Apostolicae Curae Fulfilled? Schori as PB

[Episcopal News Service] Katharine Jefferts Schori, bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, has been elected June 18 by the House of Bishops as the 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

With the election of the Bishop of Nevada to the position of Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, the Apostolic Succession of the TEC will, from this moment forward, be cast under an irreversible cloud of doubt and uncertainty. Some jurisdictions and individuals have logically maintained, and with very good theological reasons, that that cloud has existed since the innovation of purported women's priestly ordination in 1976, but I shall not address that question here. Where sacraments are uncertain or possibly invalid, orthodox moral theology always demands that the Church take the safest and surest course, which is the refusal to recognise such dubious sacraments as valid or efficacious. Otherwise sacrilege might occur. A woman who has received the rite of episcopal consecration is now the fons sacramentorum, the fount and origin of ministerial orders within The Episcopal Church. Every future episcopal consecration held within the TEC will, if prescribed canons are followed, be conferred by a chief consecrator whose priestly and episcopal orders the Holy Catholic Church has never recognised and cannot and will not recognise as sacramentally valid. No Bishop, no Priesthood, no Eucharist, no Church. The Apostolic Succession of a once-Catholic body is now in unmistakable jeopardy. The problem is strictly sacramentological, quite distinct from the personal beliefs and views of Mrs Schori. She could be perfectly orthodox, biblical, in her moral and doctrinal teaching (which sadly she is not) and the problem of her orders or lack thereof still exists. In point of fact, the Bishop of Nevada is an outspoken modernist and revisionist, but I should contend most emphatically that the problem of her purported ordination is actually more serious in consequence to the body to which she belongs than her personal religious beliefs, as deeply troubling and false as they are. Beliefs change and people convert, but invalid orders, in this case, cannot be rectified. By virtue of her position, she will inescapably introduce over time a plainly suspect sacramental system into every Diocese of the The Episcopal Church, including those which are currently Anglo-Catholic. To be in communion with the TEC is to face the inevitability of the loss of Catholic Faith and Apostolic Order.

Ironically, in The Episcopal Church it appears that the Papal Encyclical Apostolicae Curae of Pope Leo XIII (1896) will apply in future, not specifically because of a defect of form or a defect of intention, but because of a clear defect of minister. Pope Leo claimed the Anglican Succession died with Archbishop Matthew Parker in 1559 - that judgement was patently erroneous, from every conceivable objective theological examination. But now, curiously enough, a scenario described by Leo, the termination of Succession, has precisely emerged today in the body formerly known as ECUSA. This is a theological consideration, not a social or political one. Sacramental assurance, the very assurance of grace and supernatural life for which Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Sacraments, will eventually evaporate from the TEC, because the chief minister of episcopal consecrations, the Primate, will be one whose status casts doubt on the validity of all subsequent sacramental actions in her line. And this doubt regarding sacramental assurance will extend to all future episcopal consecrands, including male candidates for the episcopate, involved in any purported consecration in which Mrs Schori functions as consecrator. A break in the Succession may occur in years to come once male bishops purportedly consecrated by a woman attempt to pass on their ministerial line and orders to others. The end result could be the cessation of an undoubtedly valid sacramental structure. The Sacrament of Holy Orders as understood by the Church Catholic would then no longer subsist in the TEC. What will Forward in Faith North America do? What will the Anglican Communion Network do? What will the American Anglican Council do? The line has been drawn: let us see what the responses will be. The Episcopal Church has made its irrevocable decision - it has committed itself finally and completely to a form of liturgical unitarian modernism. Let us pray for our beloved ones who are still fighting the good fight in that strange land...