in many of the ancient Latin liturgical rites' ordination liturgies, or in certain Eastern Catholic ordination liturgies that the Catholic Church considered to be valid. In the Catholic view, the differences between these rites are a matter of tradition or custom, and indicate no intention to exclude a sacrificing priesthood.
Context
Leo XIII established a commission to consider the validity of Anglican orders after receiving an appeal for such a review from Fernand Portal, a Catholic and a former missionary, and Charles Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax, an Anglican. Following the establishment of the Church of England outside of papal authority, the Catholic Church did not recognize the consecrations of bishops by a prelate who accepted the supremacy of the English monarch and whose appointments lacked papal confirmation. Several centuries later, some hoped that a review in light of a contemporary understanding of grace that had developed in sacramental theology would support a different assessment. Leo's commission was equally divided between two opposing views, and Leo relied on his personal theologian, Cardinal Raffaele Pierotti, who was titled the Master of the Apostolic Palace (the role now called Theologian of the Pontifical Household). Pierotti held a negative position on the validity of Anglican orders and believed that reaffirmation of their invalidity would result in many converts to Catholicism.[1]
Defect of Anglican ordination rites asserted
Origins
Prior to Apostolicae curae, decisions had already been given by Rome that Anglican orders were invalid. The practices of the Catholic Church had supposed their invalidity. Whenever former Anglican priests desired to be priests in the Catholic Church they were unconditionally ordained.[2] As the Oxford Movement progressed, several members of the clergy and laity of the Church of England argued that the Catholic Church practice of unconditionally ordaining clerical converts from Anglicanism arose out of a lack of inquiry into the validity of Anglican orders and from mistaken assumptions which, in the light of certain historical investigations, could no longer be asserted.[3]
Those who were interested in a corporate reunion of
Extrinsic grounds
The extrinsic grounds were said to be in the fact of the implicit approval of the
When the reconciliation of the Church of England with the Holy See took place in the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip, Pope Julius III sent Cardinal Reginald Pole as legate to England with powers to meet the case. Those powers were "certainly not intended to deal with an abstract state of things, but with a specific and concrete issue". They were directed towards providing for holy orders in England "as the recognized condition of the circumstances and the times demanded". The powers given to Pole on 8 March 1554 distinguished two classes of priests:
the first, those who had really received sacred orders, either before the secession of Henry VIII, or, if after it and by ministers infected by error and schism, still according to the accustomed Catholic Rite; the second, those who were initiated according to the Edwardine Ordinal, who on that account could be promoted, since they had received an ordination that was null
The mind of Julius III appears also from the letter dated 29 January 1555 by which Pole delegated his powers to the Bishop of Norwich.[6] To the same effect was a bull issued by Pope Paul IV on 20 June 1555 and a brief dated 30 October 1555.[6] Apostolicae curae also cites John Clement Gordon who had received orders according to the Edwardine ritual.[6] Pope Clement XI issued a decree on 17 April 1704 that he should be ordained unconditionally and he grounded his decision on the "defect of form and intention".[6]
Intrinsic grounds
The intrinsic reason for which Anglican orders were pronounced invalid by the bull, was the "defect of form and intention".[6] It set forth that "the Sacraments of the New Law, as sensible and efficient signs of invisible grace, ought both to signify the grace which they effect, and effect the grace which they signify".[6] The rite used in administering a sacrament must be directed to the meaning of that sacrament or else there would be no reason why the rite used in one sacrament may not effect another.[6] What effects a sacrament is the intention of administering that sacrament and the rite used according to that intention.[6] The bull took note of the fact that in 1662 the form introduced in the Edwardine ordinal of 1552 had added to it the words: "for the office and work of a priest".[6] But it observed that this shows that the Anglicans themselves perceived that the first form was defective and inadequate.[6] Rome felt that even if this addition could give the form its due signification, it was introduced too late.[6] A century had already elapsed since the adoption of the Edwardine ordinal and as the hierarchy had become extinct there remained no power of ordaining.[3]
The same was held to be true of episcopal consecration.[6] The episcopate is thought to constitute the priesthood in the highest degree.[6] It was concluded that the true priesthood was utterly eliminated from the Anglican rite and the priesthood was in no way conferred truly and validly in the episcopal consecration of the same rite.[6] For the same reason the episcopate was in no way truly and validly conferred by it and this the more so because among the first duties of the episcopate is that of ordaining ministers for the Holy Eucharist.[6]
The pope went on to state that the Anglican ordinal had included what he felt were the errors of the English Reformation. It could not be used to confer valid orders, nor could it later be purged of this original defect, chiefly because he felt the words used in it had a meaning entirely different from what would be required to confer the sacrament. The pope felt that not only was the proper form for the sacrament lacking in the Anglican ordinal, but the intention was also lacking. He concluded by explaining how carefully and how prudently this matter has been examined by the Holy See. He stated that those who examined it with him were agreed that the question had already been settled, but that it might be reconsidered and decided in the light of the latest controversies over the question. He then declared that ordinations conducted with the Anglican rite were "null and void", and implored those who were not Catholic and who wanted orders to return to the one sheepfold of Christ where they would find the true aids for salvation. He also invited those who were the ministers of religion in their various congregations to be reconciled to the Catholic Church, assuring them of his sympathy in their spiritual struggles. The bull concludes with the usual declaration of the authority of an apostolic letter.[3]
Anglican responses
No official reply was promulgated by the Church of England or by any other Anglican church. At the Lambeth Conference of 1897 a subcommittee report made reference to "an examination of the position of the Church of England" by the Pope, but they declined to submit any resolution concerning "the Latin communion".[7]
Saepius officio
Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, and William Maclagan, Archbishop of York, answered Pope Leo's charges in their written response, Saepius officio: Answer of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to the bull Apostolicae Curae of H.H. Leo XIII.[8]
First, they asserted that the ordination ceremonies in question were biblically valid. They then provided pages of quotations, detailing Catholic and Eastern Orthodox liturgies that they considered guilty of the same alleged offenses. According to the archbishops, if the ordinations of the bishops and priests in the Anglican churches were invalid then, by the same measure, so must be the ordinations of clergy in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.[8]
On the charge of intent, the response argued that the readmission of the required phrases in 1662 were addressed more to the
The Catholic bishops of England and Wales issued a response to Saepius officio, entitled A Vindication of the Bull 'Apostolicae Curae', and pointed out the Protestant theology of Cranmer and the English Reformers.[10]
Other Anglican responses
One evangelical response declared that "Christian teaching must be tested by the New Testament, not by any nebulous formula known as 'Catholic truth'".[11]
Another Anglican view was that of Randall Davidson, who succeeded Temple as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1903. He stressed "the strength and depth of the Protestantism of England" and regarded other differences with Rome as much more important than its views on Anglican orders.[12]
Helped by articles in The Times, Apostolicae curae was understood to mean that orders conferred in the Church of England were not, to the Pope, orders in the Catholic sense. Anglican resentment began to abate. Vaughan's biographer comments that, "there would probably have been much more resentment had the Holy See declared in favour of Anglican orders and declared Anglican clergy 'massing priests'".[13] Nonetheless Vaughan saw fit to publish A Vindication of the Bull 'Apostolicae Curae': A Letter on Anglican Orders by the Cardinal Archbishop and Bishops of the Province of Westminster in 1898.[14]
Subsequent challenges
Gregory Dix
In 1944
"The Church of England", Dix says, "never committed itself in any way to his interpretation of the rites [Cranmer] had compiled and which the State compelled the Church to use", on which Paul F. Palmer commented: "Suffice it to note that Edward VI was recognized as the spiritual head of the Church of England. If the Oath of Supremacy meant anything, it meant at least this much."[16]
Dix opposed the projected
John Jay Hughes
In his 1970 book, Stewards of the Lord: A Reappraisal of Anglican Orders, John Jay Hughes argued that there were enough flaws in and ambiguity surrounding the pope's apostolic letter to merit re-examination of the question of the invalidity of Anglican holy orders. Hughes himself had previously been an Anglican priest and was subsequently conditionally ordained in the Catholic Church. Other Anglican theological critics[who?] argued that apostolic succession had never been broken in the first place, due to valid ordinations tracing back to Archbishop William Laud and beyond to Archbishop Matthew Parker.[a]
Basil Hume
In 1978, Cardinal
I could not in practice dismiss all Anglican Orders as "null and void" because I know that a number of Anglican Bishops have in fact had the presence at their ordination of an Old Catholic or an Orthodox bishop, that is, somebody who, in the traditional theology of our Church, has been ordained according to a valid rite. As far as the Roman Catholic Church is concerned, I think it needs to look carefully again at Apostolicae Curae and its status. We need to discover whether the historical background upon which it was working and the argumentation upon which it was based is consonant with historical and theological truth as theologians and historians see it today.[20]
In 1994, Hume reaffirmed the Apostolicae curae judgment that Anglican orders are invalid, but said that, in some "probably rare" cases, it could be doubted that the priestly ordination of a particular Anglican cleric was in fact invalid. If that cleric was to be admitted to ordained ministry in the Catholic Church, the need to avoid any doubt about the validity of the sacraments he would administer still required that he be ordained in the Catholic Church, though conditionally, not in the absolute way used when there is no doubt that the previous Anglican ordination was invalid. In one particular case, this view was approved by Rome.
While firmly restating the judgment of Apostolicae Curae that Anglican ordination is invalid, the Catholic Church takes account of the involvement, in some Anglican episcopal ordinations, of bishops of the Old Catholic Church of the Union of Utrecht who are validly ordained. In particular and probably rare cases the authorities in Rome may judge that there is a "prudent doubt" concerning the invalidity of priestly ordination received by an individual Anglican minister ordained in this line of succession. There are many complex factors that would require verification in each case. Of course, if there were other cases where sufficient evidence was available, the balance of that evidence may lead the authorities to reach a different judgment.[21]
At the same time, he stated:
Since the church must be in no doubt of the validity of the sacraments celebrated for the Catholic community, it must ask all who are chosen to exercise the priesthood in the Catholic Church to accept sacramental ordination in order to fulfill their ministry and be integrated into the apostolic succession.[21]
Hume made these statements in relation to
Francesco Coccopalmerio
In 2017, in remarks at an ecumenical forum that were later published, Cardinal
What does it mean when Pope Paul VI gave a chalice to the Archbishop of Canterbury? If it was to celebrate the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, it was meant to be done validly, no?” ... This is stronger than the pectoral cross, because a chalice is used not just for drinking but for celebrating the Eucharist. With these gestures the Catholic Church already intuits, recognises a reality.
Coccopalmerio said the current situation is "unclear": "The question of validity (of Anglican orders) is not a matter of law but of doctrine." He believes that the Catholic understanding of validity should be loosened, so that the context is taken into consideration in questions of validity of the sacraments. He points out that some issues that people pretend to be matters of faith are not so in reality, and are no reason for division between churches.[23]
The canon lawyer Edward N. Peters objected to news coverage of Coccopalmerio's views that referred to Leo XIII's "remarks". He said that Apostolicae curae, as a papal bull, was arguably an infallible exercise of papal extraordinary magisterium, or at least "a prominent exercise of the ordinary papal magisterium which coalesced with several centuries of other ordinary exercises of papal-episcopal magisterium in rejecting the validity of Anglican orders to the point that Catholics must hold them invalid", as indicated in the official commentary that accompanied the Apostolic Letter Ad tuendam fidem. Peters observed that the words attributed to the Coccopalmerio do not dispute the 1896 text directly, because the assertion that Anglican orders are invalid does not necessarily mean that when someone is ordained in the Anglican Church nothing has happened.[24]
Malines Conversations Group
In December 2021, the Malines Conversations Group, an independent Catholic-Anglican dialogues group, released a document titled SORORES IN SPE - Sisters in Hope of the Resurrection: A Fresh Response to the Condemnation of Anglican Orders (1896). The document calls for the overturning of the decision of Apostolicae curae.[25]
Reaffirmation by the Holy See
In 1998, the
The continuing authority of Apostolicae curae was affirmed in the essay "The Significance of the Apostolic Constitution
Complications
Several developments have complicated the possible re-examination of Anglican orders by the Catholic Church. The ordination of women as priests and bishops in the Anglican Communion has been interpreted as expressing an understanding of ordination differing from that of the Catholic Church, which holds that male-only priesthood is a definitive teaching.[29]
Similarly, the decision of some Anglican bodies to extend intercommunion to churches without the traditional understanding of
Reflecting on the
Other obstacles were mentioned by Cardinal
For Orthodoxy, the validity of ordinations does not depend simply on the fulfillment of certain technical conditions (external possession of the apostolic succession; correct form, matter and intention). The Orthodox also ask: What is the general sacramental teaching of the Christian body in question? What does it believe concerning the inner meaning of the apostolic succession and priesthood? How does it understand the eucharistic presence and sacrifice? Only when these questions have been answered can a decision be made about the validity or otherwise of ordinations. To isolate the problem of valid orders is to go up a blind alley. Realizing this, Anglicans and Eastern Orthodox in their discussions from the 1950s onwards have left the question of valid orders largely to one side, and have concentrated on more substantive and central themes of doctrinal belief.[36]
See also
Notes
- Hugh Curwin, Archbishop of Dublin (1557–1568), who was consecrated Bishop of Oxford in the Roman rite in 1555 under Queen Mary I.[19]
References
Footnotes
- ISBN 9780814683385. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
- ^ a b O'Riordan 1907, p. 644.
- ^ a b c d O'Riordan 1907.
- ^ McCarthy 2012, p. 175.
- ^ Leo XIII 1896, p. 202.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o O'Riordan 1907, p. 645.
- ^ Davidson 1920, p. 246.
- ^ a b c d Temple & Maclagan 1897.
- ^ Temple & Maclagan 1897, p. 14.
- ^ Smith 1907.
- ^ Balleine 1909, p. 315.
- ^ Bell 1935, p. 232.
- ^ McCormack 1966, p. 254.
- ^ Smith 1907, p. 498; Vaughan et al. 1898.
- ^ Dix 1956, p. 30.
- ^ Dix, Gregory (1944). The Question of Anglican Orders: Letters to a Layman (Dacre Press, Westminster, England), p. 92
- ^ John Hunwicke, "Anglican Orders"
- ^ Moss 1965, ch. 64, sec. III.
- ^ a b "Interview with Basil Hume". Church Times. Hymns Ancient & Modern. 28 July 1978.
- ^ a b "Statement of Cardinal Hume on the Ordination of Anglican Bishop Leonard as a Catholic Priest". The Catholic Resource Network. Trinity Communications. 1994. Retrieved 11 October 2007 – via EWTN.
- ^ Christopher Lamb, "View from Rome" The Tablet, 22 January 2022, 28.
- ^ a b Lamb, Christopher (9 May 2017). "Anglican Orders Not 'Invalid' Says Cardinal, Opening Way for Revision of Current Catholic Position". The Tablet. London. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
- ^ Peters, Edward N. (10 May 2017). "Questions in the wake of Cdl. Coccopalmerio's comments on Anglican orders". The Catholic World Report. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- ^ Cindy Wooden, "Dialogue group calls for Catholic recognition of Anglican ordinations," National Catholic Reporter, Dec. 12, 2021, 2
- ^ Cindy Wooden, 3.
- ^ "PROFESSION OF FAITH". www.vatican.va. Retrieved 16 December 2021.
- ^ Ghirlanda, Gianfranco (2009). "The Significance of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus". Retrieved 18 March 2018.
- ^ Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Responsum ad Dubium Concerning the Teaching Contained in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, 25 October 1995; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Commentary, Concerning the Reply of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the Teaching Contained in the Apostolic Letter "Ordinatio Sacerdotalis", 25 October 1995.
- ^ Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Episcopal Church (1999). "Called to Common Mission". Episcopal Church. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
- ISSN 0885-9922. Archived from the originalon 4 June 2011. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
- ^ Edward Yarnold, "A word in due season," The Tablet, 18 July 1998, 935
- ^ "In Britain, pope will focus on common Christian mission, official says"[dead link], Catholic News Service, 9 September 2010.
- ^ http://www.vaticannews.va, Sept 6, 2021.
- ^ Handley, Paul (27 May 2003). "Churches' Goal Is Unity, Not Uniformity Spokesman for Vatican Declares". Church Times. p. 2.
- ^ Ware 1993, p. 320.
Bibliography
- Balleine, G. R. (1909). A History of the Evangelical Party in the Church of England. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- Bell, G. K. A. (1935). Randall Davidson. Vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- OCLC 608851076.
- Dix, Gregory (1956). The Question of Anglican Orders (rev. ed.). London: Dacre Press.
- Leo XIII (1896). "Apostolicae curae" (PDF). Acta Apostolicae Sedis (in Latin). 29. New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation (published 1969): 193–203. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
- McCarthy, Timothy G. (2012) [1998]. Catholic Tradition: The Church in the Twentieth Century (2nd ed.). Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock. ISBN 978-1-62032-235-2.
- McCormack, Arthur (1966). Cardinal Vaughan. London: Burns & Oates.
- Moss, C. B. (1965) [1943]. The Christian Faith: An Introduction to Dogmatic Theology. London: SPCK. Retrieved 18 March 2018 – via Katapi.
- O'Riordan, M. (1907). . In Herbermann, Charles G.; Pace, Edward A.; Pallen, Condé B.; Shahan, Thomas J.; Wynne, John J. (eds.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: The Encyclopedia Press (published 1913). pp. 644–645.
- Smith, Sydney F. (1907). "Anglican Orders". In Herbermann, Charles G.; Pace, Edward A.; Pallen, Condé B.; Shahan, Thomas J.; Wynne, John J. (eds.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: The Encyclopedia Press (published 1913). pp. 491–498.
- Temple, Frederick; Maclagan, William (1897). Answer of the Archbishops of England to the Apostolic Letter of Pope Leo XIII on English Ordinations. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- Whiteside, Thomas; Bourne, Francis; Allen, Samuel; Mostyn, Francis (1898). A Vindication of the Bull 'Apostolicae Curae': A Letter on Anglican Orders by the Cardinal Archbishop and Bishops of the Province of Westminster(3rd ed.). London: Longmans, Green, and Co. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-14-014656-1.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-3-639-12036-3.
- Leo XIII (2017) [1896]. Apostolicae curae. New Advent. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
External links
- Works related to Apostolicae curae at Wikisource
- Apostolicae Curae in English at the Catholic Library of NewAdvent.org
- Apostolicae Curae in Latin from the Vatican's website