Article III: On the Intention Required in the Minister for Valid Ministration

St. Thomas III, q. 64, a. 8 and 10.

80. Principle I. For the validity of a sacrament, in the minister, besides power, there is required the intention or deliberate will of confecting a sacrament. - This is of faith from the Council of Trent, sess. 7, can. 11, and can. 4 on Baptism, defined against the Protestants.

It is proved:

1. From Tradition, whose witnesses are Innocent III, the profession of faith for the Waldensians; the Council of Constance, last session, constitution against Wicleff, a. 22; Florence, decree for the Armenians; and Trent already cited.

2. From the Scriptures, in which it is implicitly asserted, I Cor. IV, 1: A priest, in the ministration of the sacraments, is a minister of Christ; but in order that a man be a minister of Christ, he must will to act in the name of Christ and intend what Christ instituted; therefore. The minor is proved:

a) A minister differs from a blind instrument in this, that he is a voluntary agent; whence he must will to use his ministerial power, and thus through his will subject himself to the principal agent: for a human act does not operate beyond the intention of the agent.

b) Similarly, there was given to ministers not a mere deputation but a power (Mt. XXVIII, 18-19; John XX, 21; Luke XXII, 19); but one who has a power can use it or not use it; and therefore there is required in ministers an intention of using their power or of acting in the name of Christ.

Therefore intention is required on the part of the minister.

3. By reason: The placing of matter and form is an indifferent action which can signify various things and be done for various ends: washing, for example, for bodily cleanliness, for health, for play, for mere exercise, for representation alone; therefore it must be determined to one sacramental signification, which will not be done except by the intention of the minister. Therefore intention is also required on the part of the work.

Nor should you say: the external rite is determined by the words of the form; therefore intention is superfluous. - Reply: supposing that the words are pronounced in the name of Christ, in the person of Christ; otherwise they would not have their sacramental signification.

81. Principle II. The required intention is the will, at least virtual and implicit, absolute or equivalent to this, determined to a certain matter and person, of performing the sacramental rite. - It is said:

1. Will; hence one deprived of reason, perfectly drunk, or dreaming, does not confect a sacrament, even if he previously intended this, because he does not act in a human mode, from intention.

2. On the part of the subject: at least virtual and implicit: for an interpretative intention does not suffice, which someone would have had if he had adverted to this or that; nor a merely habitual intention, i.e., one once had and not retracted, for these do not make a human act (I, n. 55) nor influence the constitution of a sacrament. Nor is an actual intention required, which someone here and now has, because this is not always in man's moral power; but a virtual intention is required, by which someone, from the force or influx of a past actual intention, places or continues to place the sacrament.¹ Likewise an explicit intention is not required, by which someone says: I intend to make a sacrament; but an implicit one suffices, contained in another act, as if someone, having been called, goes to the church and, distracted, performs all things required for Baptism.

¹ Among the older authors, virtual intention is sometimes called habitual, as in St. Thomas, a. 8, ad 3; but he understands virtual, for he adds: "from the power of the first intention the sacrament is perfected." Yet to avoid equivocations, the terminology received today must be preserved.

In practice, one who places the actions according to custom and does not exclude intention has an implicit intention; a fortiori one who fears whether he has sufficient intention, by this very fact has more than sufficient intention.

3. On the part of the mode by which the will is borne toward the object:

a) Absolute or equivalent to this, i.e., conditioned concerning the past or present: for if, at the moment at which the sacrament is made, this condition is verified, the intention passes into an absolute one and the sacrament is valid; otherwise it is not perfected from defect of intention. But a condition concerning a future contingent thing (for example, if you restore), and also concerning a necessary future thing (for example, if the sun rises), with the mind of suspending the sacrament, renders it invalid: for it impedes the union between the intention of the minister and the application of matter and form, since it suspends the present intention and makes it so that the minister does not have the will of confecting the sacrament in the present; moreover, when the condition has been verified, there also is not then a sacrament, because then matter and form no longer exist.

Matrimony is excepted, which follows the nature of a contract; whence, when the condition has been verified, if consent has persevered, the matter and form of matrimony are present, for they coincide with the persevering intention.

b) Determined to a certain matter, because otherwise it would be indifferent, for example, if someone, knowing there are eleven hosts, wished to consecrate ten without indicating which ones; and to a certain person, because otherwise no application would be made, for example, if someone said: I absolve thee, to two persons.

But it suffices that it be determined to the present person, whoever that person may be; whence a man who is thought to be a woman is validly absolved, and Peter who seems to be Paul. Error concerning the person does not invalidate, unless the minister were to bind his intention to a determinate person; in matrimony, however, error of person is substantial, because the person is the very object of the contract.

4. On the part of the object: of performing the sacramental rite. For the rite of itself is indifferent and can be posited for a diverse end: as sacred or as profane, indeed by playing, or by pretending, without, namely, the will of confecting a sacrament; therefore in order that it be a sacrament it must be determined by the intention of doing the rite as sacramental, or of doing what the Church does,² as the Councils say, or what is done in the Church. This must be explained further.

² The first who used the formula was William of Auxerre, on IV Sentences, On Baptism.

82. Principle III. For the validity of a sacrament, external intention does not suffice, i.e., the intention only of doing the external act; but there is required, at least implicitly, an internal intention of doing what Christ instituted, or at least what the Church does. - Therefore the intention of positing the external act, even seriously and in the habit of a minister, but merely materially (although inwardly someone wills to simulate), does not suffice; this intention they call external, namely from the part of the object, and some have said that it suffices;³ for:

³ It is attributed to Alan of Lille; it was formally proposed by Catharinus, Salmeron, Contenson, Juenin, Natalis Alexander, Serry, Drouin, and others.

a) One who has only external intention, but internally does not have the intention of doing what the Church does, implicitly intends to simulate a sacrament, although not openly; but one who simulates a sacrament, whether openly or secretly, cannot be said to act in the name of Christ.

b) The external act, even one posited in a sacred place by a minister clothed in sacred vestments, can be done for a diverse end: it can be a serious or simulated action, done in the name of Christ or in one's own name, a profane representation or exercise, or a sacred action. Therefore it will not be determined to the being of a sacrament except through an internal intention, consonant with the external act, namely of doing the act formally as sacred, as instituted by Christ and intended by the Church.

This opinion in practice must be altogether held, because the sacraments are to be ministered in the safer way (n. 23); indeed the contrary seems not safe even speculatively, because proposition 28 was condemned by Alexander VIII: "Baptism conferred by a minister who observes every external rite and the form of baptizing is valid, while inwardly in his heart he resolves within himself: I do not intend what the Church does." For although the one who only negatively does not say: I intend what the Church does, but positively does not add: I do not intend what the Church does, has not been explicitly condemned; nevertheless, because he implicitly says this, therefore with Benedict XIV⁴ it is rightly judged that, from the condemnation of the proposition, a grave wound has been inflicted on the opinion which asserts that this suffices.

⁴ On the Diocesan Synod, book VII, 4, 8.

83. Corollaries. - Since implicit intention suffices, hence:

1. There is not required an explicit intention of that which the Church intends, namely, of confecting something sacred, or a sacrament, or of producing its effect.

2. Nor is faith in Christ, the Church, or the sacrament required; but whatever the minister's opinion may be concerning Christ, concerning the sacrament and its efficacy, he ministers validly provided that he wills to perform the rite which the Church performs, and which by her is held as sacred, even if he himself thinks it to be nothing: "for because the Church does something, therefore consequently and implicitly he intends to do something, although not explicitly," says St. Thomas, on IV Sentences, d. 6, q. 1, a. 3, sol. 2, ad 1.

3. Nor is an explicit intention required of doing what the Roman Church does, but a general intention of doing what the true Church does, whatever the minister may think of that Church; whence a heretic, by willing what his own Church does, which he falsely thinks to be true, implicitly wills what the Church of Christ and the Roman Church does.

4. Nor is an express thought about the Church required, but the intention of doing something which identically the Church does suffices, for example, what is commanded in the Gospel, what Christians do, what is asked by the one requesting: thus baptized persons minister the sacrament of matrimony which they are ignorant to be a sacrament of the Church.

5. Indeed even if the minister has two contrary intentions, for example, of doing what Christ instituted but not what the Church does, what the Church does but not what the Roman Church does, of celebrating matrimony but dissoluble or not a sacrament, of making a sacrament but not of giving grace; the sacrament is valid, provided that the general intention of doing what the Church in fact does is predominant and prevails over the intention proceeding from error, i.e., provided that this is the intention which, according to his actual disposition, the minister would choose if he knew that both could not stand together at the same time.

But if each were equal, nothing would be operated, for one would destroy the other; but if there were doubt about this, the sacrament would be doubtful.

84. He sins gravely from defect of due intention:

1. Who ministers a sacrament without intention, or under a future condition suspending the intention, because it is not a valid sacrament, but a simulation and mockery of it.

2. Who ministers under a hidden condition extrinsic to the sacrament, whether it is unknowable in a human way, for example, if you are predestined, if God sees that you will die this year; or whether it is knowable, for example, if you are fasting, if you have recited the Rosary; because from the very placing of the condition there arises doubt concerning the validity of the sacrament, and hence he exposes himself to the danger of doing nothing and of frustrating his neighbor of the sacramental effect; and on the other hand there can be no reason for such ministration. Indeed to some, among whom is St. Alphonsus, Theologia Moralis, book VI, n. 28, it seems more probable that a sacrament confected under a hidden condition unknowable in a human way is invalid, because "since God has committed the administration of the sacraments to the cognition and will of men, a condition cannot be placed which cannot fall under human cognition."

3. Who without grave cause ministers under a hidden condition concerning the present or the past and intrinsic to the sacrament, or from its nature required for its value, so that doubt concerning the value does not arise from the very placing of the condition: for he plays in a most grave and most holy matter, because he incurs the danger of making the sacrament null, and thus inflicts irreverence upon Christ and exposes his neighbor to great harm.

On the contrary:

A. It is licit if a sufficient cause is present, such as is generally had when the sacrament here and now is necessary or very useful and cannot be had as certainly valid:

a) if a serious doubt arises whether a sacrament which cannot be repeated was conferred or validly conferred, or whether the confessor absolved the penitent; then let the sacrament be ministered under the condition: if you are not yet baptized, absolved, etc.;

b) if there is doubt whether a capable subject is had, for example, whether a child confessing matter of mortal sin is possessed of reason, whether one deprived of the senses wishes to receive the sacrament or is still alive, whether the one to be absolved repents, whether the fetus is a man; then let the sacrament be ministered under the condition: if you are capable;

c) if there is doubt concerning the validity of the matter or form, for example, whether this is water, or concerning the power of the minister: for doubt concerning the power of the minister, or concerning his jurisdiction for the sacrament of Penance, renders the matters and forms doubtful; then let the sacrament be ministered under the condition: if I can.

B. To place an open condition which someone knows to be verified in fact seems only venial, because no danger of nullity is present for the sacrament, just as also to repeat without reason a syllable or word in the pronunciation of the form.

C. Finally, matrimony, since it is a contract, is validly and, if a grave cause is present, also licitly ministered under a condition concerning the future.

85. Observations. - 1. Since the pastor is not the minister of matrimony, no intention is required in him, but his voluntary assistance suffices so that he can testify to the contract.

2. In order that someone minister licitly, attention to the external act is also required, or the application of the mind to those things which are being done; nevertheless the defect of this is only a slight irreverence, unless there is danger of erring substantially.

3. The Church in the Rituals nowhere acknowledges ministration under the condition: if you are disposed; whence it seems that one must abstain from it. For the conditional form is to be used in a case in which there is doubt concerning the validity of the sacrament, lest it be exposed to the danger of nullity; but not if there is doubt only concerning the disposition of the recipient, especially because such a ministration impedes the reviviscence of the sacrament. For if the condition is lacking, in the case the disposition, the sacrament would be invalid and therefore could no longer revive.

Nor should you say that by the condition: if you are disposed, the minister understands capacity. - That indeed could be, if he expressly intended it so. But it is not the received sense: for the capacity of receiving the sacrament is one thing, and the disposition for the fruit of the sacrament is another. The words: if you are capable, I baptize you or absolve you, from the very context signify: if you are capable of Baptism or absolution; on the contrary the words: if you are disposed..., signify: if you have the dispositions required for receiving Baptism or absolution well, namely, with fruit. Moreover it is not opportune to suggest another sense, because this is to introduce equivocation and an occasion of continuing the error of those who think that even in doubt of disposition alone one must minister under condition.

4. The condition is not to be expressed by voice, except sometimes so that scandal may be avoided, or if it is prescribed by a ritual, as happens for the sacraments which are customarily ministered publicly, as for Baptism in a case of repetition: if you are not yet baptized; or for Extreme Unction in doubt of death: if you are alive.