Ecclesial Community

Authority level: Authoritative doctrine
Theological status: Theological synthesis
GuideThe entry presents Catholic teaching together with theological explanation. The exact note of each proposition depends on the teaching act and sources cited.
Contents

Ecclesial Community is In Catholic ecumenical usage, a separated Christian community whose validly baptized members share real ecclesial goods but which lacks the apostolic succession and Eucharistic constitution required of a Church in the proper sense.[1]

In the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, an ecclesial community (/ɪˈkliːziəl/) is a Christian religious group that does not meet the Roman Catholic definition of a "church". Although the word "ecclesial" itself means "church" or "gathering" in a political sense in Koine Greek, the Roman Catholic Church applies the term "Church" in the proper sense only to Christian communities that, according to the Roman Catholic doctrine, "have true sacraments and above all – because of the apostolic succession – the priesthood and the Eucharist".[8]

An affirmative but exact term

Ecclesial Community ordinarily names a Christian body, especially one issuing from the Reformation, that is not a Church in the Proper Sense. Ecclesial affirms that Scripture, Christian confession, Baptismal Communion, prayer, charity, gifts of the Holy Spirit, and other Elements of Sanctification and Truth can give the community a genuine relation to the one Church of Christ.[2][3]

The expression is neither a diplomatic euphemism nor a generic synonym for religious organization. It applies within Christian ecumenism. A body with no valid Christian baptism and a defining non-Trinitarian faith is not an Ecclesial Community in this technical sense, however Christian its chosen vocabulary may sound.

Basic Ecclesial Community uses ecclesial in a different, ordinary Catholic sense. It names a small group within the Catholic Church that remains united to its parish, Particular Church, pastors, and the Universal Church; it is not a separated Ecclesial Community in the doctrinal contrast defined here.

A technical ecumenical classification

The term identifies a community within real but imperfect Christian communion and therefore ordinarily presupposes valid Baptism. It is more exact than denomination when sacramental constitution matters. It is also distinct from the broad phrase Christian community, which can describe many gatherings without deciding whether a body is a true Particular Church, an Ecclesial Community, or an internal Catholic association.[4]

Why the word Church is withheld

The 2007 CDF Responses explains that Reformation communities without Apostolic Succession in the sacrament of Orders are deprived of a constitutive element of the Church. Because they lack a sacramental priesthood, they have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery and cannot be called Churches in the proper sense.[5]

This judgment concerns corporate sacramental constitution, not institutional success, antiquity, theological learning, or the holiness of members. Validity of Holy Orders cannot be supplied by adopting episcopal titles, celebrating a rite that resembles Mass, or asserting an undocumented chain of consecrations.

Reformation communities

Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, Baptist, and many other Protestant bodies are Ecclesial Communities where Christian baptism is valid. Their members are Christians in Imperfect Communion even though their ministries do not confect the Eucharist or absolve sacramentally in the Catholic sense.

Anglicanism

Anglicanism is treated as an Ecclesial Community because Apostolicae curae judged Anglican orders invalid. Later participation by bishops claiming other lines does not establish Catholic recognition of Anglican orders as a communion; an unusual individual's sacramental history is a separate factual question for competent authority.[6]

Separated Eastern Churches

Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Assyrian bodies that preserve valid bishops, priesthood, and Eucharist are not Ecclesial Communities in this contrast. They are true Particular Churches lacking Full Communion, a substantially closer ecclesial condition.

Baptism and the Christian name

Valid baptism incorporates a person into Christ and provides the sacramental foundation for Imperfect Communion. A community's baptismal practice can require investigation: the use of water and a verbal formula is not enough when the words or intended act depart essentially from Christian baptism.

The CDF has expressly ruled Latter-day Saint baptism invalid and distinguished it from baptism in non-Catholic Ecclesial Communities. Jehovah's Witnesses reject the Trinity and do not administer Christian Trinitarian baptism. Those movements are Non-Christian Religions in Catholic classification, not unusually distant Protestant denominations.[7]

Persons and corporate bodies

A body's classification does not erase an individual's prior sacramental history. Someone validly baptized in a Trinitarian Christian community retains the indelible baptismal character after later joining a non-Christian movement. Conversely, the presence of one validly baptized adherent does not place that movement corporately in Imperfect Communion. Personal Baptism and the ecclesial constitution of the present body answer different questions.

Definition

The Roman Catholic Church formally recognizes and defines as a "church" of a nature similar to its own particular churches (dioceses and autonomous or sui iuris churches) the Eastern Christian Churches separated from full communion with it,[8] namely those of Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and Church of the East. It has not denied the claim of some communities of Western Christianity to meet its definition of "church" (an example is the Polish National Catholic Church). Indeed, by referring to "The Separated Churches and Ecclesial Communities in the West,"[9] the Second Vatican Council recognized the existence of some Western Churches that are not in full communion with the Holy See.

However, the Roman Catholic Church expressly excludes "those Christian communities born out of the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century", since, according to the Roman Catholic doctrine, these communities do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of orders, and therefore lack a constitutive element of the church.[10] This includes the Church of England and the broader Anglican Communion, the validity of whose orders the Roman Catholic Church has declared "absolutely null and utterly void".[11] This judgement was officially enunciated in the papal bull Apostolicae curae of 1896 by Pope Leo XIII, which confirmed all Anglican ordinations to be invalid.[11]

However, after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger promulgated the document Dominus Iesus in 2000, Danish Protestant ministers from the Church of Denmark replied in a public statement to the Roman Catholic Church, stating that the latest document "has a destructive effect on ecumenical relations if one church deprives another church of the right to be called a church. It is just as destructive as if one Christian denies another Christian the right to be called a Christian".[12]

References

  1. 1.Lumen gentium — The Second Vatican Council's dogmatic constitution on the Church, especially nos. 8, 14–15, and 18–26
  2. 2.Unitatis redintegratio — The Second Vatican Council's decree on Christian unity, especially nos. 3, 14–15, and 19–22
  3. 3.Dominus Iesus — The CDF declaration on Christ and the Church, especially nos. 16–17 and 20–22
  4. 4.Archdiocese of Los Angeles baptism guide — An official diocesan guide applying Catholic sacramental norms and listing Jehovah's Witness baptism as invalid
  5. 5.Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church — The CDF's 2007 clarification of subsistit in, particular Churches, and ecclesial communities
  6. 6.Apostolicae curae — Leo XIII's authoritative judgment on Anglican ordinations
  7. 7.CDF response on Latter-day Saint baptism — The formal negative response concerning baptism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
  8. 8.[8.2]Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (August 13, 2013). "Responses to Some Questions regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church: Fourth Question". www.vatican.va. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana on behalf of the Holy See. Archived from the original on August 13, 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  9. 9."Unitatis redintegratio". www.vatican.va. Archived from the original on March 6, 2013.
  10. 10.Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (August 13, 2013). "Responses to Some Questions regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church: Fifth Question". www.vatican.va. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana on behalf of the Holy See. Archived from the original on August 13, 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  11. 11.[11.2]Adams, Marilyn McCord (2006). "Mutual denunciations". Christ and Horrors: The Coherence of Christology. Current Issues in Theology. Vol. 4. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 308. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511607585.011. ISBN 9780511607585.
  12. 12."To the Roman Catholic Church in Denmark". February 28, 2005. Archived from the original on 28 February 2005.