The phrase "apostolic decree" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used in contexts related to religious or ecclesiastical matters, particularly within the Catholic Church, to refer to a formal decision or instruction issued by the Pope or a church authority.
Example: "The Pope issued an apostolic decree to clarify the church's stance on the matter."
Alternatives: "papal decree" or "ecclesiastical decree".
From this time onward Gentile Christians were not bound by the Levitical ceremonial regulations of the Jews, except for the provisions of the so-called apostolic decree: abstention "from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from unchastity" (Acts 15:29).
The Templars, based in Hertford, are hoping for an apology by 2007, the 700th anniversary of the start of the persecution, which culminated with the torture and burning at the stake of the Grand Master Jacques de Molay for heresy and the dissolution of the Order by apostolic decree in 1312.
In which matter, indeed, even though thou had'st not been so amicably admonished by us, it would nevertheless have been but light that, before thou did'st violate apostolic decrees, thou should'st, by negotiation, make demands from us in cases where we oppressed thee or stood in the way of thy prerogatives.
Angered by this interference in what he considered his exclusive domain, Kangxi ordered the Portuguese to arrest Carlo Tommaso Maillard de Tournon, an apostolic legate to China carrying the papal decree, and in 1706 he expelled missionaries who would not adhere to the Jesuit line.
An apostolic constitution is the highest form of papal decree.
In November of that same year, in an act of outreach to conservative Anglicans, Benedict approved an apostolic constitution, or special decree, that allowed Anglican clergymen and laypersons to join the Roman Catholic Church while maintaining some Anglican traditions.
Its apostolic administrator, Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, issued a decree for the reconstruction of the church on 21 April 1991.
In Pope John Paul II's 1982 decree known as the Apostolic constitution Ut Sit, Opus Dei was established as a personal prelature, a new official structure of the Catholic Church, similar to a diocese in that it contains lay people and secular priests who are led by a bishop.
Italian Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican tribunal that deals with the forgiveness of sins, issued the decree following a request from the Legion of Christ's new general director Eduardo Robles Gil.
Apostolic ministry and gender?
