Reconciliation of Schismatic Clergy
The Church throughout the centuries has had the pleasure of receiving back into Her fold those who have deserted Her through schism and heresy. During this same history, some had received Holy Orders and even the Episcopate outside of the Church and had to be received backinto Her unity. The Church has chosen to take different attitudes in different cases. In some case these men are received into the clerical rank they illegitimately had entered, and in others these men are received back as laymen. In the former case, the church must assure Herself of the validity of their Orders and has done so on many occasions. In the latter case, such investigation need not be undertaken. Historically
The Council of Florence was convened to reconcile the East with the West and the reconciliation lasted about two minutes. The East was soon back into schism. However, this Council defined the form of the Sacraments and is quite valuable in that regard. Encyclicals
Allatae Sunt, Encyclical of Pope Benedict XIV on the Observance of Oriental Rites, July 26, 1755
Omnem Sollicitudinem
Encyclical of Pope Pius IX on the Greek-Ruthenian Rite, May 13, 1874, To the Ruthenian Archbishops of Lwow, Halicz and Kamiensk and the other Bishops of the Same Rite in Friendship and Communion with the Apostolic See.
On the Churches of the East (Orientalium Dignitas), Pope Leo XIII, November 30, 1894
And others we are sure. Search is provided.
Pius VI, encyclical Charitas, 12 April, 1791, paragraph 23: We declare likewise that Charles, bishop of Autun; Jean-Baptiste, bishop of Babylon; and Jean-Joseph, bishop of Lidda have been suspended from all exercise of their episcopal office as sacrilegious consecrators or assistants; all who gave them help, consent, or counsel at those accursed consecrations have been suspended from the exercise of their priestly, or other, office.
Pope Leo XIII
From Parson’s Church History, volume 6, pages 176-7: In the course of our work, we have frequently observed how religious questions in the East are complicated by those on nationalities, and how careful the Catholic priest must be, lest he offend either national obstinacy or local susceptibility. Now, when the Vatican Council was being held, every effort was made by the “opposition”, especially by that part of it which was represented by Strossmayer, bishop of Sirmium, to draw the Amenian synodals into its embrace. When the crisis arrived, Strossmayer and his companions submitted to the inevitable; but the more innocent Armenians-more innocent, because less educated-returned to their homes with passions excited almost to the point of schism, although they had signed the decree of Papal Infallibility. When they had arrived in their respective dioceses, they found that a large number of their compatriots had joined in rejecting the authority of Msgr. Hassoun, their legitimate patriarch; they endeavored to stem the tide of revolt, but under the leadership of Bahtiarian, archbishop of Diardekir, and of Gasparian, bishop of Cyprus, the “new schismatics” had gained much headway. Before long, a monk named Kiupelian because head of the movement, assuming the title of civil head of the Armenians, and procuring illicit consecration as patriarch of Cilicia. But in the course of a few years, the poor monk experienced so much trouble wuth his schismatic followers, that he resolved to abandon the paths of a deceitful ambition; and he threw himself at the feet of his patriarch, begging to be received again into the communion of the Chair of Peter. Then he addresses the Sublime Porte, as custom and even necessity demands in the Turksih Empire, renouncing all his usurped titles and privileges. On April 20, 1879, Kiupelian knelt before the throne of Leo XIII, and entreated His Holiness to restore him to the communion of the One, Holy catholic and Apostolic Roman Church. Then, still kneeling, he read in a clear and firm voice a recantation of all his errors; whereupon the Pontiff, signing to him to arise, addressed him in these terms: “It is a great consolation to a father to be able to press to his heart a son whom he had deemed lost.” Then the Pope congratulated the convert on his courage in abandoned the honors of earth for the cause of religious truth, and he proceeded: “While granting to you full and ample pardon, we hereby make in your regard, by Our Apostolic authority, an exception to the general rules of ecclesiastical discipline, allowing you to retain the titles, insignia, and honors of the episcopal dignity which you received from bishops who had deserted the fold of Catholic unity.” Then closing words of the Pontifical discourse were: “The Eastern Churches are indeed dear to Us. We admire their ancient glories; and how happy We would be, if We could behold them resplendent with their older grandeur!” As a sequel of this recantation of Msgr. Kiupelian, the Turkish Sultan, Abdul-Hamid, hearkening to the representations of our Pontiff, reinstated Msgr. Hassoun in all the rights which the “new schism” had taken from him; and the Armenian Catholics received nearly all the churched which the schismatics had invaded.Pope Pius XII
Holy Office, 14 June, 1950: Since the priest Stanislaus Bojan, born at Nowy-Targ in Poland on the 27th of June, 1919, was promoted to sacred order of the priesthood by presenting false dimissorial letters, the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, in the plenary session held on Wednesday, 29 March, 1950, decreed that the said priest, Stanislaus Bojan is to be regarded as a layman as to all legal effects, and is freed from all the obligations contracted through sacred ordination. A monitum from the Holy Office: On the 31st of July, 1958, the Osservatore Romano published the following communication: Notice is given that the priest Giovanni Taddei of the Diocese of Biella, who was born in 1917 and ordained in 1942, having fraudulently obtained appointment as Secret Supernumerary Chamberlain of His Holines by false letters of recommendation in 1945, was suspended a divinis for a time.In 1952 this Taddei and his establishment “La strada Bianca” were unmasked throught he following notification, published in the Osservatore Romano of May 1:The priest Giovanni Taddei of the Diocese of Biella, actually under suspensions a divinis, has undertaken to establish a foundation entitled “La strada Bianca.” Notice is given that no authorization for such a work was given to the said priest by ecclesiastical authoritities. He has moreover been wrned not to take part in conferring false honorary titles of a knightly character.Then, considering the stubborn disobedience of Taddei to the lawful dispositions of ecclesiastical authority, the Bishop of Albano, in whose diocese this priest had established his residence, deprived him of the right to wear the ecclesiastical dress, according to Canon 2300 of the Code of Canon Law.
This provision was ublished in Vita Diocesana, the official bulletine of the suburbicarian diocese of Albano, in the following terms:By decree of 29, October, 1957, in accordance with canon 2300 of the Code of Canon Law, the priest Giovanni Taddei was deprived of the right to wear the ecclesiastical dress, with the consequences which are enunciated in the canon cited.On 8 May, 1959, the Holy Office added: Now it is learned that Taddei has goven over to a non-Catholic sect, in which he has also received Episcopal consecration. Consequently he has incurred the excommunication and the other penalties of Canon 2314, paragraph 1…. (Although this is under Antipope John XXIII, it is worthy of note.) General Law
Pope Leo XIII alludes to the general law of the Church and then proceeds in the fullness of his papal authority to do otherwise. In a footnote to an article on the validity of Liberal Catholic Orders Fr. Rumble states: It may be worth noting that a Catholic who lapses from the Church and receives orders from a schismatical bishop can be received back into the Church only on the understanding that such ordination, even if valid, will be complete disregarded. He then cites a decree of the Holy Office from November 18, 1931: Ecclesiam non habere neque unquam habituram esse oratorem tamquam ordinatum, eumque propterea nullis obligationis statui clericali annexis teneri. All persons who presume to receive orders from a prelate who has been excommunicated, suspended or interdicted by a declaratory or condemnatory sentence, or from a notorious apostate, heretic or schismatic automatically incur suspensions a divinis reserved to the Apostolic See. Any person who has been ordained in good faith by such men, forfeits the right to exercise the order thus received until he obtains dispensation from the prohibition. (Canon 2372) This dispensation is reserved exclusively to the Pope, who will decide how these men can return to the Church. 
Michael Fighting
We, then, both priests and people have a right to know where our pastors have received their power. From whose hand have they received the keys? If their mission comes from the Apostolic See, let us honor and obey them, for they are sent to us by Jesus Christ, who has invested them, through Peter, with His own authority. If they claim our obedience without having been sent by the Bishop of Rome, we must refuse to receive them, for they are not acknowledged by Christ as His ministers. The holy anointing may have conferred on them the sacred character of the episcopate: it matters not; they must be as aliens to us, for they have not been sent, they are not pastors. The Liturgical Year, Septuagesima, by Dom Gueranger, volume IV page 286
