My question is, what about the American bishops who flout Rome?
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My question is, what about the American bishops who flout Rome?
Balaam's Ass 
Or the European ones, for that matter. But disagreeing with the Pope on a given subject and ordaining other bishops of your own authority are two different things, from a RC point of view.
Anyway, nothing surprising in the decision to excommunicate those chinese bishops: it’s mere RC canon law. Bishop Lefebvre, leader of the traditionalist movement, got the same “sentence”, in the same terms, when he ordained bishops without the Pope’s approval some years ago.
Now, that creates a difficult question: the bishops irregularly have ordained priests. Are the sacraments administered by those priests valid or not? Apparently, yes: all those ordinations (to the episcopate or to the priesthood) must be considered “valid but not lawful”.
O, joys of the doctrine of apostolic succession and of Romanist casuistry.
This is a good question for our RC friends to answer.
I don’t think on these matters much. I just observe the irony from a distance.
BTW, I am not opposed to an episcopalian form of government. It seems to me it fits better with the spirit of catholicity, even though I would not make it a point of contention.
Under the circumstance, Jean-Martin, it certainly offers some attractive possibilities for maintaining a united organizational focus.
.. a united organizational AND ‘Doctrinal’ focus.
(I need to learn to proof my comments better.)
Interesting update on this: Benedict Ordains Chinese Bishop
Those wacky Romanists!
Yeah, it’s true that we Lutherans never had any trouble with our leadership 😉
Yeah, we never had any problems 🙂
Because our definition of the Office of Holy Ministry is so clear cut not to mention the whole Stephan ordeal. .. Heck, there are days (mainly while sitting in my Lutheran Confessions class) that I somewhat wish I just had a nice neat Canon Law book that I could just look up everything and not have to think.. .. nah, it’s good to be in the True Visible Church
We’ve been doing this a lot longer than you have, Tutal, so we’ve got a lot of precedent and a canon law for just about every circumstance.
tutal,
I agree. There are days when I just want someone to do the thinking for me. Of course I snap out of it thanks to guys like you and others who keep my senses sharp by not being bi-pedal, mouth-breathing, 4 sandwich-eating, 2-litre jug drinking, mamma joke-making, zipperheads. (my ad-hominem for the year).
CC
Hey! I resent that! And so would your mamma, if she could read it!
(I’m teasing. Please don’t hunt me down. And pass the 2-liter jug!)