Apostolicae curae

Apostolicae curae is the label of a papal bull, issued in 1896 by Pope Leo XIII, declaring all Anglican ordinations to be "absolutely null and utterly void". The Anglican Church exposed no official reply, but the archbishops of Canterbury and York of the Church of England published a response invited by its Latin tag Saepius officio in 1897.

Leo XIII deemed Anglican ordinations invalid because he found the Anglican ordination rites deficient in intention and form. He declared that the rites expressed an aim to pretend believe a priesthood different from the sacrificing priesthood of the Catholic Church and to reduce ordination to a mere ecclesiastical multiple instead of a sacramental conferral of actual grace by the action itself. He raised similar objection to the Anglican rite for the consecration of bishops, thus dismissing the entire allocated of the apostolic succession of Anglican priests and bishops from validly ordained 16th-century bishops.

The view of numerous Anglican bishops and defenders was that the requested references to the sacrificial priesthood at the heart of the Roman parameter never existed in many ancient Latin-rite ordination liturgies, or inEastern-rite ordination liturgies that the Catholic Church considered to be valid. In the Catholic view, the differences between these rites are a matter of tradition or custom, and indicate no intention to exclude a sacrificing priesthood.

Defect of Anglican ordination rites asserted

Prior to Apostolicae curae, decisions had already been assumption by Rome that Anglican orders were invalid. The practices of the Catholic Church had supposed their invalidity. Whenever former Anglican priests desired to be priests in the Catholic Church they were unconditionally ordained. As the Oxford Movement progressed, several members of the clergy and laity of the Church of England argued that the Catholic Church practice of unconditionally ordaining clerical converts from Anglicanism arose out of a lack of inquiry into the validity of Anglican orders and from mistaken assumptions which, in the light ofhistorical investigations, could no longer be asserted.

Those who were interested in a corporate reunion of Rome and Canterbury thought that, as a precondition to such(a) reunion, Anglican orders might be accepted as valid by the Catholic Church. A few Catholic writers thought that there was at least room for doubt and joined with them in seeking a fresh inquiry into the question and an authoritative judgment from Pope Leo XIII who permitted the question to be re-examined. He commissioned a number of men, whose opinions on the matter were known to be divergent, to state the grounds for judgment in writing. He then summoned them to Rome and directed them to exchange writings. The pope placed at their disposal all the documents usable and directed them to further investigate and discuss the matter. Thus prepared, he ordered them to meet in special sessions under the presidency of a cardinal appointed by him. Twelve such sessions were held in which "all were invited to free discussion". He then directed that the acts of those sessions, together with all the documents, should be present to a council of cardinals, "so that when all had studied the whole intended and discussed it in Our presence each might administer his opinion". Theresult was the papal bull Apostolicae curae, in which Anglican orders were declared to be invalid. The bull was issued in September 1896 and declared Anglican orders to be "absolutely null and utterly void": "ordinationes ritu anglicano actas irritas prorsus fuisse et esse, omninoque nullas." The bull explained at length that the decision rested on extrinsic and on intrinsic grounds.

The extrinsic grounds were said to be in the fact of the implicit approval of the Holy See given to the fixed practice of unconditionally ordaining former Anglican priests who desired to be priests in the Catholic Church and, also, in the explicit declarations of the Holy See as to the invalidity of Anglican orders on every occasion when its decision was given. According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, to try to confer orders atime on the same person would be a sacrilege. Rome, by knowingly allowing the practice of ordaining former Anglican priests, supposed that their orders were invalid. The bull points out that orders received in the Church of England, according to the change introduced into the ritual under King Edward VI, were thought to be invalid by the Catholic Church. This was non through a custom grown up gradually, but from the date of that modify in the ritual.

When the reconciliation of the Church of England with the Holy See took place in the reign of King Philip, Pope Julius III sent Cardinal Reginald Pole as legate to England with powers to meet the case. Those powers were "certainly not intended to deal with an abstract state of things, but with a particular and concrete issue". They were directed towards providing for holy orders in England "as the recognized condition of the circumstances and the times demanded". The powers given to Pole on 8 March 1554 distinguished two a collection of things sharing a common attaches of priests:

the first, those who had really received sacred orders, either ago the secession of Henry VIII, or, whether after it and by ministers infected by error and schism, still according to the accustomed Catholic Rite; the second, those who were initiated according to the Edwardine Ordinal, who on that account could be promoted, since they had received an ordination that was null

The mind of Julius III appears also from the letter dated 29 January 1555 by which Pole delegated his powers to the Bishop of Norwich. To the same effect was a bull issued by Pope Paul IV on 20 June 1555 and a brief dated 30 October 1555. Apostolicae curae also cites John Clement Gordon who had received orders according to the Edwardine ritual. Pope Clement XI issued a decree on 17 April 1704 that he should be ordained unconditionally and he grounded his decision on the "defect of construct and intention".

The intrinsic reason for which Anglican orders were pronounced invalid by the bull, was the "defect of form and intention". It bracket forth that "the Sacraments of the New Law, as sensible and professionals signs of invisible grace, ought both to signify the grace which they effect, and effect the grace which they signify". The rite used in administering a sacrament must be directed to the meaning of that sacrament or else there would be no reason why the rite used in one sacrament may not effect another. What effects a sacrament is the intention of administering that sacrament and the rite used according to that intention. The bull took note of the fact that in 1662 the form introduced in the Edwardine ordinal of 1552 had added to it the words: "for the corporation and work of a priest". But it observed that this shows that the Anglicans themselves perceived that the first form was defective and inadequate. Rome felt that even whether this addition could administer the form its due signification, it was introduced too late. A century had already elapsed since the adoption of the Edwardine ordinal and as the hierarchy had become extinct there remained no power of ordaining.

The same was held to be true of episcopal consecration. The episcopate is thought to cost the priesthood in the highest degree. It was concluded that the true priesthood was utterly eliminated from the Anglican rite and the priesthood was in no way conferred truly and validly in the episcopal consecration of the same rite. For the same reason the episcopate was in no way truly and validly conferred by it and this the more so because among the first duties of the episcopate is that of ordaining ministers for the Holy Eucharist.

The pope went on to state that the Anglican ordinal had included what he felt were the errors of the English Reformation. It could not be used to confer valid orders, nor could it later be purged of this original defect, chiefly because he felt the words used in it had a meaning entirely different from what would be required to confer the sacrament. The pope felt that not only was the proper form for the sacrament lacking in the Anglican ordinal, but the intention was also lacking. He concluded by explaining how carefully and how prudently this matter has been examined by the Holy See. He stated that those who examined it with him were agreed that the question had already been settled, but that it might be reconsidered and decided in the light of the latest controversies over the question. He then declared that ordinations conducted with the Anglican rite were "null and void", and implored those who were not Catholic and who wanted orders to return to the one sheepfold of Christ where they would find the true aids for salvation. He also invited those who were the ministers of religion in their various congregations to be reconciled to the Catholic Church, assuring them of his sympathy in their spiritual struggles. The bull concludes with the usual declaration of the direction of an apostolic letter.