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Wouldn't Lefebvre have had co-consecrators who were not suspect?

Yes. But that was for his episcopal consecration, not his ordination.

Yes. But that was for his episcopal consecration, not his ordination.

There's no positive doubt that his ordination was valid. Only speculation, no proof, that he was ordained by a freemason.

Hello, I have been thinking about the priesthood. One thing that I was wondering is if you are getting ordained in the latin rite you could opt for a byzantine bishop to ordain you in the old roman rite or the byzantine rite of ordination. If I am going to become a priest I would want to get ordained by a bishop whose line contains no new rite people in it. The problem is, most of the latin rite lines that meet this criteria all have something off about them. (Thuc- Might've been mentally deficient given all the bishops he consecrated for the old "catholics" and how he was said to have been going to the Novus Ordo while claiming to be sede. | Lefebvre- The man who ordained him was allegedly a freemason, so the intention might not have been present during his ordination |  Mendez- All of the bishops I know of in this line were ordained by Lefebvre and I heard Mendex consecrated someone that he knew was a ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ | Duarte Costa- Not much information that I know of about this line, he was also some insane socialist)

 

Hello,


You might not have intended to imply this, but no one can really "choose" who ordains them, as no responsible Bishop would agree to ordain someone just because they would rather that Bishop ordain them than this other Bishop over here.


In normal times the Bishop to ordain you would be your diocesan Ordinary (the Bishop of the diocese) unless he grants permission through dismissorial letters for you to be ordained by someone else. No Bishop of whatever rank was ever allowed to ordain the subject of another Bishop without that Bishop's permission through dismissorial letters. The Pope himself was an exception to this of course, although he probably wouldn't ordain someone either without at least inquiring about the candidate's fitness from his Bishop.


If you were a member of a religious order you would be ordained by the diocesan Ordinary or whatever other Bishop was appointed to do so.


In our day because that authority structure is not available there are other provisions made. However, I do not know of a single traditional Bishop of any group that would agree to ordain you unless you went to the Seminary of that Bishop's group. It would be different if, let's say, you were a seminarian in an SSPX seminary for several years, gradually became convinced of Sedevacantism, and then left the SSPX seminary and approached the SSPV, CMRI, a Bishop of the Thuc line, etc. for ordaination (or vice versa). They would probably agree to ordain you eventually, but they would require you to finish your Seminary training with them, or if you were already a deacon and otherwise eligible for ordination immediately, they would still likely require you to wait a while so they could evaluate your fitness for themselves. None of them would ordain you just because you'd rather be ordained by them than someone else.


Since your actual post is specifically inquiring about Ordination by an Eastern Rite bishop, here are some things to know about that:


1) Some Eastern Rite bishops have been consecrated in the Novus Ordo New Rite of Episcopal Consecration. I believe John Paul II consecrated some Eastern Rite Bishops in the Novus Ordo rite rather than in the Eastern Rite of Episcopal Consecration. So, some Eastern rite Bishops would labor under the same doubtful validity as the majority of Novus Ordo Bishops.


2) Unless you're talking about approaching a traditional Eastern Rite Bishop not in union with the Novus Ordo (I don't even know if there are any) Eastern Rite Bishops would follow current Eastern Canon law. I'm not familiar with the details of Eastern Canon law, but I can almost guarantee they would also follow the practice of only ordaining the subject of another Bishop with that Bishop's permission. If you don't believe your local Novus Ordo bishop is really valid, I doubt he will give his permission for you to be ordained by an Eastern Rite Bishop, and if you approached a valid Eastern Rite Bishop in union with the Novus Ordo and told him even though you are not Eastern Rite you want to be ordained by him because you doubt the validity of the Novus Ordo Bishops, he probably won't ordain you.


To actually have a chance of getting ordained by a valid Eastern Rite bishop you would probably have to BECOME Eastern Rite, go through their Seminary, and get ordained, at the same time trying thread the needle of making sure the Bishop who ultimately ordains you doesn't trace his Episcopal powers through the Novus Ordo (#1 above), and also keeping your doubt about the Novus Ordo bishops' validity quiet, because you would probably get kicked out of the Eastern Rite seminary if they knew you believed that. I don't think you can hope for better than that through the Eastern Rites. However, if you did that you would still have to contend with #1 above, as well as also being in an organization that accepts Vatican II.