Article II: On the Faith and Sanctity Required in the Minister for Licit Ministration

St. Thomas III, q. 64, a. 5, 6, 9 and 10.

75. Principle I. For the validity of a sacrament, in the minister there is not required faith or sanctity. - The latter is of faith, from the Council of Trent, sess. 7, can. 12; the former, however, is of faith for Baptism from Trent, sess. 7 on Baptism, can. 4, and for the other sacraments is theologically certain from the common consent and practice of the Church, and is deduced from arguments similar to those for Baptism.

It is proved:

1. If faith or sanctity were required, this would be either from the nature of the sacrament and of ministerial power, or from the positive will of Christ. But:

A. Not the first: The sacraments do not operate by the power of the merits or faith of the minister, but by divine power and from the merits of Christ (John I, 33; I Cor. III, 4, 5, 7; I, 13). But these cannot be impeded by the malice of man, even of the minister. Therefore his faith or sanctity is not required from the nature of the sacrament or of ministerial power.

"Ministers," says St. Thomas, "operate instrumentally in the sacraments, because in a certain way there is the same ratio of minister and instrument.... An instrument does not act according to its proper form and power, but according to the power of that by which it is moved. And therefore it is accidental to an instrument, insofar as it is an instrument, whatever form or power it has, apart from that which is required for the ratio of instrument; just as that the body of a physician, which is the instrument of a soul having art, be healthy or infirm.... Whence the ministers of the Church can confer the sacraments, even if they are evil" (a. 5). "Moreover, just as charity pertains to the proper power of man, so also does faith. Whence just as it is not required for the perfection of a sacrament that the minister be in charity..., so the faith of the minister is not required for the perfection of the sacrament; but an unbeliever can provide a true sacrament, provided that the other things are present which are of the necessity of the sacrament" (a. 9).

B. Nor is it required by the positive will of Christ, as is proved from perpetual tradition. This is evident:

a) from the disciplinary controversy between St. Cyprian and St. Stephen, Roman Pontiff: the former, according to the custom introduced by Bishop Agrippinus, one of his predecessors, rebaptized those baptized by heretics and schismatics, because he held these sacraments as invalid; against him St. Stephen, invoking the common usage of the Church, forbade rebaptizing, indeed threatened St. Cyprian with excommunication;

b) from the dogmatic controversy, held in the fourth century, between St. Augustine, whom the whole Church approved, and the Donatists, who held as invalid the sacraments conferred by sinners, at least public ones;

c) from the Councils of Arles (314), can. 8; Nicaea I (325), can. 8 and 19; and Constantinople I (381), can. 7, which command that certain heretics be admitted without rebaptism; from the Council of Carthage I (348) and Laodicea, can. 78; Constance, sess. 45, a. 4 against Wicleff, and a. 22 of the profession of faith for the Wicleffites and Hussites; likewise from the decrees of Innocent III in the profession of faith for the Waldensians; of John XXII against the Fraticelli; of Eugene IV in the decree of union.

2. If no one without interior faith and sanctity validly conferred the sacraments, there would be perpetual uncertainty and anxiety of salvation among the faithful.

Let it be noted that the sacrament of Penance, outside the moment of death, is invalidly ministered by schismatics and heretics, not from defect of faith but from defect of jurisdiction.

76. Principle II. For the liceity of the confection and ministration of a sacrament, in the minister there is required the state of grace; indeed he commits the mortal sin of sacrilege who, in the state of mortal sin, a) as minister, b) acting from the office to which he was consecrated, c) places a sacramental action by which he ministerially sanctifies. - This is certain.

It is proved:

1. From the Roman Ritual, which expressly asserts this, tit. I, n. 3 and 4:

"Since in the Church of God nothing is held more holy, or more useful, and nothing more excellent, or more divine, than the Sacraments instituted by Christ the Lord for the salvation of the human race, the Pastor or any other Priest to whom their administration belongs must remember above all that he handles holy things, and that at almost every moment of time he ought to be prepared for the office of so holy an administration. Wherefore he will perpetually take care to conduct his life uprightly, chastely, and piously; for although the Sacraments cannot be stained by the impure, nor can their effect be impeded by depraved ministers, nevertheless those who minister them impurely and unworthily incur the guilt of eternal death. Therefore the Priest, if he is conscious to himself of mortal sin (which God forbid), must not dare to approach the administration of the Sacraments, unless first he repents in heart; but if he has the availability of a confessor, and the consideration of time and place permits, it is fitting that he confess."

2. From reason: It is a grave irreverence toward God and the sacraments to be an unclean instrument of God for producing most holy effects; for right order demands that the deputed minister, by reason of his office, be conformed both to the Lord, according to Lev. XIX, 2: Be holy, because I am holy; and to the sanctity of the thing which he perfects. Namely, he commits irreverence who in the name of Christ acts with God for the salvation of men, while he himself is an enemy of God.

Whence St. Thomas: "There is no doubt that evil men presenting themselves as ministers of God and of the Church in the dispensation of the sacraments sin. And because this sin pertains to irreverence toward God and contamination of the sacraments, insofar as it is on the part of the sinner - although the sacraments according to themselves are uncontaminable - it follows that such a sin from its genus is mortal"¹ (a. 6).

¹ Insofar as it is on the part of the minister himself, says Cajetan, that action is stained, since it is treated as profane, not as sacred. One who sacrilegiously eats the Body of the Lord does not discern it from other foods but receives it as profane food, says Paul; the same happens in one ministering unworthily.

But when one of the three aforesaid conditions is lacking, the gravity of the sin is not proved with sufficient certitude; nevertheless it is venial, because to exercise a sacred office in the state of sin always includes some irreverence.

77. Corollaries. - From the foregoing it follows:

1. A minister in the state of sin a) solemnly baptizing commits mortal sacrilege; b) baptizing privately is not proved to sin mortally, because he does not act from office, as minister, but as any Christian; c) a fortiori if a midwife or layperson baptized in a case of necessity.

2. One ministering in the state of sin Penance, Extreme Unction, Confirmation, or Order sins mortally, because he always presents himself as minister. Yet he would not sin if in an unforeseen case time did not remain for eliciting an act of perfect contrition, or for confessing before he administers a sacrament which cannot be deferred. This is extremely rare, because almost always at least some moment of time remains.

3. A priest who confects the Eucharist in the state of mortal sin sins gravely; but he who only distributes it is not proved with certitude to sin mortally, because the distribution of communion is not a sacramental action causing grace and sanctifying, but merely applying the sacrament, nor is it an action strictly ministerial, because one offering communion is not in the strict sense a minister acting from intention in the name of Christ.

4. A pastor assisting at marriage in the state of sin does not sin mortally, because he is not the minister of the sacrament. Contracting parties in the state of sin sin mortally insofar as they receive the sacrament unworthily, but not insofar as they minister, because they are not ministers specially constituted.

5. Those are not proved to sin mortally who in the state of sin a) exercise the diaconate, subdiaconate, or minor orders; or b) perform sacramentals or blessings; or c) confect the chrism of Confirmation or the oil of the sick; or d) hear confession but do not absolve, or before absolution become contrite; or e) transfer the Holy Eucharist, or lift it from the ground, or bless the people with it; or f) touch corporals, chalices, relics, etc.; or g) preach, unless by reason of scandal if they are public sinners. The reason is that all those actions do not tend proximately to the sanctification of the soul.

78. Observations. - 1. One who in the state of sin ministers several sacraments without interruption probably does not commit as many sins as there are sacraments, because they constitute only one morally single action, one ministration.

2. A minister conscious of mortal sin must, before he ministers a sacrament, dispose himself for grace, either by confession, which is more advisable, or by perfect contrition, for the eliciting of which it suffices to apply moral diligence. But if there is question of confecting the Eucharist, since at the same time it must be received, by the precept of the Church he is bound first to confess, however contrite he may seem to himself (Council of Trent, sess. 13, c. 7, and C.I.C., can. 807).

3. According to the Roman Ritual, cited place, the pastor or any other priest to whom by office the administration of the sacraments belongs is bound always to keep himself prepared to minister them in grace; whence even if in a case of necessity he does not sin mortally by ministering a sacrament, nevertheless he will sin because, by not repenting, he exposes himself to the danger of ministering the sacraments unworthily or in the state of sin. The same is to be said of priests for whom occasions of ministering are ready at hand, such as those who minister in large hospitals or camps or parishes. The same is to be said of midwives, but under venial sin.

4. Besides the state of grace, there is regularly required in the minister: both that he have the legitimate faculty of administering the sacrament, by which he is deputed by the Church to this, or due ordinary or delegated jurisdiction or license, because the ministration of the sacraments of itself is the office of a pastor; and that he not be specially prohibited from this by censure, irregularity, or another impediment.

79. Cooperation in illicit ministration. - Since good dispositions in the minister are required for licitly ministering the sacraments, there follows in the recipient an obligation, from charity and religion, not to receive them except from a worthy minister, so that both scandal, by asking for the sacrament, and cooperation in irreverent ministration of the sacrament, by receiving it, may be avoided. - And indeed he sins gravely:

1. Who asks for or receives a sacrament from one who is going to minister it invalidly or doubtfully, because this is directly to induce or to cooperate in an intrinsically evil action.

2. Who asks for or receives from a heretical or schismatic minister, because this would be communication in divine things; the case of extreme necessity is excepted for Baptism and Penance, and, if this is lacking, for Extreme Unction, unless however this would be held as a profession of heresy or schism (I, n. 755).

3. Who asks for or receives from a censured minister who is to be avoided, unless in danger of death, and indeed for all the sacraments, if other ministers are lacking (can. 2261, § 3).

4. Who asks for or receives from an evil minister, unless there is a reasonable cause of necessity or utility, and unless there is question of Holy Communion, which does not exceed venial sin. - But to ask from a tolerated minister, who is not in the state of sin, is not a sin.

Let it be noted: a) It does not suffice that the minister be held evil from conjectures or empty rumors; but his malice must be morally certainly established; wherefore it does not suffice that someone know that he sinned mortally, for example yesterday, since today he can be supposed amended, unless it is certainly established that he is habitual or is remaining in a voluntary proximate occasion.

b) Since another's malice harms no one in his own right, hence to ask a sacrament from an evil minister is licit, and sometimes obligatory, if a just cause is present, especially if another who can or will minister is lacking (can. 2261, § 2). Any reasonable cause whatever suffices, even a slight one, if there is question of a tolerated minister who from office is bound to minister, as when a parishioner wishes to receive the sacraments according to Christian custom (a. 6, ad 2); if there is question of other ministers, a cause sometimes graver is required, such as, according to St. Alphonsus, Theologia Moralis, book VI, n. 89: 1. if the precept of confession or communion presses; 2. if from delaying reception danger of sin threatens; 3. if otherwise you must remain in mortal sin; 4. if a jubilee to be gained occurs (or a plenary indulgence in a place where these would be rare); 5. if you wish to apply Mass for a deceased friend; 6. if otherwise you must long be without communion or a skilled director.