Article II: On the Constitutive Parts of the Sacrament

S. Th., Suppl., q. 34, a. 4 and 5; q. 37, a. 5; III, q. 84, a. 4.

717. State of the question. - In the Scriptures no other rite of sacred ordination is indicated except the imposition of hands, to which sacramental grace is ascribed; similarly the Fathers, Liturgies, and Euchologies down to the ninth century attribute the conferral of the priesthood to the imposition of hands alone. In the eighth or ninth century there appears the handing over of the instruments, namely, of the paten with the offerings and of the chalice with wine, as is indicated in various Sacramentaries of Gaul and Germany. The handing over was never received by the Greeks, but, introduced into the Roman liturgy in the eleventh century, it was admitted and prescribed in the whole Latin Church; indeed it was regarded as the more principal part of ordination, as is clear from the doctrine of the Scholastics and of the Council of Florence itself, in the decree for the Armenians. In the eleventh century a second imposition of hands, at the end of Mass, was used in certain Churches, which afterward became common in the West. The evolution in the rites of ordination was slow and endured until the fifteenth century; nevertheless, in the thirteenth century it was complete as regards the handing over of the instruments, which then was universally received in the West.

Therefore in the Latin Church there is present in the ordination of priests:

1. The imposition of hands by the bishop, and by the presbyters, upon the head of each ordinand in silence, and then the extension of hands over all the ordinands with the prayer: Let us pray, brethren... hear us... and with the preface, by which respectively priestly grace and the dignity of the presbyterate are sought for them from God. There two impositions can be distinguished, of which the latter is a continuation of the prior.

2. After the stole and chasuble have been handed over, and the hands of the ordinands anointed, the handing over of the instruments is made, as has been said, under the words: Receive the power of offering sacrifice to God, and of celebrating Masses both for the living and for the dead. In the name of the Lord.

3. After the consecration of the Sacrifice and the communion have been completed, at the end another imposition of hands is made by the bishop alone upon each one, under the words: Receive the Holy Spirit: whose sins you shall remit...

From what has been said it is clear that in the Greek Church, as formerly in the Latin Church, the rite of ordination is nothing other than the imposition of hands with the concomitant form. Before the Apostolic Constitution Sacramentum Ordinis of November 30, 1947, the question was much agitated whether the same holds today in the Latin Church, or what must be regarded as the rite of valid ordination in our times.

718. Diverse opinions. - For solving the said question a multiple opinion has been pronounced:

The first holds that only the first imposition of hands is the essence of the Sacrament, both because it alone is found in the Scriptures and alone was used in the first eight centuries, and because today it alone is used among the Greeks. This opinion belongs to a few in the middle age; after the sixteenth century it had several defenders, among whom were Morinus and Martene; and in the nineteenth century it became by far the more common, so that Cardinal Van Rossum and Pesch called it morally certain. For the Church cannot change the matter and form of the sacraments; and even if it could do this, it is not proved that such was the intention of the Church, since this is clear from no juridical text. As to the decree of the Council of Florence, many have said that it was disciplinary, not dogmatic; others acknowledge it to be dogmatic, but, like Cardinal Van Rossum, say that in this matter the Council erred.

The second, on the contrary, acknowledges no essential rite of Order except only the handing over of the instruments. Thus many Scholastics, so that from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century this opinion was by far the more common; and it was adopted by the Council of Florence, and down to the eighteenth century always had several defenders; but in the nineteenth century it was almost abandoned, though in most recent times it is again defended by Hugon and Galtier.

In this opinion it is necessary to say that Christ did not determine the rite of Order in its ultimate species, but that the Church prescribed one rite and another for various times and places.

The third says that the essential rite consists both in the handing over of the instruments, by which the power of consecrating, or over the true body of Christ, is conferred, and in the last imposition of hands, by which the power of remitting sins, or over the mystical body of Christ, is conferred. Thus Scotus and, after him, several down to the eighteenth century, among whom were Bellarmine and Billuart.

The fourth holds that either one, namely, either the first imposition of hands or the handing over of the instruments, is valid matter. Thus a few in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as Amicus, Diana, Esparza, Clericatus, Jerome of St. Augustine, O.S.Tr. This opinion, insofar as it would affirm that the bishop can choose between either rite, is false, because it does not belong to the minister, but to Christ and the Church, to determine the essential rites of a sacrament; but insofar as it would affirm that, according to the diversity of times and places, the matter is diverse according to the diverse determination of the Church, it coincides with several other opinions.

The fifth holds both, namely, the first imposition of hands together with the handing over of the instruments, to be in the Latin Church the rite necessary for the validity of the sacrament. Thus perhaps certain ones in antiquity, but several in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; more recently it is defended by Billot, Tanquerey, Herve, Noldin, Van Noort.

The sixth finally says that the matter consists of three things, and that not only the handing over of the instruments, but also the last imposition of hands, equally with the first, is essentially required for the sacrament. Thus, from the seventeenth century onward, several: Lugo, Gotti, Egger, Dalponte.

719. The matter of priestly ordination in present times in the Latin Church consists in the first imposition of hands which is done in silence, not however in the continuation of the same by extension of the right hand, nor in the last imposition, to which are joined the words: "Receive the Holy Spirit: whose sins you shall remit, etc..."

In the Greek Church and in certain other Eastern Churches there exists only the imposition of hands, although here and there certain varieties are present.

It is proved: 1. From the Apostolic Constitution Sacramentum Ordinis,¹ in which the Supreme Pontiff Pius XII, divine light having been invoked, by supreme authority and certain knowledge declares, and, insofar as there is need, decrees and disposes those things which are contained in the thesis just placed.

¹ Apostolic Constitution Sacramentum Ordinis, November 30, 1947. Acta Apostolicae Sedis, XL, 1948, pp. 5-7.

2. As to the positive part, namely, the necessity and validity of the first imposition of hands, from the constant use of this rite from the first times both in the Latin Church and in the Greek Church. This rite was always observed, not only in the ordinations of presbyters but also of bishops and deacons. This the Council of Trent also insinuates, sess. 14 on Extreme Unction, c. 3, when it says of the ministers of Extreme Unction that they are priests "ordained by the imposition of the hands of the presbyterate."

3. As to the positive and negative part together, namely, the necessity and sufficiency for the substance and validity according as it depends on the institution of Our Lord Jesus Christ, from the fact that the Roman Church has always held ordinations conferred by the Greek rite without the handing over of the instruments to be valid. Nor is it an obstacle that in the Decree of the Council of Trent for the Armenians it is established: "The sixth Sacrament is Order, whose matter is that by the handing over of which Order is conferred: just as the Presbyterate is handed over by the presentation of the chalice with wine and of the paten with bread, etc." (Denz. 701). For by no means did the Council impose upon the Greeks that they should change the rite of ordination or insert into it the handing over of the instruments; indeed the Church willed that in the City itself the Greeks should be ordained according to their proper rite. From these things it is gathered, even according to the mind of the Council of Florence, that the handing over of the instruments is not required for the substance and validity of this sacrament by the will of Our Lord Himself.²

² Nevertheless, concerning the right interpretation itself of the Decree for the Armenians, concerning its dogmatic or disciplinary value, and concerning other controversies in interpreting the Decree, the Supreme Pontiff did not wish to establish anything. He determines only that if in the course of the centuries the presentation of the instruments at some time had been necessary for the value of the sacrament, this would have been from the will of the Church (not from the institution of Christ), so that what the Church established it also has power to change and abrogate.

4. By theological reason from the very essentials of the sacrament according to the text of the same Apostolic Constitution cited above: "But it is established among all that the Sacraments of the New Law, as sensible signs and efficient of invisible grace, must signify the grace which they effect and effect the grace which they signify. Now the effects which must be produced, and therefore signified, by the Sacred Ordination of the Diaconate, Presbyterate, and Episcopate, namely power and grace, are found to be sufficiently signified in all the rites of the universal Church of diverse times and regions by the imposition of hands and by the words determining it."

Note. From the said Constitution, which was issued to remove every controversy concerning the essential rites and to block the way against anxieties of consciences, it is most certainly clear that the handing over of the instruments, and the continuation of the first imposition of hands, and the last imposition of hands do not pertain to the substance of the Sacrament nor are required in the future for validity. As to past times, the Apostolic Constitution determines nothing concerning the rites necessary for validity, so that the diverse opinions set forth above remain the object of free controversy.

720. The form of priestly ordination in the Latin Church for the future consists in the words of the "Preface," of which the following are essential, and therefore required for validity: "Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty Father, to this Thy servant the dignity of the Presbyterate; renew in his inward parts the spirit of holiness, that he may obtain from Thee, O God, the office of the second merit, received by him, and by the example of his conduct may insinuate the censure of morals."

Thus in the Latin Church. In the Greek Church, however, the whole form is in the words which accompany the single imposition of hands: "Divine grace, which always heals what is weak and supplies what is lacking, promotes N., most devout deacon, to presbyter; let us pray for him, that the grace of the Most Holy Spirit may come upon him."

It is proved from the Apostolic Constitution Sacramentum Ordinis determining the words of the form. - As to the sense of the form, because it pertains to the substance of the sacrament instituted by Christ, no power belongs to the Church (Council of Trent, sess. 7, c. 1; Denz. 844. Sess. 21, c. 2; Denz. 931); but the Church can establish, indeed sometimes must establish, the words expressing this sense. Therefore, as the form of the sacrament there must be considered the words determining the application of the matter, by which the sacramental effects are univocally signified and which are accepted and used by the Church as such.

721. Practical corollaries. - Since in administering the sacraments the safer course must be taken, lest they be exposed to danger of nullity, therefore in practice before the Apostolic Constitution of the year 1947 attention had to be paid to all opinions, and all rites which according to some opinion perhaps were required had to be observed, with none omitted; because the validity of the sacrament is not established unless all things have been rightly performed. But if certain of these had been omitted or were doubtful, the ordination had to be repeated under condition, or at least the defect supplied.

All these things have force even after the Apostolic Constitution if it is a question of omissions and doubts in ordinations made before April 28, 1948 (before the midnight between the 27th and the 28th). For from this day the juridical document obtains effect and its dispositions do not have retroactive force.

Hence for ordinations made before April 28: 1. If the first imposition of hands had been omitted, and indeed whether the particular imposition or the subsequent extension, the ordination will have to be repeated from the beginning, because they dispute whether the former or the latter or either one suffices (S. Off., July 21, 1899; July 4, 1900; March 7, 1902); the imposition probably must be done by bodily touch (ibid.), which nevertheless suffices if mediate, for example, upon a covered head (S. Off., Jan. 22, 1890).

2. If the handing over of the consecrated chalice and paten with both species had been omitted, even partially, at least under condition the whole ordination is to be repeated (S. C. C., Feb. 11, 1708; S. Off., July 6, 1898; Jan. 11, 1899): contact probably is required to be physical, but mediate contact suffices, whence it seems sufficient to touch one thing by means of which the rest are touched.

3. Nevertheless the consecration of the chalice with the paten does not seem required for validity, because the S. Off. in a rescript of Jan. 28, 1937, declared in a certain such case that the ordination was not to be repeated.

4. If certain essentials had been omitted from the words of the form in the handing over of the instruments; or under the extension of hands in the prayer: Let us pray, brethren... hear us, or in the preface, likewise the ordination will have to be repeated from the beginning.

5. If the last imposition of hands or the concomitant form had been omitted, it will have to be supplied (S. C. R., May 22, 1841; S. Off., March 4, 1874; Dec. 9, 1897).

6. It is certain that the anointing of the hands, the handing over of the vestments, and the imposition of hands by the assisting priests are not sacramental, but merely accidental; nevertheless an omitted anointing, and probably the handing over of the vestments, must afterward be supplied.

Reordination or supplying can be done by any bishop, even outside the times and secretly (can. 1007); in a case of a hidden defect, it must be done secretly, to avoid scandal and disturbance of the faithful.

But under the new regime determined by the Apostolic Constitution, ordination will have to be repeated absolutely if certain essentials from the form, as determined above, were omitted, or even if the first imposition of hands had been omitted or was made without at least moral touch.³ Under condition the ordination will have to be repeated if something doubtful occurs concerning the essentials for validity. - But whether the ordination is to be repeated from the beginning or only in part the Apostolic Constitution does not determine. And although it is probable that the ordination must be repeated from the beginning, nevertheless it will be prudent in individual cases to have recourse to the Holy See according to the explicit statute of the Constitution itself: "If any doubt occurs, it is to be submitted to this Apostolic See." The same has force concerning ceremonies not essential which are to be repeated or supplied, concerning which nothing is had in the Constitution.

³ Concerning the validity of merely moral touch it was also established in the Constitution: "But lest an occasion of doubting be furnished, We command that the imposition of hands in conferring any Order be done by physically touching the head of the Ordinand, although even moral touch suffices for validly confecting the Sacrament."

722. Note. - The sacrament is not to be repeated under condition, nor is a defect to be supplied, unless there is at least a positive doubt concerning the defect; namely, light and negative or scrupulous doubts are not to be attended to. Whence we read in St. Alphonsus, Th. M., l. VI, n. 757: "even if someone fears that he has been invalidly ordained, or does not remember that he touched the sacred vessels, or imagines that he did not touch them, the order is not immediately to be repeated, since mere forgetfulness or fear does not suffice for a prudent and reasonable doubt or probability." And in practice the one ordained can in this matter trust the testimony of the priest who assists the bishop.