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In thecanon law of theRoman Catholic Church, anecclesial community (/ɪˈkliːziəl/) is aChristian religious group that does not meet the Roman Catholic definition of a "Church". Although the word "ecclesial" itself means "church" or "gathering" in a political sense inKoine Greek, the Roman Catholic Church applies the term "Church" in the proper sense only to Christian communities that, according to theRoman Catholic doctrine, "have truesacraments and above all – because of theapostolic succession –the priesthood and theEucharist".[1]
TheRoman Catholic Church formally recognizes and defines as a "Church" of a nature similar to its ownparticular Churches (dioceses and autonomous orsui iuris Churches) theEastern Christian Churches separated fromfull communion with it,[1] namely those ofEastern Orthodoxy,Oriental Orthodoxy, andChurch of the East. It has not denied the claim of some communities ofWestern Christianity to meet its definition of "Church" (an example is thePolish National Catholic Church). Indeed, by referring to "The Separated Churches and Ecclesial Communities in the West,"[2] theSecond Vatican Council recognized the existence of some Western Churches that are not in full communion with theHoly See.
However, the Roman Catholic Church expressly excludes "those Christian communities born out of theProtestant Reformation of the sixteenth century", since, according to theRoman Catholic doctrine, these communities do not enjoyapostolic succession in thesacrament of orders, and therefore lack a constitutive element of the Church.[3] This includes theChurch of England and the broaderAnglican Communion, the validity of whose orders the Roman Catholic Church has declared "absolutely null and utterly void".[4] This judgement was officially enunciated in the papal bullApostolicae curae of 1896 byPope Leo XIII, which confirmed allAnglican ordinations to beinvalid.[4]
However, afterCardinal Joseph Ratzinger promulgated the documentDominus Iesus in 2000,Danish Protestant ministers from theChurch of Denmark replied in a public statement to the Roman Catholic Church, stating that the latest document "has a destructive effect on ecumenical relations if one church deprives another church of the right to be called a church. It is just as destructive as if one Christian denies another Christian the right to be called a Christian".[5]
