Vatican City, Mar 29, 2012 / 17:00 pm
The Vatican's doctrinal office has confirmed the excommunication of four priests expelled from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, who asserted themselves as rivals to its bishops.
“These priests continue to challenge ecclesiastical authority, causing moral and spiritual damage, not only to the Basilian Order of St. Josaphat and the Greek-Catholic Ukrainian Church, but also to this Apostolic See and the Catholic Church as a whole,” the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said March 29.
“All this provokes division and bewilderment among the faithful,” the Vatican's highest doctrinal office observed. The comments were made in a March 29 notification intended “to inform the faithful, especially in the countries of origin of the so-called 'bishops,' about their current canonical status.”
“This Congregation … formally declares that it does not recognize the validity of their episcopal ordinations, or of any and all ordinations that have derived, or will derive therefrom. Moreover, the canonical status of the four so-called 'bishops' is that of excommunication.”