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Article: Examining validity of Anglican orders.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- August 13, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Until about a year ago, my interest in the validity of Anglican orders -- meaning whether or not the Catholic church considers priests ordained by the Anglican church "valid" priests -- was pretty low, down there with whether St. Patrick was born in Scotland or Brittany.
But on June 29, 1998, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger changed all that. On that date, he issued a "doctrinal commentary" to accompany Pope John Paul II's apostolic letter Ad Tuendam Fidem, which established penalties in canon law for failure to accept "definitive teaching." Ratzinger's commentary listed Leo XIII's apostolic letter Apostolicae Curae, declaring Anglican orders to be "absolutely null and ...