Article Third. On the Repetition of the Sacraments

26. Principles. Sacraments which imprint a character, baptism, confirmation, and order, may not be conferred again upon a man who has once received them validly; extreme unction cannot be repeated during the same danger of death, nor matrimony during the same marriage; but there is nothing to prevent eucharist and penance from being repeated, except that the Church has prohibited the eucharist from being received twice on the same day.

If someone confers again a sacrament which cannot be repeated, he effects nothing, since the sacrament is simply null; and he who knowingly confers or receives a non-repeatable sacrament sins gravely by the sin of sacrilege; and in the repetition of baptism both he who confers the sacrament and he who receives it incur an irregularity besides, which does not happen in the repetition of confirmation or order.

27. On the repetition of a doubtful sacrament. The following rules must be observed:

1. If the doubt concerning the validity of a sacrament is altogether imprudent and vain, it is not permitted to repeat the sacrament already conferred, and he who repeated it, even conditionally, would commit grave sin: for rashly to repeat a sacramental action contains a grave injury against the sacrament. But a condition, if the doubt is vain, is held as not added.

Wherefore, if after the sacrament has already been conferred, or after the form of the sacrament has already been uttered, a doubt arises concerning its validity which is a merely negative doubt, as if someone only reflexively does not remember that he said or performed the things which pertain to the essence of the sacrament, nothing is to be repeated. Yet for the most part they are excused from grave sin who, because of a vain doubt concerning the validity of the sacrament, are troubled by scruples and, with no time for deliberating, absolve again or again utter the words of consecration.

2. If the doubt concerning the validity of a sacrament is prudent and reasonable, whether the doubt is one of fact or of law, all sacraments can be repeated, and some also must be repeated; but they must be repeated under condition, so that provision may be made for the reverence which is owed to the sacrament (n. 25, 4).

a. All can be repeated: for the danger prudently feared, lest the receiver have to lack the fruit of the sacrament, is a sufficient reason for conferring it anew, since the sacraments are for men.

b. Some must be repeated, namely those which are necessary for the receiver unto salvation, or whose defect redounds to the grave harm of religion or of neighbor. And these sacraments must be repeated even if the doubt concerning their validity is slight only, which is especially true of baptism because of its supreme necessity.

alpha. Sacraments absolutely necessary unto salvation are baptism, absolution for one dying in mortal sin, and extreme unction for a dying sinner deprived of the senses. The good of religion requires that consecration be entirely certain, lest danger of idolatry be introduced. The good of religion and of neighbor requires that the conferral of order be certain, lest sacraments be administered invalidly.

beta. In sacraments there is a doubt of law when, in their conferral, doubtful matter (whether remote or proximate) or a doubtful form was used, concerning which authors, namely, hold opinions on both sides; there is a doubt of fact if it is doubted whether the sacrament was really conferred or in what way it was conferred, namely whether with due matter, form, and intention.

gamma. Whether a sacrament which is not necessary unto salvation, as confirmation, matrimony, or extreme unction where the sick person, being in possession of himself, has already received the other sacraments, must also be conferred again, must be judged from these circumstances: how great the doubt concerning validity is, how great the utility of the receiver is, and how much inconvenience the repetition brings to the minister.

Note. It can happen, however, that sacraments, even those most necessary, can indeed be repeated because of some slight doubt concerning their validity, especially for the greater peace of mind of him who received the sacrament, but that they need not be repeated, because the opinion denying the validity of the sacrament is not truly probable. Thus baptism conferred on the breast can indeed be repeated, but no obligation exists to repeat it. The same must be said of baptism in whose administration water was poured immediately after the utterance of the form; the same of order, in whose conferral the words Receive the power were uttered immediately after the touching of the instruments. It can happen that baptism conferred by a heretic need not be repeated, because there exists no reason for doubting either the right intention or the due matter and form, but that it can be repeated, because a full and evident certainty concerning its validity is not had.¹

¹ Cf. Lugo, Responsa moralia, l. 1, dub. 33, n. 3; Lacroix, l. 6, pr. 1, n. 310 ss.; Lehmkuhl II^11, n. 27 note.