Thursday, May 4, 2006

Second Thoughts on Communist Episcopal Ordinations

Dr. Ed Peters of In the Light of the Law questions the validity of the recent ordinations of Bishops in the Chinese "Patriotic Catholic Association."

The excommunications consequent to the illicit episcopal ordinations (1983 CIC 1382) staged by Chinese Communists are so obvious that few commentators have mentioned them. Here I raise a different question: In the face of some sacraments being so obviously celebrated with no discernible pastoral sense and, in fact, driven by little besides a "let's stick it to the Catholic Church" animus, has the time come to step back and ask some hard questions about the canonical validity of such sacraments?

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