Dear Benjamin:

The Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders, and Marriage impart a permanent imprint or character upon the souls of the people who receive them. That can never be taken away.

The mark of Baptism, for example, is permanently on one's soul even if they go to hell. None of these Sacraments can be annulled, including Marriage.

Annulment of Marriage only takes place if the Sacrament of Marriage was never valid in the first place. But if a person validly receives a valid Sacrament of Marriage, no one, and nothing, can terminate that -- not even the Pope -- even if the couple civilly divorces and remarries (they, in this case, remarry in sin). Annulment is only possible when there was never a sacramental marriage in the first place.

Once Holy Orders is validly conferred upon a person, like Marriage, it can never be terminated or taken away. Holy Orders can only be determined null, only if the conferring of Holy Orders was invalid in the first place. What a priest does after validly ordained, even if he was to leave the Church or even become a Satanist, never changes the validity of the Holy Orders itself.

The mark of Holy Orders, the permanent imprint or character, will be on the man's soul forever, even if that priest ends up in hell.

Although the mark of Holy Orders on the soul of a priest can never be removed or revoked, the priest can been removed from clergy state and returned to a lay state. Holy Orders and the clergy state are two separate things.

Let me give an analogy that might help to understand this. It is an imperfect analogy, but maybe it will help.

A man goes to medical school and graduates as a doctor. He is given medical license to practice medicine.

Years later the doctor does something unethical and his medical license is revoked. He can no longer practice the medical profession.

Now, even though he cannot legally practice as a physician, he STILL know the information of medicine, he still knows how to do medicine, and in an emergency, he can still medically help someone, but he no longer has a license to practice as a doctor.

He still has all the knowledge, know how, an expertise of a doctor, but is prohibited from performing as a doctor.

This is similar to a "defrocked" priest: he is returned to the lay state and is no longer clergy (but he is still a priest). In the lay state the priest no longer has a "license" to perform as a priest.

A priest who goes into schism also loses his license to perform as a priest.

It is because valid Orders cannot be revoked, that it is such a scandal and sacrilege when priests who lose their "license" continue to act as a priest. They do so illegally, but they do it anyway.

The Magisterium cannot open this for debate since it is a dogma that originates with Christ and the Apostles. The Church cannot change this ontological reality (this reality of character and mark of Holy Orders on the souls of those ordained).

For those priests who have dishonored their Orders and are performing as priests illegally, we need to pray for their souls.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary