The Broken Chain: Novus Ordo Ordinations Examined in the Light of Catholic Sacramental Theology

 

In past articles I have either directly or indirectly treated the question of the invalidity of the Novus Ordo Ordinations as they are the fruits of the 1968 modernist ordinal. The following titles comes handy:

• 57 Years of Invalid New Order Bishops: A Catechism. 
• Anglican Orders & Paul VI’s Ordinal: Fruits of a Common Poison
• Co-consecrating Bishops And Modernist Hypocrisy 
• Traditional Catholic Priest: A Sign Of Contradiction

The present article gives a more in-depth treatment of the theme. 

Prologue: A Candid Request, And, A Dead-end Scenario

Consider that God is not bound by His sacraments: but we are bound to the sacraments He instituted.

In times of crisis, charity demands clarity. Silence in the face of sacramental invalidity is not kindness but cruelty to souls.

A grateful beneficiary of my lowly literary apostolate made a candid request that gave birth to this present work: 

There is a topic I feel you may address at your convenience. The topic is: *The invalidity of the Novus Ordo Sacrament of Holy Order and the consequences* . You may frame the topic as it appeals to you. Thanks so much.

That was an edifying request. The theme is of particular interest to me since, Providence ordering all things sweetly, I was rescued from the misfortune of having to undergo the rite of novus ordo ordination and come out the same lay man who left my village 11/12 years earlier in pursuit of vocation to Catholic Priesthood. 

I recounted in the 17th chapter of “My Treasured Mistake”  [click here to get it in Selar] how, as a putative Temporary Professed Religious Seminarian (of the {deviated} Congregation of the Servants of Charity) and a student of theology in (so-called) SS. Peter and Paul Major Seminary, Bodija, Ibadan, I reached a “dead end” and could not pretend all was well.

In a course titled “Theology of Orders” we were taught, correctly I must say, about the principles employed by Catholic theology for the validity of a Sacrament. I noted that: 

“Most probably quoting from Pius XII’s Apostolic Constitution Sacramentum Ordinis, it was taught that the form for conferring Holy Orders are the words “by which the sacramental effects are signi-fied with but one meaning, namely, the power of or-ders, and grace of the Holy Spirit.” Discussing on Episcopal Consecration, the follo-wing, quoted from Pontificalis Romani of ”Paul VI” of June 18, 1968, was taught to be the essential form necessary for validity: 

 "So now pour out upon this chosen one that power which is from you, the governing Spirit whom you gave to your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, the Spirit given by him to the holy apostles, who founded the Church in every place to be your temple for the unceasing glory and praise of your name."

  “The governing spirit” was stressed by the lecturer as being the “power of the Order” – i.e. the Episcopal power. It made perfect sense to an audience of about sixty seminarians who knew neither their left nor right. Indeed, how elated I was that a new know-ledge was added to my stock of what I knew for, before then no mention of “essential form for Epis-copal consecration” had been made to my hearing. 

Evidently, neither I nor any of the other seminarians could suspect what pseudo-knowledge we were being fed with by being taught that “the governing spirit” is the Sacramental effect – “power” of the Episcopal Order. (My Treasured Mistake, p. 215-216). 

When I came to understand that the so-called “governing spirit” is not the power of the Episcopal Order according to traditional Catholic sacramental theology, I was forced to face a bitter truth:

I had reached a dead end.

• No valid ordination awaited me.
• No true priesthood lay at the end of my seminary journey.
• No altar, no sacrifice, no sacramental priesthood.

This conclusion was not sought. It imposed itself.

And once seen, it could not be unseen. The theological demonstration of this claim will be duly laid out rigorously.

From the days of the Apostles, the Church has guarded Holy Orders with fearful precision. She has always known that upon this sacrament rests everything:

• the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,
• the forgiveness of sins,
• the presence of Christ’s priesthood on earth.

Where the priesthood stands firm, the Church lives.

Where it is weakened, the faithful starve.

Where it is broken, the chain of grace is severed.

This is not written to provoke, but to warn.

Not to inflame, but to preserve.

Not to divide, but to protect souls.

It draws only from the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church as it stood before the upheavals of the post–Vatican II era. It applies classical sacramental theology to a grave and unprecedented crisis:

“Ordinations” performed by “bishops” consecrated through the 1968 new rite of Episcopal Consecration — what are now called “Novus Ordo Ordinations.”

If the chain is broken at the source, nothing that flows from it can remain whole.

Theses on Novus Ordo Ordinations Examined in the Light of Catholic Sacramental Theology

The following theses summarize the argument demonstrated in this work. They are drawn exclusively from the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church as articulated prior to the post–Vatican II reforms, especially in the doctrine of the sacraments as taught by the Council of Trent, Pope Leo XIII, and definitively clarified by  Pope Pius XII.

• Thesis I

Episcopal consecration is a true sacrament instituted by Christ, conferring an ontological and sacramental power: the fullness of the priesthood, including the power to ordain.

• Thesis II

As defined by Catholic sacramental theology, the validity of any sacrament requires proper matter, proper form, a valid minister, and proper intention; the absence of any one renders the sacrament null.

• Thesis III

The sacramental form is essential because it determines the application of the matter and must univocally signify the sacramental effect conferred—namely, the specific order and its proper power—according to the doctrine set forth by Pope Pius XII in Sacramentum Ordinis.

• Thesis IV

In the case of episcopal consecration, the sacramental form must univocally signify the plenitude of the priesthood and the sacramental power to ordain, not merely governance, jurisdiction, or ecclesiastical office.

• Thesis V

The traditional Roman form of episcopal consecration (“Comple in Sacerdote tuo ministerii tui summam…”) fulfills this requirement by clearly and determinately signifying both the order conferred (the episcopate) and the sacramental power bestowed through the operation of the Holy Ghost.

• Thesis VI

The 1968 revised form of episcopal consecration promulgated in Pontificalis Romani, centered on the invocation of “the governing Spirit,” does not univocally signify the plenitude of the priesthood or the sacramental power to ordain, but admits non-sacramental and merely functional interpretations.

• Thesis VII

According to the governing principle articulated by Pope Leo XIII in Apostolicae Curae, a sacramental form that fails to signify the grace and power of the order cannot confer that order, regardless of intention, ceremony, or ecclesiastical approval.

• Thesis VIII

Therefore, episcopal consecrations performed using the 1968 revised form are sacramentally invalid; consequently, those so “consecrated” are not bishops, cannot validly ordain, and cannot transmit apostolic succession—resulting in the collapse of sacramental validity in all subsequent ordinations derived from them.

The full  article can be accessed here.