Episcopal Ordinations Without Pontifical Mandate and Their Canonical Consequences

Abstract

The Bishops ordered without papal mandate are a serious injury to the Church. This article addresses the canonical aspects of the ordination without pontifical mandate of the chinese bishops, those involved in an extreme traditionalism and other similar cases. The necessity of the papal mandate has been recently imposed, as is clear from the sources of canon 1013. Even the crime provided for by canon 1382 and its severe penalty are recent. The conduct in question relates to the unlawfulness of the consecration, not to its invalid- ity, which is not excluded, however, in three cases. The excommunication latae sententiae reserved to the Apostolic See for the said crime does not fall into the category of “delicta graviora.” The perpetrators of episcopal ordination without pontifical mandate are not only the main consecrating and the consecrated bishops, but also the co-consecrating.