CatholicTheology.info

Choose a topic from Part 3 Suppl:

• Penance (Continued)
• Extreme Unction
• Order (Holy Orders)
  • 34. The Sacrament of Orders
  • 35. The Effect of the Sacrament of Orders
  • 36. Qualities in Those to be Ordained
  • 37. The Distinction of Orders: The Character
  • 38. The Minister of Holy Orders
  • 39. The Impediments to Orders
  • 40. Matters Pertinent to the Sacrament of Orders
• Matrimony
• The General Resurrection
• The Last Things
• Appendix I (The Innocents in Limbo)
• Appendix II (Two Notes on Purgatory)

35. The Effect of the Sacrament of Orders

1. The sacrament of orders confers sanctifying grace, asall sacraments do. And it is notably suitable that the sacramentwhich empowers a person to confect and dispense the sacraments asmeans of grace should itself bring grace to its recipient.

2. Since any sacred order which pertains to the sacramentof orders (that is, episcopate, priesthood, diaconate) sets a manin a place ofpower with reference to the dispensing of thesacraments, it marks him for this duty by an indelible characterimpressed upon his soul.

3. The character of orders presupposes the baptismalcharacter as already on the soul. It is the character impressed bybaptism that renders a person capable of receiving the othersacraments.

4. The character of orders does not, of necessity,presuppose the character imprinted in the soul by confirmation. Butit is most suitable that confirmation be received before orders areconferred; for a man should come to ordination with all perfectionshe can manage to receive. Therefore, the Church requires that thecandidate for orders be confirmed before he presents himself forordination.

5. The character of orders is impressed as the sacramentis received, without dependence on the proper sequence ofordinations. Thus, if a man were to be ordained priest withouthaving first been ordained deacon, his priesthood would be valid.But the order of deaconship would be supplied by the properordination. The Church requires, however, that orders be receivedin due succession.

"The one thing necessary which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary consists in hearing the word of God and living by it."
R. Garrigou-Lagrange, OP

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"If you wish to learn and appreciate something worth while, then love to be unknown and considered as nothing. Truly to know and despise self is the best and most perfect counsel."
Thomas á Kempis

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"When the devil has failed in making a man fall, he puts forward all his energies to create distrust between the penitent and the confessor, and so by little and little he gains his end at last."
St Philip Neri

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