{"id":37708,"date":"2017-10-16T09:30:14","date_gmt":"2017-10-16T14:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=37708"},"modified":"2017-10-17T09:19:54","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T14:19:54","slug":"everything-is-relative-except-for-the-ordination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/16\/everything-is-relative-except-for-the-ordination\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything is Relative \u2013 Except for the Ordination"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cNeither presbyter, deacon, nor any of the ecclesiastical order shall be ordained at large, nor unless the person ordained is particularly appointed to a church in a city or village, or to a martyry, or to a monastery. And if any have been ordained without a charge, the holy Synod decrees, to the reproach of the ordainer, that such an ordination shall be inoperative, and that such shall nowhere be suffered to officiate.\u201d\u00a0(Council of Chalcedon 451, canon 5<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

This law was finally annulled under Pope Innocence III (1198\u20131216). Even today relative ordinations<\/em> \u2013 where someone is ordained for a certain task in the Church \u2013 are quite rare in the Catholic Church. In most cases, we find absolute ordinations<\/em>, where someone is ordained to become part of the clergy \u2013 and afterward he is assigned to any of the tasks for clergymen.<\/p>\n

Well, to be precise: The Council of Trent (1545\u20131563) confirmed Chalcedon\u2019s canon and prohibited absolute ordinations, but essentially the aftermath was different: The title<\/em> that a priest needs for a legitimate ordination can be his diocese or the religious order the priest belongs too. Obviously, that is quite different from what Chalcedon meant, and that is my point. It that sense we can say that the Catholic Church today has the absolute ordination even if that technical term is rejected (the entire issue is similar to the titular sees for auxiliary bishops<\/a>).<\/p>\n

I remember what priests from a German diocese told in the 1980s: Right after the ordination service (no minute earlier!), the newly ordained priests were told where their first occupation as assistant priests would be. This was sort of an obedience test: You will only be ordained if you are willing to go wherever the Church sends you. This procedure might be a characteristic expression of a typical \u201cpriestly mind\u201d in the 2nd<\/sup> millennium. But all those ordinations are invalid according to the Council of Chalcedon.<\/p>\n

It is hard to imagine what the Catholic Church would look like without any absolute ordination. Many developments over the last centuries are based on that idea:<\/p>\n