Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Episcopus vagans" in English language version.
So what happens when a priest leaves the priesthood? Since Holy Orders is a character sacrament, once it has been validly received, it never is invalidated for any reason whatsoever. Granted, a cleric– deacon, priest, or bishop– may be freed from the clerical state and dispensed from the promise of celibacy by the proper authority. He may no longer have the obligations or the privileges to function as a cleric, but nevertheless he remains a cleric. Commonly, this practice is called laicization, meaning "returned to the state of the laity." (Code of Canon Law, #290-293.) Even though the cleric has been laicized and no longer functions as a deacon, priest, or bishop, he still has the sacramental character of Holy Orders. Technically, if he were to perform a sacrament in accord with the norms of the Church, that sacrament would indeed be valid. However, the sacrament would be illicit, meaning he violated Church law and would be culpable for this infraction since he no longer has the faculties to function as a priest.
A number of Old Catholic bishops ordained 'independent' bishops. There are now literally hundreds of these 'episcopi vagantes', of lesser or greater spiritual probity. They seem to have a tendency to call living room sanctuaries 'cathedrals'.
The Council of Trent decrees, that "in the Sacrament of Order . . . a 'character' is impressed which can neither be blotter out nor taken away:" and condemns all who affirm that "persons once rightly ordained can again be laics." (Sess. xxiii., ch. 4) "If any one shall have said, that by sacred ordination . . . . a character is not impressed or that he who was once a priest can again become a laic, let him be accursed." (Sess. xxiii., ch. 4) . . . . Where the mark is stamped on the soul, there there is "order;" and where that mark is not stamped on the soul, there is not order (according to the Church of Rome). And the Council of Trent declares that mark or "character" to be "indelible;" that is to say, once impressed on the soul, it can never be rubbed out or lost, or taken away.
A number of Old Catholic bishops ordained 'independent' bishops. There are now literally hundreds of these 'episcopi vagantes', of lesser or greater spiritual probity. They seem to have a tendency to call living room sanctuaries 'cathedrals'.
A number of Old Catholic bishops ordained 'independent' bishops. There are now literally hundreds of these 'episcopi vagantes', of lesser or greater spiritual probity. They seem to have a tendency to call living room sanctuaries 'cathedrals'.
The Council of Trent decrees, that "in the Sacrament of Order . . . a 'character' is impressed which can neither be blotter out nor taken away:" and condemns all who affirm that "persons once rightly ordained can again be laics." (Sess. xxiii., ch. 4) "If any one shall have said, that by sacred ordination . . . . a character is not impressed or that he who was once a priest can again become a laic, let him be accursed." (Sess. xxiii., ch. 4) . . . . Where the mark is stamped on the soul, there there is "order;" and where that mark is not stamped on the soul, there is not order (according to the Church of Rome). And the Council of Trent declares that mark or "character" to be "indelible;" that is to say, once impressed on the soul, it can never be rubbed out or lost, or taken away.