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Hi, Ernest —
Apostolicae
Curae intended to prove,
chiefly, that the ordination ritual
of Anglicans was invalid for transmitting
Holy Orders. The consequence of this
was that every priest and bishop
ordained by those rituals were invalidly
ordained.
This is not to say that every individual
who converts from Anglicanism has
invalid orders. This is owing to
the practice which was unknown at
the time of Apostolicae
Curae (A.C.) (and
indeed probably resulted from A.C.) of
gaining orders from Orthodox or National
Catholic Church sources. For this
reason, priest-converts from Anglicanism
have their pedigree thoroughly examined
before a determination is made of
how they are to be ordained (although
most are unconditionally reordained).
So it is not infallible from a practical
standpoint. Two other points need
to be considered.
- One is, is sacrifice essential
to the priesthood?
- The other is, did the Anglican
changes to the ritual exclude
the intent of sacrifice?
On the first point, this was pretty
much infallible teaching from the
beginning. The Eucharist has always
been considered the sacrifice in
both East and West. The second point
is pretty clear; everything pertaining
to sacrifice was systematically removed
from the Anglican liturgy.
This is a matter of history.
It might so happen that the Archbishop
of Canterbury has a change of heart
and changes the ritual back, and
also re-ordains all the bishops with
valid orders. In this case, A.C. could be revisited, but that's unlikely.
So I'd say that A.C. is a judgment,
based on certain premises still in
effect and based on history and infallible
(ordinary Magisterium) teachings.
As for your second question, anyone
can receive remission of their sins
if they are truly repentant, regretting
their sins out of genuine love for
God and not merely fear of eternal
punishment.
As a sacrament however, Anglican
confession (excepting those who
have valid orders from the Orthodox
or National Catholic churches) is
no more salutary than receiving good
Christian counseling, unless God,
by his mercy, deigns to reckon an
invalid sacrament as if it were valid.
Hope this helps!
Eric
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