Apostolicae Curae is the title of a papal bull issued in 1896 by Pope Leo XIII, declaring all Anglican holy orders null and void. The main objection was the alleged deficiency of intention and of form. In the case of deficiency of intention, the pope believed that the Anglican rites of ordination revealed an intention to create a priesthood different from the “sacrificing” priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church. Papal bull of Pope Urban VIII, 1637, sealed with a leaden bulla. ... 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Pope (from Greek: pappas, father; from Latin: papa, Papa, father) is the head of the Catholic Church, which considers him the successor of St. ... Pope Leo XIII Supreme Pontiff (1878-1903) Leo XIII, né Gioacchino Pecci (March 2, 1810 - July 20, 1903) was Pope from 1878 to 1903. ... The term Anglican describes those people and churches following the religious traditions of the Church of England, especially following the Reformation. ... Holy Orders in the modern Roman Catholic Church and in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, Assyrian, Old Catholic, and Independent Catholic Churches, includes three degrees: bishop, priest, and deacon. ... A rite is an established, ceremonious, usually religious act. ... Ordination is the process in which clergy become authorized by their religious denomination and/or seminary to perform religious rituals and ceremonies. ... A priesthood is a body of priests, shamans, or oracles who are thought to have special religious authority or function. ... Catholic Church redirects here. ...

The pope asserted that the defect in form was the omission from the priestly (presbyteral) ordination formula of references to sacrificing priests, and of specific mention of the distinctive characteristic of the Roman Catholic priesthood, namely to consecrate the holy Eucharist. In the case of the ordination of bishops (episcopal consecration), the pope asserted the defect in form to be the omission of references to "High Priesthood." These references, however, were and are missing in certain Eastern ordination liturgies which the Roman Catholic Church considers to be valid as to form. The Eucharist or Communion or The Lords Supper, is the rite that Christians perform in fulfillment of Jesus instruction, recorded in the New Testament, to do in memory of him what he did at his Last Supper. ...

The defect in intention was inferred from the omissions. The pope argued that, by omitting to mention what was the distinctive characteristic of the Roman Catholic priesthood, the Ordinal was embracing a different doctrine of Holy Orders from that of the Roman Catholic Church, whose Orders had been handed down in unbroken succession from the apostles. Leo XIII declared that the omission from the Edwardine Ordinal of what he regarded as the distinctive characteristic of the Roman Catholic priesthood gave to the Ordinal a native indoles ac spiritus – an innate nature and spirit – which was of a Protestant theology rather than one that was in continuity with Roman Catholic theology. Ordinal numbers, or ordinals for short, are numbers used to denote the position in an ordered sequence: first, second, third, fourth, etc. ... Catholic Church redirects here. ... Alternate meaning: See Apostle (Mormonism) The Christian Apostles were Jewish men chosen from among the disciples, who were sent forth (as indicated by the Greek word απόστολος apostolos= messenger), by Jesus to preach the Gospel to both Jews and Gentiles, across the world. ... Pope Leo XIII Supreme Pontiff (1878-1903) Leo XIII, né Gioacchino Pecci (March 2, 1810 - July 20, 1903) was Pope from 1878 to 1903. ... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ...

In “Saepius Officio: Answer of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to the Bull Apostolicae Curae of H. H. Leo XIII”, the Anglican Church replied. The basis of the counter-argument was that the Book of Common Prayer contained a strong sacrificial theology, in particular in the Preface to the 1550, 1552, 1559, and 1662 versions of the Ordinal. These were not discussed in Apostolicae Curae. Saepius Officio is the definitive reply of the Church of England to Apostolicae Curae, the Papal Bull of 1896 declaring Anglican Ordinations invalid, intended to prove the sufficiency of the form and intention used in the Anglican rite. ... Bull or bull has various meanings: Look up bull in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A Modern Prayer Book The Book of Common Prayer is the prayer book of the Church of England and also the name for similar books used in other churches in the Anglican Communion. ... Events February 7 - Julius III becomes Pope. ... Events April - War between Henry II of France and Emperor Charles V. Henry invades Lorraine and captures Toul, Metz, and Verdun. ... Events January 15 - Elizabeth I of England is crowned in Westminster Abbey. ... Events March 18 – Short-timed experiment of the first public buses holding 8 passengers begins in Paris May 3/May 2 - Catherine of Braganza marries Charles II of England – as part of the dowry, Portugal cedes Bombay and Tangier to England May 9 - Samuel Pepys witnessed a Punch and Judy...

More recently the Rev'd John Jay Hughes, amongst other Roman Catholic writers, concluded that there were enough flaws in and ambiguity surrounding the pope’s apostolic letter that the question of the invalidity of Anglican holy orders merited re-examination.

Despite the ongoing work of the ecumenical Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC), in 1998 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (then the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and later Pope Benedict XVI) issued a doctrinal commentary to accompany Pope John Paul II’s apostolic letter "Ad Tuendam Fidem", which established penalties in canon law for failure to accept “definitive teaching.” Ratzinger’s commentary listed Leo XIII’s Apostolicae Curae, declaring Anglican Holy Orders to be “absolutely null and utterly void,” as one of the irreversible teachings to which Roman Catholics must give firm and definitive assent. These teachings are not understood by the church as revealed doctrines but are rather those which the church’s teaching authority finds to be so closely connected to God's revealed truth that belief in them is required in order to safeguard those revealed truths. Those who fail to give firm and definitive assent, according to the letter, “will no longer be in full communion with the Catholic church.” To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... A prefect (from the Latin praefectus, perfect participle of praeficio, to make in front, i. ... The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) (Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei) is the oldest of the nine congregations of the Roman Curia. ... Pope Benedict XVI (Latin: ; born April 16, 1927 as Joseph Alois Ratzinger in Marktl am Inn, Bavaria, Germany) is the 265th reigning pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City. ... Official papal image of John Paul II. His Holiness Pope John Paul II, né Karol Józef Wojtyła (born May 18, 1920 in Wadowice, Poland), is the current Pope — the Bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic Church. ... In Western culture, canon law is the law of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. ... Doctrine, from Latin doctrina, (compare doctor), means a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system. ...

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Apostolicae Curae

• Catholic Encyclopedia article on Anglican Orders
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• What is the status of Anglican Orders today?