Anglicans/Episcopalians are one of the Churches whose faculties are recognized by the Catholic and Orthodox Church. As such, without it being a ‘reversion’ they can apply for priesthood within those Churches, and are often accepted. Sometimes ‘reversions’ are also accepted, depending on the circumstances involved with their leaving the Catholic Church.
I understand, there is a really large group in Texas - a number of churchs and their priests, that desire to come into the Catholic Church. It is just that the bisop of that diocese, has to work out all the symantics of that many coming in at one time.
Recognition of other churches’ orders
There is mutual recognition of the validity of holy orders among the Eastern Orthodox, Polish National, Oriental Orthodox, and Old Catholic churches and the Assyrian Church of the East as they have maintained the
apostolic succession of bishops, i.e., their bishops claim to be in a line of succession dating back to the
Apostles, just as Catholic bishops do. Consequently, if a priest of these Churches converts to another, he is generally received as a priest without need for re-ordination. Similarly the Roman Catholic Church unconditionally recognizes the validity of ordinations in the aforementioned Eastern churches. Eastern Orthodox bishops can, and frequently do, grant recognition to the holy orders of converts who were earlier ordained in the Catholic Church (though there is much debate in Eastern Orthodoxy about this); that is part of the policy called
church economy.
Some
Anglican churches, unlike Protestant churches, claim to maintain apostolic succession
[9] although this is not even recognised by evangelical Anglicans. The succession of Anglican bishops is however, not universally recognized. The Catholic Church judged Anglican orders invalid when
Pope Leo XIII in
1896, wrote in
Apostolicae Curae that Anglican orders lack validity because the rite by which priests were ordained was not correctly performed from
1547 to
1553 and from
1558 to the
19th century, thus causing a break of continuity in apostolic succession. Leo XIII condemned the Anglican ordinals and deemed the Anglican orders
“absolutely null and utterly void”.
Eastern Orthodox bishops have, on occasion, granted “economy” when Anglican priests convert to Orthodoxy. Changes in the Anglican Ordinal since King
Edward VI, and a fuller appreciation of the pre-
Reformation ordinals suggest that the correctness of the enduring dismissal of Anglican Orders may be questioned. In order to reduce doubt concerning Anglican apostolic succession, since the
1930 Bonn agreement many Anglican bishops have been consecrated by bishops of the
Old Catholic Church whose holy orders are recognised by the
Holy See. However this “restoration” would according to Catholic understanding only be possible, if the Old Catholic bishops involved would use a consecratory preface which used either the words
“fullness of Thy ministry” or
“fullness of the priesthood”, or words similar to these expressions. Therefore, all Anglican clergymen who desire to enter the Roman Catholic Church are still re-ordained, at least conditionally, but often even absolutely.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Orders
I hope they helped!
I was concerned since this area is kinda liberal.
Thank you very much. I wasn’t too sure how they could juggle all that. I guess my worry was for nothing.