Question:
Answer:
For the valid consecration of the bread and wine to take place, it must be offered by a validly ordained ministerial priest of Jesus Christ, whose role is different from that of the universal priesthood of all believers (see Heb. 5:1-4). Because the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches, and the other ancient Christian churches have preserved the ministerial priesthood through the valid apostolic succession of their bishops, their Eucharist is valid.
Unfortunately, most Protestant ecclesiastical communities do not even espouse belief in a ministerial priesthood, i.e., one in which a priest is “bound to offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people” (Heb. 5:3). As a result, even though who profess a type of belief in the Real Presence of the Eucharist, e.g., the Lutherans, do not celebrate it validly, including because they deny the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist.
In addition, though many in the Anglican/Episcopalian tradition do profess belief in the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist, their ministerial priesthood is invalid and thus the eucharist they celebrate is merely symbolic. This invalidity dates to shortly after King Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church in 1534. His successor, his son Edward VI, with the guiding hand of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, introduced a drastically altered and invalid version of the rite of ordination, again denying the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist. As a result, the celebration of their eucharist became invalid, as did the subsequent ordination of their bishops and ministerial priests, a reality that Pope Leo XIII reaffirmed in 1896 in his bull Apostolic Curae.
Despite the invalidity of their eucharist, Anglicans/Episcopalians, Lutherans, and other Protestant Christians can still have an encounter with the Lord Jesus when they gather together in prayer. As Jesus says, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). Consequently, such an encounter results from God’s providence and their sincerely seeking him, as distinguished from the invalidity of their eucharist.
Still, our Lord Jesus Christ prays that we may be truly one, like he and the Father are one (John 17:20-23). Therefore, we pray that the Lord increase the Church’s divinely given mark of unity (CCC 811-822), that all Christians may one day soon celebrate the Eucharist in full communion with our Lord Jesus and his Church, “so that,” as Jesus prays to his heavenly Father, “the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me” (John 17:23).
For further reading, see our two tracts on the Eucharist and our two on the institution of the Holy Mass.