The man who helped to coordinate the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to our country, has participated this week in the consecration in Santa Clara of a sanctuary to the Virgin of Charity del Cobre, Cuba's patron saint.
The four, whom Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre made bishops in unsanctioned consecrations in Switzerland in 1988, reject many reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
Archbishop Lefebvre made the men bishops in unsanctioned consecrations in Switzerland in 1988, prompting the immediate excommunication of all five by Pope John Paul II.
Contradicting these claims, the medieval Annales Suecici Medii Aevi and the 13th century legend of Saint Botvid mention some Henry as the Bishop of Uppsala (Henricus scilicet Upsalensis) in 1129, participating in the consecration of the saint's newly built church.
In 752 the emperor Shōmu dedicated the Daibutsu, the colossal bronze image of Vairocana at Tōdai Temple, and many of the ritual objects used in the consecration ceremony are still preserved in the monastery treasury, the Shōsō-in.
Consecration in the strict sense is distinguished from blessing, benediction, or dedication in that consecration effects an intimate transformation in the essence of the object and that it is permanent and can be neither revoked nor repeated.
Bishop Griswold sent a letter to his fellow primates saying he was "profoundly disturbed" by what he called "the caricature" of the Episcopal Church as disregarding Scripture and doctrine, contained in a statement by participants in the consecration ceremony.
Alison Cheek, Heyward, and Piccard joined in the consecration, and Piccard gave the absolution, in a celebration of the Eucharist at Riverside Church in Manhattan in November 1974.
"We deplore the act of those bishops who have taken part in the consecration, which has now divided the church in violation of their obligation to guard the faith and unity of the church," it said.
Based on the concept in Roman law of "college," a body of persons, not fewer than three, associated together by the possession of common function, the collegiality of bishops is reflected in the ancient tradition that at least three bishops should participate in the consecration of a priest to the episcopate.
