Question First: On the Power Itself of the Minister

S. Th., Suppl., q. 17, and q. 19, a. 2 and 3.

568. Principle. The power of remitting sins does not belong to all the faithful, but to certain ministers, namely, to the Apostles and their successors, i.e., to bishops and priests alone. - Thus the most ancient and uninterrupted tradition declares, and the Council of Florence, decree for the Armenians, and Trent, sess. 14, c. 6. Hence the Code of Law, can. 871: "The minister of this sacrament is a priest alone." Therefore for exercising his office validly the power of order is required; and, as the same Council of Trent teaches, c. 7, moreover by divine right the power of jurisdiction is required, because a judicial sentence cannot be rendered except over subjects. Hence 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."

St. Thomas explains this thus, q. 8, a. 4:

"The other sacraments do not consist in this, that one approaching the sacrament does something, 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 by command. Hence 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 the necessity of this sacrament not only that the minister have order, as in the other sacraments, but also that he have jurisdiction."

569. The power of order and the power of jurisdiction differ in the minister. - For the power of order is an efficient power, of sanctifying or effecting sacred things, in this case the instrumental power of conferring grace; the power of jurisdiction is a moral power, of ruling subjects in matters regarding 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 rule and utility of the Church; another of the forum of God or internal forum, when it directly and primarily regards the private utility of any of the faithful. The former is 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 other is 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, nevertheless through the mediation of the Pontiff as minister and instrument of divinity, and therefore to be exercised not by the proper authority of the Church but by the authority of God himself. This latter, says Billot,¹ is first of loosing rather than binding; but the former first of binding rather than loosing.

¹ De Ecclesia, th. XXI.

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

1. In conferral. The former is conferred by consecration, namely by sacred ordination, and inheres indelibly in the subject; the other is conferred by the external act of mission to subjects by a superior,² which mission can be revoked, diminished or increased, suspended and limited, e.g., as to men, if it is restricted to certain men or kinds of men; as to place, e.g., within the limits of one diocese or parish; as to time, so that after a certain time has elapsed it expires, e.g., after three years; as to 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 proximate aptitude and disposition for this, that someone receive jurisdiction over subjects for absolving from sins; it is deputation for exercising sacramental judgment, but indeterminately over subjects, if he has any: "whose," i.e., of what subjects, says Christ, "sins you shall remit, they are remitted unto them." The power of jurisdiction is the faculty of exercising the sanctifying power of order over certain determinate persons as legitimately designated subjects. The former, namely, gives capacity; the other 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: 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, diss. 6, a. 2, § 1: The power by which a priest as judge renders sentence in the forum of conscience upon another as upon a subject. Or as 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: Certain Questions on Penance, which deserves to be consulted for this whole part of the treatise.

570. 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 debt of fault and as to the debt 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 the Passion, opened heaven in a universal way, as far as depends on himself, nevertheless it belongs to his ministers to open it, through the sacraments, as to this or that person, for whom it remains closed because 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 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 comes to the kingdom" q. 17, a. 2, ad 5.

Hence the exercise of the power includes a twofold act or a twofold judgment: 1) a 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, whether 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. Not as if they were two powers as to essence, but two by comparison with the acts of which one presupposes the other.⁵

⁵ In q. 17, a. 3.

For, says St. Thomas, that power of the keys is really the same as the character or spiritual instrumental power of order, so that by essence the power over the real Body of Christ and over the mystical Body of Christ is the same, or the power by which the 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 according to reason insofar as they are compared to diverse effects: the character by consecration to God, the power of the keys to subjects. Hence the keys are given with order in some consecration, but the execution of the key needs due matter around which it is exercised, namely subjects, and therefore the act of the keys is had through jurisdiction; and thus before he has jurisdiction the minister has the keys, but does not have the act of the keys⁶ (ad 2).

⁶ From this 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. This is clear from the words ad 1: "the power... by which he can loose and bind, if jurisdiction is present"; and from the response ad 2: "the key is given with order; but the execution of the key needs due matter, which is the subject people 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 and admitted, or excluded, to the communion of the Church, through which someone 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, Christ gave to Peter in a singular way the power of binding and loosing or remitting 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, understanding nevertheless that the use of that power ought to be, with the power conferred on Peter presupposed, according to his ordination" (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 to priests alone (q. 20, a. 1, ad 1).