Episcopal College Perpetuated in Apostolic Succession

Authority level: Dogma
Disciplinary status: Church discipline
Theological status: Theological synthesis
This article contains claims at more than one doctrinal grade. The summary shows the highest represented grade.
GuideThe apostolic college's continuation in the episcopal college belongs to Catholic doctrine; canonical membership and modes of collegial action are authoritatively regulated.
Contents

Episcopal College Perpetuated in Apostolic Succession describes the enduring corporate continuity by which the bishops, in hierarchical communion with their head, succeed the apostolic college throughout the Church's history.

From the Twelve to one enduring episcopal order

Saint Peter and the other apostles formed one college by Christ's institution. In a corresponding way, the Roman Pontiff, successor of Peter, and the bishops, successors of the apostles, are united. The succession is therefore corporate as well as personal. The Church does not consist of isolated episcopal franchises linked only by parallel ordination pedigrees.

Communionis notio teaches that the unity of the episcopate is perpetuated through Apostolic Succession and grounds the identity of the Church of every age with the Church built on Peter and the apostles. The episcopal college persists as a living subject of pastoral responsibility even though its individual members change through death, appointment, ordination, transfer, and retirement.[1][2]

Sacramental consecration

Episcopal ordination confers the fullness of Holy Orders and configures the recipient to Christ the Shepherd. It supplies the sacramental foundation for participation in the episcopal order. No election, civil appointment, academic office, or community acclamation can substitute for valid consecration.

Hierarchical communion

Membership in the Catholic college is not described by consecration considered in isolation. Canon 336 joins sacramental consecration with Hierarchical Communion with the head and members of the college. The head is never absent from the college, and the college never acts as a supreme authority apart from its head. Communion belongs to the office's ecclesial form rather than being an honorary endorsement added afterward.

College, individual bishop, and particular Church

An individual bishop is the visible principle of unity in the Particular Church entrusted to him, while also bearing solicitude for the Universal Church. His diocesan authority is real and proper; it is not a delegation from an episcopal conference. Yet it is exercised inside the communion of the episcopal college and never makes the particular Church a self-sufficient whole.[3]

The college can exercise supreme authority in an Ecumenical Council or through united action approved or freely accepted by the Roman Pontiff according to law. Ordinary collegial affection and cooperation should not be confused with a juridically collegial act. Apostolic succession establishes responsibility for the whole faith and mission, not an independent vote against the Church's visible head.[4]

Ecumenical consequence and limits

Separated Eastern bishops possess valid episcopal ordination and continue a real sacramental succession, which supports the status of their bodies as true Churches. Catholic doctrine nevertheless holds that communion with the successor of Peter is internally constitutive of the full particular Church. Sacramental succession is real outside full unity; Catholic collegial membership and its lawful exercise are not thereby complete.

Catholic judgment avoids two equal errors: describing every valid bishop as though he were a functioning member of the Catholic episcopal college, and speaking as though separation made Eastern episcopal ministry unreal. The sacramental reality, degree of communion, existence or absence of canonical mission, and corporate body in which the ministry is exercised must remain distinct.[5]

References

  1. 1.Communionis notio — The CDF letter on visible and invisible communion, Eucharist, episcopate, apostolic succession, and wounded communion
  2. 2.Sacerdotium ministeriale — The CDF letter on apostolic succession as the Church's living form and on the ordained minister required for the Eucharist
  3. 3.Lumen gentium — Vatican II's dogmatic constitution on baptismal incorporation, the visible bonds of communion, the episcopal college, and the Church's saving necessity
  4. 4.Code of Canon Law, canons 330–367 — Binding Latin law on the Roman Pontiff, the college of bishops, collegial membership, and exercise of supreme ecclesial authority
  5. 5.Apostolorum Successores — The Holy See directory on episcopal ordination, membership in the college, canonical mission, and the bishop's ministry of communion