Why the New Rite of Episcopal Consecration Is Valid Fr
ANGELUSTHE MAGAZINE REPRINT WHY THE NEW RITE OF EPISCOPAL CONSECRATION IS VALID Fr. Pierre-Marie, O.P. This article wishes to settle a debate that has been circulating in traditional Catholic circles. Some writers have examined the new rite of episcopal consecration and concluded that it must be invalid. Since this would cause manifest prob- lems if it were true and due to the heightened awareness of such a theory, The Angelus presents (for the first time in English) a study of this question concluding that it is valid. 2 This article was translated exclusively by Angelus Press from Sel de la Terre (No.54., Autumn 2005, pp.72-129). Fr. Pierre-Marie, O.P., is a member of the traditional Dominican monastery at Avrillé, France, several of whose members were ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre and which continues to receive its priestly ordinations from the bishops serving the Society of Saint Pius X which Archbishop Lefebvre founded. He is a regular contributor to their quarterly review, Sel de la Terre (Salt of the Earth). The English translations contained in the various tables were prepared with the assistance of H.E. Bishop Richard Williamson, Dr. Andrew Senior (professor at St. Mary’s College, St. Mary’s, Kansas), and Fr. Scott Gardner, SSPX. ollowing the Council, in 1968 a new rite for Orders or is merely “a sacramental,” an ecclesiastical the ordination of bishops was promulgated. ceremony wherein the powers of the episcopate, It was, in fact, the first sacrament to undergo its “bound” in the simple priest, are “freed” for the “aggiornamento,” or updating.
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