Editing Episcopus vagans (section)

=== Catholic ===
A [[Latin Church]] or [[Eastern Catholic Churches|Eastern]] Catholic ordained to the episcopacy without a mandate from the [[Pope]] is [[Latae sententiae and ferendae sententiae|automatically]] [[Excommunication in the Catholic Church|excommunicated]] and is thereby forbidden to celebrate the sacraments under [[Catholic canon law]].<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P54.HTM Code of Canon Law, canon 1382] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080327064146/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P54.HTM |date=27 March 2008 }}</ref><ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P4X.HTM Code of Canon Law, canon 1331 §1] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080329021837/https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P4X.HTM |date=29 March 2008 }}</ref> However, in light of the [[sacramental character]] of the episcopacy in [[Catholic theology]] and of the doctrine of ''[[ex opere operato]]'' (according to which the efficacy of a sacrament does not depend on the merits of the person who performs or who receives the sacrament) such an ordination is considered "[[Validity and liceity (Catholic Church)|valid but illicit]]". This means that, although excommunicated and forbidden from carrying out any ministry under the authority of the Catholic Church, an individual thus ordained is regarded as having the full sacramental powers of a bishop, including the power to ordain other bishops.<ref>[[Ludwig Ott]], ''Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma'', 1952, p. 456. "Every validly consecrated bishop, including heretical, schismatic, simonistic, or excommunicated bishops, can validly dispense the Sacrament of Order, provided that he has the requisite intention, and follows the essential external rite (set. Certa). Cf. D 855, 860; [[1917 Code of Canon Law|CIC]] 2372."</ref>

On the other hand, the view expressed by the [[International Bishops' Conference]] of the [[Old Catholic Church]] with regard to the ordinations by [[Arnold Mathew]] is that the episcopacy exists for service within a specific Christian church and, therefore, that an ordination ceremony that concerns only the individual himself does not make him truly a bishop.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=rE3HEeoXJNsC&dq=Smit+%22truly+bishops%22&pg=PA197 Peter-Ben Smit, ''Old Catholic and Philippine Independent Ecclesiologies in History''] (BRILL 2011 {{ISBN|978-90-0420647-2}}), p. 197</ref> The [[Holy See|Vatican]] has not commented on whether it concurs with this interpretation, but it has declared with regard to ordinations of this kind carried out, for example, by [[Emmanuel Milingo]] upon [[Peter Paul Brennan]] and others, that the Catholic Church "does not recognize and does not intend to recognize in the future those ordinations or any of the ordinations derived from them and therefore the canonical state of the alleged bishops remains that in which they were before the ordination conferred by Mr Milingo".<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/2010/gennaio%202010.pdf| title = ''Acta Apostolicae Sedis'' CII (2010), p. 58}}</ref>