Successio Apostolica and Re-ordination of Anglican Convert Priests

In a post below on Catholic Ecclesiology there is a good question that is asked in the comments about a statement made in the post. The statement reads,

" ... break with the concrete continuity of the Church that celebrates the Eucharist with the bishops ... "

The question is,

do you by this statement in fact refer back to the Roman Catholic position on the validity of Holy Orders within the Church of England?

In another story mentioning the re-ordination of Father Jeffrey Steenson who was an Episcopal bishop in the US Episcopal church Simon Caldwell at the Catholic Independent writes,

This was highlighted by the embarrassment caused to the US Catholic bishops when the Episcopal bishop in New Mexico, Jeffrey Steenson, resigned over the election of Gene Robinson as the first openly gay bishop, as well as the blessing of same-sex unions.

Bishop Steenson wanted to become a Catholic priest but was made to go back to university in Rome and be re-ordained. Instead of being welcomed as a hero, he was humiliated. This led for an appraisal of the way things were done. As for Rowan Williams, the affection for him within the Vatican is genuine. He will be welcomed as a friend. He can relax. One source said: "Rome has decided to lay out a red carpet that is long and deep for Rowan because they like and respect him personally.

The question needs to be asked to those of us who have had Anglican ordination as priests in the CofE and other Anglican bodies. No matter who the person is, re-ordination will occur for any convert Anglican to the Catholic Church. It is important for all to remember that apostolic succession is not simply and only a formal power but a very important ingredient that makes up the mission of the gospel as a whole. There is a successio structure that is linked with tradition and is unbroken that is a concept of the Catholic Church. As a convert to the Catholic Church it is my understanding that I was validly ordained as a priest within the Anglican communion alone. It was not an ordination that had within its structure the unbroken line of the imposition of hands that maintained the Church's intention connecting Christology and pneumatology within the sacramental context of the Catholic Church.

This links us back to the C19 'High Church' movement within Anglicanism in what Benedict XVI termed 'apocryphal' ordinations. Though there is a concept of understanding holy orders and the related symbolism by the imposition of hands as the Catholic model of sacramental ordination, the Holy Father finds the understanding rather 'obfuscated in many respects.' The Holy Father has written,

As a result, there are, today, a number of persons holding such ministries whose succession is, if I may so phrase it, apocryphal. Wherever such "high-church" ordinations are conferred or received thus "apocryphally", the fundamental nature of the imposition of hands has been totally misunderstood. Regardless of the positive reasons that occasion it, it expresses, in such cases, either a liturgical romanticism or a canonical tutiorism. These churches want a formally assured legitimacy and tend toward an archaizing liturgical model (often, too, toward an equally archaizing dogmatic model). but they accomplish all this without venturing to revise the ecclesial context in anything but rite. Where this occurs, however, the sacrament is, in fact, restricted to a liturgical-juridical formalism. The more genuine rite and the more genuine geneology appear as automatic guarantors of sacramentality and apostolicity. The inevitable result is that this formalism is regarded with irony by the other side and is countered by the genuineness of the word independent of the rite. (Principles of Catholic Theology 246).

Form is never to be separated from context and hence be valid if it bypasses the rest of the Church and attempts to dig a private tunnel to the apostles (Ben XVI). Ordination must have continuity of context in order for there to be sacramental guarantors and true apostolicity. I therefore do not believe for a moment that the re-ordination of Father Jeffrey Steenson or any formal Anglican for that matter is humiliating but rather necessary for sacramental assurance of the successio apostolica in Catholic ordinations. All Catholic ordinations must be held firmly in the concrete Church by the imposition of hands of those in succession with the apostles. This is glorious and sacramental, and nothing of humiliation, but GIFT.