The Bishop's Weekly Column from the Parish Bulletin

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

CATHOLIC CHURCH

Apostolic Succession

October 30, 2008

A semi-correspondent friend of mine from the northern parts of the US once spoke to me of her concern over the issue of apostolicity within the church. When we profess the creed at Mass we say “I believe in one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church”. These are the four notes or marks by which we can discern the presence of the true church of Christ namely that she is one, in the profession of Faith and government, holy in her object (God), her means (the Sacraments, prayer etc.), her members (the Saints), catholic or universal as to her extension throughout the world, in the profession of the same beliefs at all times and places and apostolic in an unbroken sacramental procession of orders through time in her hierarchy traceable back to the Apostles themselves.

Apostolicity, however, is not just a valid ordination, (material apostolicity) but received in union with the Vicar of Christ (formal apostolicity). With the exception of Bishop Rifan of Brazil, not a single Traditional bishop enjoys formal apostolicity, and thus if you adopt the ridiculous position of the sedes, for whom there is no Pope, then the church without formal apostolicity (an essential constitutive element of her institution and constitution) has ceased to exist.

+TF