www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Archbishop Thuc's patriarchal powers and his Assyrian lineage

Hello

Some websites that support Archbishop Thuc and his successors mention that he was given special PATRIARCHAL POWERS:

www.cmri.org/history.htm [cmri.org]

His holy orders, by the way, actually come from the CHALDEAN PATRIARCHATE (his French consecrator had been consecrated by a Chaldean bishop who had been consecrated by Patriarch Emmanuel Yousef of Babylon (some sources state he was himself a convert whose succession came from the Assyrian Church of the East).

Is Archbishop Thuc's Assyrian episcopal lineage related to the Patriarchal Powers he suposedly received?

It is my understanding that Traditional Latin priests coming from this lineage have the grace but I'm not sure about those who were consecrated through the Palmar fiasco bishops.

Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục (1897-1984) was the Metropolitan Archbishop of Huế from 1960 to 1968. If anyone wants to claim that Archbishop Thục received "special patriarchal powers", which I think is highly unlikely, he should produce documents to prove his claim.

There may be a Chaldean connection through the Apostolic Delegate to Indochina, Archbishop Antonin Drapier, who had previously been Apostolic Delegate to Iraq. However, this does not prove anything. Plenty of Bishops have been ordained by the Roman Pontiff or by various Eastern Catholic Patriarchs, but that does not give those Bishops any special powers.

The sad fact is that Archbishop Thục probably went senile and attempted to ordain any number of unsuitable persons to the episcopate, making those attempted ordinations deeply suspect, to say the least.

As for the phrase "special patriarchal powers", I don't know what that is supposed to mean. Under canon law, any candidate for episcopal office must be validly elected and/or confirmed by the competent authority before he can be ordained. No one, not even an Eastern Catholic Patriarch, can simply ordain anyone he likes to the episcopate.

I agree with L-C and would take no note of any claims made by CMRI.

Many years,

Neil