Article — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Article Two. Concerning the Effects of Order.
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450. Concerning Effects in General. 1. There are distinguished the orders which are sacraments: the diaconate, presbyterate, and episcopate. Their effects are:
a. An increase of sanctifying grace, of virtues, and of gifts, since order is a sacrament of the living;
b. Sacramental grace, or a right to actual graces, by which the office received and its obligations can be duly fulfilled;1
c. An indelible character, by which the soul is assimilated to Christ, the supreme priest and pastor of souls;2
d. An indelible spiritual power, by which the one ordained can exercise the functions of the order received.
a. Effects which consist in the conferral of sanctifying grace are not obtained except by those who approach ordination worthily; but effects which consist in the impression of character and in the conferral of peculiar power are obtained by all who validly receive order.
b. The sacrament of order generally imprints character. But if it is asked concerning the individual orders whether they imprint character, according to the more common opinion of theologians in any sacrament a new character distinct from the others is imprinted. It is manifest that non-sacramental orders do not imprint character.
- Other orders are those which are not sacraments: the subdiaconate and the minor orders. Their effects are:
a. Spiritual power for performing certain ecclesiastical functions.
b. Actual graces conferred by force of the prayer of the Church for worthily exercising the power handed over.
Between orders which are sacraments and orders which are not sacraments there is this difference: the former produce an effect of grace ex opere operato, but the latter from the prayers of the Church and from the pious acts of the ordinand himself.
451. Effects of First Tonsure. First tonsure, which is conferred before orders as a disposition to orders, is not numbered among the orders, because through it spiritual power is not conferred, which belongs to the nature of order. Therefore the Council of Trent says that those who are marked with tonsure can ascend to orders.1
From ecclesiastical institution first tonsure produces several effects and communicates great privileges to the cleric:
a. It transfers the tonsured man from the lay state to the clerical state.
b. It confers the privilege of forum, by which he is exempted from the jurisdiction of the secular forum.
c. It confers the privilege of canon, by which it happens that all who strike him injuriously incur excommunication.
d. It makes him capable of an ecclesiastical benefice.
e. It makes him capable of ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
f. It makes him suitable for receiving orders.
452. Effects of Minor Orders. 1. The four orders which are called minor are not sacraments, but sacramentals, since they are of ecclesiastical institution; for before the third century they had not been instituted. Moreover the Greek Church instituted some, the Latin Church others.
Most scholastics with St. Thomas had taught that the minor orders are sacraments;1 but today among theologians the opinion which denies the nature of a sacrament to the minors has become almost common.2 Since it is established that the minor orders do not occur in the Church before the third century, and afterward were not everywhere conferred in the same manner and number, some theologians, in order that they can attribute the nature of a sacrament to them, affirm that the minor orders from the institution of Christ are contained in the diaconate, but that the power of separating them from the diaconate and conferring them distinctly was given by Christ to the Church, which indeed the Church in the course of time effected in reality.
- The power which the individual orders confer:
a. The ostiariate hands over to the ordinand the power of guarding the church and opening and closing its doors, of summoning the faithful to sacred functions, and of keeping off the unworthy, namely infidels, heretics, and excommunicated persons.
b. The lectorate hands over the power of reading the sacred Scriptures publicly in church, of singing the lessons, of teaching the uninstructed the elements of the Christian faith, and of blessing bread and new fruits.
c. The exorcistate hands over the power of imposing hands over the possessed and reading exorcisms approved by the Church for putting demons to flight.
d. The acolyte hands over the power of carrying lights for the sacrifice of the Mass and of ministering wine and water in solemn Mass. Therefore the acolyte is preferred to the other minor orders; for those marked with these minister directly only around the people, although in order to the Eucharist, but the acolyte, since he serves with the deacon and subdeacon in the sacrifice of the Mass, ministers directly to the Eucharistic sacrifice.
The functions of these orders today, ecclesiastical discipline having changed, are partly abolished and partly, with a few exceptions such as exorcisms, are exercised even by laymen.
1 St. Thomas, 4, dist. 24, q. 1, a. 2, qc. 2; Suppl., q. 35, n. 2.
2 Cf. Pesch VII, n. 577 ss.
453. Effects of Major Orders. 1. Nature of sacrament. It is not certain that the subdiaconate has the nature of a sacrament; for since formerly it was generally counted among the minor orders, only from the eleventh century onward did it commonly begin to be numbered among the greater and sacred orders.
That the diaconate, presbyterate, and episcopate have the nature of a sacrament is certain.1
Whether the episcopate is an order distinct from the presbyterate, or a certain extension and complement of the priesthood itself, is disputed. Nevertheless this is more commonly affirmed: that the episcopate cannot be validly conferred before the priesthood has been conferred; but the other orders certainly can be validly conferred when the preceding ones have not yet been conferred.
- Their power. a. The subdiaconate hands over the power of ministering at the altar in solemn Mass, solemnly singing the epistle, and washing palls and corporals.
b. The diaconate hands over the power of immediately ministering to the priest in solemn Mass and in other sacred functions, and of solemnly singing the Gospel. But this power of ministering extends also to the administration of solemn baptism and of holy communion, yet from the permission of the ordinary or parish priest to be granted from a just cause; and the power of publicly singing the Gospel extends also to the power of preaching from the commission of the bishop.
c. The presbyterate hands over power over the real body of Christ, or the power of consecrating, and over the mystical body of Christ, or of remitting and retaining sins, of feeding the faithful people, that is, of administering the remaining sacraments which do not require the episcopal order, of handing on Christian doctrine, and of blessing the people.
d. The episcopate perfects and completes sacerdotal power, because it hands over the power of confirming, ordaining, ruling the faithful people once legitimate jurisdiction has been received, and consecrating things pertaining to divine worship.