Editing Apostolic succession (section)

===Catholic Church===
{{rquote|right|Wherefore we must obey the priests of the Church who have succession from the Apostles, as we have shown, who, together with succession in the episcopate, have received the mark of truth according to the will of the Father; all others, however, are to be suspected, who separated themselves from the principal succession.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103426.htm |title=Adversus Haereses (Book IV, Chapter 26) |publisher=Newadvent.org |access-date=26 July 2011}}</ref>|[[Irenaeus]]}}

In [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] theology, the doctrine of apostolic succession is that the apostolic tradition – including apostolic teaching, preaching, and authority – is handed down from the college of apostles to the college of [[Bishop (Catholic Church)|bishops]] through the laying on of hands, as a permanent office in the Church.<ref>{{cite book|title=Catechism of the Catholic Church|date=2002|publisher=Catholic Church|location=Vatican City|pages=77, 861}}</ref> Historically, this has been understood as a succession in office, a succession of valid ordinations, or a succession of the entire college. It is understood as a sign and guarantee that the Church, both local and universal, is in diachronic continuity with the apostles; a necessary but insufficient guarantor thereof.<ref name=Finland1988/><ref name=ITC1973>{{citation|publisher=International Theological Commission |title=Catholic Teaching on Apostolic Succession |url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_1973_successione-apostolica_en.html |year=1973 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151004010314/https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_cti_1973_successione-apostolica_en.html |archive-date=4 October 2015}}</ref>

[[File:Priestly ordination.jpg|thumb|Catholic ordination ceremony]]
[[Papal primacy]] is different though related to apostolic succession as described here. The Catholic Church has traditionally claimed a unique leadership role for the Apostle [[Saint Peter|Peter]], believed to have been named by Jesus as head of the Apostles and as a focus of their unity, who became the first Bishop of [[diocese of Rome|Rome]], and whose successors inherited the role and accordingly became the leaders of the worldwide Church as well. Even so, Catholicism acknowledges the papacy is built on apostolic succession, not the other way around. As such, apostolic succession is a foundational doctrine of authority in the Catholic Church.{{Blockquote|text=If the very order of episcopal succession is to be considered, how much more surely, truly, and safely do we number them from Peter himself, to whom, as to one representing the whole Church, the Lord said, 'Upon this rock I will build my Church'....|author={{bibleverse|Matthew|16:18}}}} Peter was succeeded by Linus, Linus by Clement, Clement by Anacletus, Anacletus by Evaristus..."<ref>St. Augustine; Letters 53:1:2 [A.D. 412]</ref> The Catholic position is summarised this way: "The Lord says to Peter: 'I say to you,' he says, 'that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it ....'<ref>{{bibleverse|Mt.|16:18}}</ref> On him [Peter] he builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep,<ref>{{bibleverse|Jn|21:17}}</ref> and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair [cathedra], and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity.... If someone [today] does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?"<ref>(Cyprian of Carthage; The Unity of the Catholic Church 4; first edition [A.D. 251]). [http://www.catholic.com/tracts/peters-successors Peter's Successors] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920072354/http://www.catholic.com/tracts/peters-successors |date=20 September 2015 }}. Catholic Answers.</ref>

Catholicism holds that Christ entrusted the Apostles with the leadership of the community of believers, and the obligation to transmit and preserve the "deposit of faith". The experience of Christ and his teachings contained in the doctrinal tradition handed down from the time of the apostles and the written portion, which is Scripture. The apostles then passed on this office and authority by ordaining bishops to follow after them.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://old.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art9p3.shtml#861 |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church, #861–862 |publisher=Old.usccb.org |date=14 December 1975 |access-date=18 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120729121143/http://old.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art9p3.shtml |archive-date=29 July 2012}}</ref>

Catholic theology holds that the apostolic succession affects the power and authority to administer the [[Sacraments of the Catholic Church|sacraments]] except for [[baptism]] and [[matrimony]]. Baptism may be administered by anyone and matrimony by the couple to each other. Authority to so administer such sacraments is passed on only through the sacrament of [[Holy Orders]], a rite by which a priest is ordained. Ordination can be conferred only by bishop. The bishop must be from an unbroken line of bishops stemming from the original apostles selected by Jesus Christ. Thus, apostolic succession is necessary for the valid celebration of the sacraments.<ref name=ITC1973/>

====Views concerning other churches====
{{multiple image
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 | image1 = Saint Raphael Catholic Church (Springfield, Ohio) - stained glass, Upon this Rock, detail - St. Peter's Basilica.jpg
 | caption1 = Stained glass window in a Catholic church depicting [[St. Peter's Basilica]] in Rome sitting "Upon this rock," a reference to [[:s:Bible (King James)/Matthew#Chapter 16|Matthew 16]]:18. Most present-day Catholics interpret Jesus as saying he was building his church on the rock of the Apostle Peter and the succession of popes which claim Apostolic succession from him.

 | image2 = AugsburgConfessionArticle7OftheChurch.jpg
 | caption2 = A 17th century illustration of [[:s:Augsburg Confession#Article VII: Of the Church.|Article VII: Of the Church]] from the Lutheran ''Augsburg Confession'', which states "...one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered." Here the rock from Matthew 16:18 refers to the preaching and ministry of Jesus as the Christ, a view discussed at length in the 1537 ''[[Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope|Treatise]]''.<ref>[http://bookofconcord.org/treatise.php#para22 ''Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, paragraph 22''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924092620/http://bookofconcord.org/treatise.php#para22 |date=24 September 2008 }} and following</ref>}}

In the Catholic Church, [[Pope Leo XIII]] stated in his 1896 [[Papal bull|bull]] ''[[Apostolicae curae]]'' that the Catholic Church believes specifically that Anglican orders were to be considered "absolutely null and utterly void".

His argument was as follows. First, the ordination rite of [[Edward VI of England|Edward VI]] had removed the language of a sacrificial priesthood. Ordinations using this new rite occurred for over a century and, because the restoration of the language of "priesthood" a century later in the ordination rite "was introduced too late, as a century had already elapsed since the adoption of the [[Edwardine Ordinal]] ... the Hierarchy had become extinct, there remained no power of ordaining." With this extinction of validly ordained bishops in England, "the true Sacrament of Order as instituted by Christ lapsed, and with it the hierarchical succession." As a result, the pope's final judgment was that Anglican ordinations going forward were to be considered "absolutely null and utterly void". Anglican clergy were from then on to be ordained as Catholic priests upon entry into the Catholic Church.<ref name=Neill/>{{rp|105}}

A reply from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York (1896) was issued to counter Pope Leo's arguments: ''[[Saepius officio]]: Answer of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to the Bull Apostolicae Curae of H. H. Leo XIII''.<ref name="Saepius_officio">[http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgbmxd/saepius.htm]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090807095328/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgbmxd/saepius.htm|date=7 August 2009}}</ref> They argued that if the Anglican orders were invalid, then the Roman orders were as well since the Pope based his case on the fact that the Anglican ordinals used did not contain certain essential elements but these were not found in the early Roman rites either.<ref name=Saepius_officio/> Catholics argue, this argument does not consider the sacramental intention involved in validating Holy Orders. In other words, Catholics believe that the ordination rites were reworded so as to invalidate the ordinations because the intention behind the alterations in the rite was a fundamental change in Anglican understanding of the priesthood.<ref>Franklin, R. William. "Introduction: The Opening of the Vatican Archives and the ARCIC Process" in Franklin, R. William (ed)''Anglican orders'' Mowbray:1996</ref>

[[File:Leo XIII.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Pope Leo XIII]] rejected Anglican arguments for apostolic succession in his bull ''Apostolicae curae''.]]

It is Catholic doctrine that the teaching of ''Apostolicae curae'' is a truth to be "held definitively, but are not able to be declared as divinely revealed", as stated in a commentary by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.<ref name=CDF1998>{{citation |chapter-url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFADTU.HTM |chapter=Doctrinal Commentary on the Concluding Formula of the Professio fidei |author=Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith |title=L'Osservatore Romano Weekly Edition in English |edition=15 July 1998 |pages=3–4 |publisher=EWTN |access-date=24 September 2007 |archive-date=29 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429153305/http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDFADTU.HTM |url-status=dead }}</ref> Cardinal [[Basil Hume]] explained the conditional character of his ordination of [[Graham Leonard]], former Anglican bishop of the Diocese of London, to the priesthood in the following way: "While firmly restating the judgement of ''Apostolicae Curae'' that Anglican ordination is invalid, the Catholic Church takes account of the involvement, in some Anglican episcopal ordinations, of bishops of the Old Catholic Church of the Union of Utrecht who are validly ordained. In particular and probably rare cases the authorities in Rome may judge that there is a 'prudent doubt' concerning the invalidity of priestly ordination received by an individual Anglican minister ordained in this line of succession."<ref name="ewtn">{{cite news | title = Statement of Cardinal Hume on the Ordination of Anglican Bishop Leonard as a Roman Catholic Priest | url = http://www.ewtn.com/library/ISSUES/LEONARD.TXT | work =  The Catholic Resource Network | publisher = Trinity Communications | year = 1994 | access-date = 22 February 2015 }}</ref> 

At the same time, he stated: "Since the church must be in no doubt of the validity of the sacraments celebrated for the Roman Catholic community, it must ask all who are chosen to exercise the priesthood in the Catholic Church to accept sacramental ordination in order to fulfill their ministry and be integrated into the apostolic succession."<ref name="ewtn"/> Since ''Apostolicae curae'' was issued many Anglican jurisdictions have revised their ordinals, bringing them more in line with ordinals of the early Church.

Timothy Dufort, writing in ''[[The Tablet]]'' in 1982, attempted to present an ecumenical solution to the problem of how the Catholic Church might accept Anglican orders without needing to formally repudiate ''Apostolicae curae'' at all. Dufort argued that by 1969 all Anglican bishops had acquired apostolic succession fully recognized by Rome,<ref name="dufort">Timothy Dufort, ''The Tablet'', 29 May 1982, pp. 536–538.</ref> since from the 1930s [[Old Catholic]] bishops (the validity of whose orders the Vatican has never questioned)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/liturgy/zlitur395.htm |title=Archived copy |access-date=17 December 2018 |archive-date=22 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190622191447/http://www.ewtn.com/library/liturgy/zlitur395.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> have acted as co-consecrators in the ordination of Anglican bishops. This view has not yet been considered formally by the Holy See, but after Anglican Bishop [[Graham Leonard]] converted to Catholicism, he was only reordained in 1994 {{em|conditionally}} because of the presence of Old Catholic bishops at his ordination.

The question of the validity of Anglican orders has been further complicated by the Anglican ordination of women.<ref>R. William Franklin(ed). ''Anglican Orders''. Mowbray 1996 pp.72,73(note 11), 104</ref> In a document it published in July 1998, the [[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]] stated that the Catholic Church's declaration on the invalidity of Anglican ordinations is a teaching that the church has definitively propounded and that therefore every Catholic is required to give "firm and definitive assent" to this matter.<ref name=CDF1998/> This being said, in May 2017, Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, President of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, has asked whether the current Catholic position on invalidity could be revised in the future.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/7068/anglican-orders-not-invalid-says-cardinal-opening-way-for-revision-of-current-catholic-position-|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180303152817/http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/7068/anglican-orders-not-invalid-says-cardinal-opening-way-for-revision-of-current-catholic-position-|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 March 2018|title=Anglican orders not 'invalid' says Cardinal, opening way for revision of current Catholic position|website=The Tablet}}</ref>