Page "Episcopi vagantes" Paragraph 3

Some theologians, within the Roman Catholic Church and elsewhere, question whether all such consecrations have effect, on the grounds that an ordination is for service within a specific Christian church.

Therefore an ordination ceremony that concerns only the individual himself does not, they say, correspond to the definition of an ordination and is without effect.

The Holy See has not commented on the truth of this theory.

Other theologians also, notably those of the Eastern Orthodox Church, dispute the notion that such ordinations have effect, a notion that opens up the possibility of valid but irregular consecrations proliferating outside the structures of the " official " denominations.