Are your sacraments "vaild"?
According to C. B. Moss: "The ministry of every communion is valid for that communion. Disputes about validity only arise when the mutual recognition of different communions is proposed, or when a minister of one communion wishes to serve in another. Every communion has the right to decide for itself what conditions it requires for its ministry ..." (1)
And, Peter E. Fink, S.J. of the Weston School of Theology writes, "the [current] determining factor for validity on the part of the church is the presentation through sacramental signs of the saving grace of Christ to one who is capable of receiving that grace" and "it is difficult to dismiss [even a defective sacramental] act as empty and without sacramental value ..." (2)
The currect Roman Catholic Code of Canon Law states: "Whenever necessity requires it or true spiritual advantage suggests it, and provided that danger of error or indifferentism is avoided, the Christian faithful for whom it is physically or morally impossible to approach a [Roman] Catholic minister are permitted to receive the sacraments of penance, Eucharist and anointing of the sick from non-[Roman] Catholic ministers in whose Churches these sacraments are valid." (3)
We strongly recommend that those wishing an ecumenical understanding of the issue of "sacramental validity" read the World Council of Church's 1982 Statement on Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry—AKA "The Lima Statement."
(1) see C. B. Moss, The Old Catholic Movement: Its Origins and History (London: S.P.C.K., 1964), pp. 308ff.
(2) see Peter E. Fink, S.J., "Validity, Sacramental," in The New Dictionary of Sacramental Worship (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1990), pp. 1298ff.
(3) see Canon 844, 2.
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