Friday, 05 June 2009

• Question 149 - Invalid or Illicit Ordinations?

  Question 149 - Invalid or Illicit Ordinations?

   

  Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo consecrated four men as bishops without papal mandate. The Vatican declared, "the Church does not recognize and does not intend in the future to recognize these ordinations or any ordinations derived from them, and she holds that the canonical state of the four alleged bishops is the same as it was prior to the ordination." Since Milingo was consecrated by Paul VI he is a valid bishop. One of the four he consecrated, Fr. George Stallings, was ordained a priest by Cardinal Hickey for the Archdiocese of Washington DC in 1976--a valid priest. Milingo used the CATHOLIC rite of consecration. How could the Vatican NOT recognize this as VALID.  A Bishop using correct matter and form with intention of making a bishop on a valid priest is everything required for validity. IRREGULAR? Sure. ILLICIT? Yes. But INVALID? Not recognizing them or any ordinations that derive from them? This was not the case with Archbishop Lefebvre's

  consecrations. I know of nothing in Dogmatic/sacramental theology that would prevent this consecration from being VALID--yet illicit, irregular, etc--like Lefebvre. Can you shed light on this using dogmatic/sacramental theology?

   

  John

   

  R. Sungenis: John, unless the Vatican uses the words "valid," "invalid," "licit" or "illicit" in its declaration it is really not clear what it is saying. The word "recognize" is ambiguous, as is "canonical state," and the ambiguity may be deliberate. Moreover, you would have to know the level of authority of who said this statement from the Vatican. The Vatican is a big place and has a lot of voices. Some people at the Vatican say things that have no authority behind them (e.g., the prelate who spoke, or failed to speak, about abortion a few weeks ago). Hence, there is just too many unanswered questions here to make even an intelligent guess. This is not a matter I or any other laymen can answer.

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