For instance, even after the putative "episcopal ordinations" by the schismatic lefevbre, Pope John Paull referred to them as "priests" in Ecclesia Dei...
In performing such an act, notwithstanding the formal canonical warning sent to them by the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops on 17 June last, Mons. Lefebvre and the priests Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta, have incurred the grave penalty of excommunication envisaged by ecclesiastical law.(4)
"For instance, even after the putative "episcopal ordinations" by the schismatic lefevbre, Pope John Paull referred to them as "priests" in Ecclesia Dei..."
I think that's consistent with Latin Church ecclesiology but then again, so far as I know, no one, at least not recently, has suggested that Orthodox bishops are not in the Apostolic Succession yet from Rome's pov, we are schismatics too who reject the immediate universal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome. Does Rome include communion with the pope among the hallmarks of a bishop within the Apostolic Succession and then make an exception for its Eastern brothers? :)