Concerning the Minister of Penance

St. Thomas, Supplement, q. 17, and q. 19, a. 2 and 3.

I. The power of remitting sins belongs not to all the faithful, but to certain ministers, namely the Apostles and their successors, that is, only to bishops and priests. - Thus the most ancient and uninterrupted Tradition declares, and the Council of Trent, sess. 14, c. 16. Whence the Code of Law, can. 871: "The minister of this sacrament is only a priest." Therefore for the valid exercise of his office the power of order is required; and, as the same Council of Trent teaches, c. 7, besides this, by divine law the power of jurisdiction is required, because a judicial sentence cannot be borne except upon subjects. Hence the Code, can. 872: "Besides the power of order, for the valid absolution of sins there is required in the minister the power of jurisdiction, whether ordinary or delegated, over the penitent."

Saint Thomas explains this more scientifically, q. 8, a. 4:

"The other sacraments do not consist in this, that one approaching the sacrament acts in some way, but only that he receives, as is clear in Baptism and the like... But in Penance the act of the one approaching the sacrament is of the substance of the sacrament, because contrition, confession, and satisfaction are parts of Penance, which are acts of the penitent; but our acts, since they have their principle in us, cannot be dispensed to us by others except through command. Whence it is necessary that he who is constituted dispenser of this sacrament be such that he can command something to be done. But command does not belong to someone over another except to him who has jurisdiction over him. And therefore it is of necessity for this sacrament, not only that the minister have order, as in the other sacraments, but also that he have jurisdiction."

II. In the minister the power of order and of jurisdiction differ. - For the power of order is an efficient power, of sanctifying or making sacred things, in the case at hand, an instrumental power of conferring grace; the power of jurisdiction is a moral power, of ruling subjects in things looking to the supernatural end, or in order to holiness and eternal life.

Jurisdiction is one thing of the forum of the Church or external forum, when it directly and primarily regards the public governance and utility of the Church; another thing of the forum of God or internal forum, when it directly and primarily regards the private utility of each of the faithful. The former is an ecclesiastical and social power which is granted by the Pontiff from his own authority, and therefore is derived from him as from the principal cause and is exercised by his authority; the latter is a power not ecclesiastical but divine, which is granted by the proper authority of God (who alone is able directly to touch conscience and the bond of sin), yet through the Pontiff as minister and instrument of the divinity, and therefore is exercised not by the Church's own authority, but by the authority of God Himself. This latter, says Billot,¹ is first of loosing rather than binding; but the former is first of binding rather than loosing.

¹ De Ecclesia, thesis XXI.

Therefore in a confessor the power of order and the power of jurisdiction differ in several ways:

1. In conferral: The former is conferred by consecration, namely sacred ordination, and inheres indelibly in the subject; the latter is conferred by an external act of mission to subjects from a superior,² which act can be revoked, diminished or increased, suspended and limited, e.g., as regards men, if it is restricted to certain men or kinds of men; as regards place, e.g., within the limits of one diocese or parish; as regards time, so that after a fixed time has elapsed it expires, e.g., after three years; as regards causes or sins, if the superior reserves to himself absolution from certain graver sins (Council of Trent, sess. 14, can. 11). Hence priests are equal in the power of order, not in the power of jurisdiction.

² Cf. II-II, q. 39, a. 1.

2. In essence: The power of order gives the proximate aptitude and disposition for this, that one receive jurisdiction over subjects for absolving from sins; it is a deputation to exercising sacramental judgment, but indeterminately over subjects, if he has any: "whose" (that is, whose subjects), says Christ, "you shall remit, they are remitted to them." The power of jurisdiction is the faculty of exercising the sanctifying power of order over certain determinate persons as subjects legitimately designated. The former, namely, gives capacity; the latter is the faculty of exercising that capacity.

3. In effect: From the power of jurisdiction the judgment is valid; from the power of order it is efficacious.

Hence the power of jurisdiction can be defined: A power conferred by an external act of a superior, by which a priest can exercise jurisdiction toward subjects in the internal and penitential forum, or a legitimate deputation for exercising the office of absolving from sins in a judicial manner determinate penitents as subjects.³

³ Or with Billuart: A power by which a priest as judge bears sentence upon another as upon a subject in the forum of conscience. Or with Chretien: A supernatural judicial power, conferred by an act of legitimate authority, by force of which a priest remits the sins of subjects in the sacrament of Penance. Thus in the little work De Poenitentia Quaedam Quaestiones, which deserves to be inspected for our whole matter.

III. The power of the confessor pertains to the power of the keys. - A key is an instrument for opening the kingdom of heaven, which is closed by sin as to the guilt of fault and as to the guilt of punishment; or, an eminent sacred power by which the obstacle of sin is removed. For although Christ by divine authority and by the merit of His Passion opened heaven, as far as lies in itself, universally, nevertheless it pertains to His ministers to open it, through the sacraments, as regards this or that man, for whom it remains closed on account of original or actual sin: namely Christ, as principal agent, is said to have the key of excellence; priests, as instrumental agents, the key of ministry.⁴

⁴ Thus St. Thomas, q. 19, a. 2; and q. 17, a. 1. Hence "the act of the priest is not immediately over the kingdom, but over the sacraments by which man arrives at the kingdom," q. 17, a. 2, ad 5.

Hence the exercise of the power includes a twofold act or a twofold judgment: 1) the judgment of discretion concerning the dispositions or fitness of this or that recipient, by which it is discerned whether he is worthy or not; 2) the judgment itself either of absolution and remission, or of retention, by which we open or close, receive the worthy or exclude the unworthy from the kingdom. And therefore two keys are distinguished: a) the key of knowledge, or the authority of exercising an act of knowledge by which it is discerned and shown to whom it must be opened; b) the key of power, or the very authority of loosing and binding, by which heaven is opened or closed. This is not as if there were two powers according to essence, but two from comparison to acts, one of which presupposes the other.⁵

⁵ St. Thomas, q. 17, a. 3.

Indeed, says St. Thomas, that power of the keys is really the same as the character or instrumental spiritual power of order, so that through essence the power over the real Body of Christ and over the Mystical Body of Christ is the same, or the power by which a priest can confect the Eucharist and the power by which he can loose and bind, if jurisdiction is present (q. 17, a. 2, ad 1); but they differ in reason according as they are compared to diverse effects: the character by consecration to God, the power of the keys to subjects. Whence the keys are given with order in some consecration, but the execution of the key needs due matter concerning which it is exercised, namely subjects, and therefore the act of the keys is had through jurisdiction; and thus before jurisdiction a minister has the keys, but does not have the act of the keys⁶ (ad 2).

⁶ From which it is clear, even according to St. Thomas, whatever some have thought, that the power of jurisdiction is distinguished from order and is not given with it. It is established from the words to 1: "the power ... by which he can loose and bind, if jurisdiction is present"; and from the response to 2: "the key is given with order but the execution of the key needs due matter, which is the people subject through jurisdiction; and therefore before he has jurisdiction, he has the keys, but does not have the act of the keys."

Hence the power of jurisdiction (even in the external forum), by which someone is subjected to (or excluded from) the communion of the Church, through which one goes to heaven, is also sometimes called a key, but improperly, because it is not immediately the key of the kingdom of heaven, removing sin, but a certain remote disposition to it or to grace (q. 19, a. 3), and a condition for exercising the key (q. 17, a. 2, ad 1 and 2). According to this key Christ gave Peter singularly the power of binding and loosing or of forgiving sins (Mt. XVI, 19), so that it may be understood that he before the others has the power of jurisdiction. "And therefore the Lord says indeterminately: Whose sins you shall remit, yet understanding that the use of that power ought to be, presupposing the power conferred on Peter, according to his ordering" (q. 20, a. 1, ad 1).

The key of jurisdiction can belong not only to priests but also to others, who can excommunicate (q. 19, a. 3; q. 22, a. 2); the key of order belongs only to priests (q. 20, a. 1, ad 1).

IV. Concerning the power of the confessor, questions must be solved under five chapters:

1. concerning the power itself of the confessor;

2. concerning the concession and limitation of the power;

3. concerning the use of the confessor's power;

4. concerning the duties of the confessor's power;

5. concerning the abuse of the confessor's power.