Morals of the Church
Library › Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis › Volume III › Part II. On The Sacraments In General And In Particular › Treatise IX. On The Sacrament Of Order › Chapter I. On The Nature Of The Sacrament Of Order › Article II. On The Effects Of Order

Section — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis

§ 1. On The Effects Of Order In General

588.

588. The sacrament of Order produces four effects, of which three regard the one ordained himself and the fourth reaches the Church.

  1. Order produces an increase of sanctifying grace and sacramental grace. For Order is a sacrament of the living and causes peculiar graces, as does every other sacrament.

  2. Order imprints an indelible character, and therefore no order can be repeated.15

  3. Order confers the spiritual power of exercising the functions of the respective order received. This power indeed has a greater or lesser connection with the Eucharist.

  4. Order causes the permanence of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, which cannot subsist without this sacrament. Therefore this sacrament especially looks to the utility and beauty of the Church.

15 Cf. Council of Trent, sess. 23, can. 4, De sacr. ord. (Denz., n. 964).

The nature, matter and form of Orders