§ 78. Canonical Practice

In keeping with the fundamental standpoint of the Church on the question of the ordination of those of another faith, as just set forth, both the canons and the practice of the Church speak. The 68th Apostolic canon condemns a bishop, presbyter or deacon who receives ordination a second time, and adds: “except it be proven that he received ordination from a heretic; for those baptized or ordained by such can be neither believers nor clergy.”[1] Basil the Great points to, as the first reason why the church services of heretics need not be recognized, the fact that among them the lawful hierarchical succession has been cut off, so that among them there is no lawful priesthood either.[2] On this basis the Church has, in general, judged the priesthood of all religious societies that were not in communion with the universal Church, paying attention as well to how far those societies had departed from the fundamental truths of the Christian Church; and priests from those societies in which the apostolic succession had been preserved, and which had not erred against the fundamental Christian truths, she received into her communion as regular priests without a new ordination,[3] whereas priests of those societies in which none of this held true she received as mere laymen.[4] Likewise she received as mere laymen those priests too who, though not belonging to any heretical society, had been appointed by bishops who had broken the bond with the lawful hierarchy.[5]

The present-day practice of the Orthodox Church on this question differs as regards the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church from that as regards the Protestants. Among the Protestants the priesthood is not recognized as a divine institution, nor the existence of church hierarchy as being of divine right, and accordingly, apart from everything else, the Orthodox Church cannot recognize, nor does she recognize as priests, those persons among the Protestants who perform religious services among them. As regards the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church is guided by the 1st canon of the Council of Constantinople of the year 879, at which the lawfulness of that priesthood was recognized;[6] and today, when a Roman Catholic priest wishes to pass over into the Orthodox Church and to be a priest within her, he is received according to the established rite, nor is any rite of ordination performed over him, but the ordination he received in the Roman Catholic Church is recognized.[7]

Footnotes

[6] “The holy and ecumenical council commands that if any clergy, or laymen, or bishops from Italy, who dwell in Asia, or in Europe, or in Libya, have been excommunicated, or deposed, or anathematized by the most holy Pope John, the same shall be regarded as excommunicated, anathematized and deposed also by the most holy Photius, patriarch of Constantinople. And whatsoever clergy, or laymen, or men of the episcopal and priestly rank Photius, our most holy patriarch, shall in whatever province whatsoever subject to excommunication, or deposition, or anathema, let the most holy Pope John acknowledge such as under the same sentence of punishment, and with him the holy church of God of Rome.” At the council that issued this canon there were 383 bishops, who all together with the legates of the Roman church signed it and confirmed it. And after the definitive separation of the churches (1053), the better canonists of the eastern church recognized the canonical character of Roman Catholic ordination. See the answers (1 and 2) of John of Kitros, archbishop, to Constantine Cavasilas (Ath. Synt. V, 403), and the canonical answers of Demetrius Chomatenus, archbishop of Bulgaria (of the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century), to the same Cavasilas (Ath. Synt. V, 430 sq.).

§ 78. Canonical Practice

§ 78. Каноничка практика