§ 7. On The Conditional Form

22. Notion. A conditional form is said to be one which is uttered under a condition expressed either in words or at least in the mind, namely, that the minister does not intend to confer the sacrament unless all things required for its validity are present. The conditional form is employed: a) in the repetition of a sacrament, for example, "If you are not baptized, I baptize you, etc."; b) in the first conferral of a sacrament if, namely, there is an insoluble doubt concerning some essentially required condition, for example, a confessor absolves a man deprived of his senses, concerning whose death there is doubt, saying: "If you are alive, I absolve you, etc."

23. Reason and manner of the conditional form. The reason why the conditional form is employed is the reverence due to the sacrament. For in this manner the minister protests that he in no way wills to administer the sacrament in the name of Christ if an essentially required condition is lacking. It readily appears to anyone considering the matter that in every administration of the sacraments the form is in some manner conditional, because the minister always has the implicit intention: I confect the sacrament, provided all necessary things are present. Sometimes the condition added must, according to the prescription of the Ritual,⁵⁹ be manifested in express words, namely, in baptism and extreme unction. In baptism it is to be said: "If you are not baptized, I baptize you, etc."; in extreme unction the priest is to say: "If you are capable, through this holy anointing, etc." In the other sacraments it suffices to express the condition in the mind alone.

⁵⁹ Tit. 2, c. 1, n. 9; tit. 5, c. 1, n. 12.

24. Liceity. As a general rule for the licit practice of a conditional form it is customary to adduce: It is lawful to confer a sacrament under condition whenever, if conferred absolutely, it would be exposed to the danger of nullity, but if absolutely denied, it would deprive a man of a great good or thrust him into a great danger of eternal salvation.

The condition added is either concerning the present, the past, or the future.

1. It is almost never lawful to add a condition concerning the future; indeed, all sacraments (except matrimony) thus conferred are null.⁶⁰ The reason is that the duty of conferring the sacrament here and now by the application of form to matter is incumbent upon the minister; but he arrogantly assumes to himself a power which he does not have if he wills to suspend the effect of the sacrament until after a future condition has been fulfilled. Hence a sacrament conditionally conferred in this manner is null now and in the future. For now the minister does not have the intention of fully administering it; but in the future there is no longer the moral coexistence of form and matter which is essentially required for the validity of the sacrament, as is evident from what was said above. Matrimony, however, contracted under a condition concerning the future becomes valid after the condition has been fulfilled. This occurs on account of the special nature of matrimony, which is a contract. For since the sacrament of matrimony is completed by the very fact that the legitimate consent of the contracting parties is manifested, this sacrament begins to exist if, after the future condition has been fulfilled, the same consent perseveres. For the most part, however, conditional marriages of this kind are illicit.⁶¹

From what has been said it follows how wrongly those confessors act, or at least how incautiously they speak, who say to a penitent: "I give you absolution under the condition that you will leave this occasion of sinning; otherwise your absolution is invalid." A confessor can indeed say: "Unless you seriously promise me that you will leave the occasion of sinning, I cannot grant you absolution." But if the penitent has seriously promised this here and now, the confessor must give absolution absolutely, without any condition.⁶²

2. A sacrament conferred under a condition concerning the present or the past is valid if the condition is verified; otherwise it is null. For example, if a confessor says to a dying man deprived of his senses, "If you are alive, I absolve you," the absolution is valid if that man (otherwise disposed) is still alive; otherwise it is null. The reason is that the intention of the minister, the union of form and matter, and the other required dispositions of the penitent are present.

⁶⁰ Cf. St. Alphonsus, Theol. mor. l. 6, n. 26.

⁶¹ Cf. below in the treatise on matrimony, n. 661 sqq.

⁶² Cf. below in the treatise on penance, n. 332.

25. Scholion. On the origin of the conditional form. The conditional form (expressed in words) does not seem to have been in use during the first seven centuries;⁶³ but the conditional form conceived in the mind alone was always in use, because there were always doubtfully valid sacraments and therefore sacraments to be repeated. The first mention of an expressed conditional form is found in the eighth century in Benedictus Levita.⁶⁴ The compiler, however, took this capitular from the statutes of St. Boniface in the Council of Liptina, statute 28,⁶⁵ where it is prescribed: "Those concerning whom there is doubt whether they are baptized or not are by all means to be baptized without any scruple with these words only: I do not rebaptize you, but if you are not baptized, I baptize you in the name of the Father, etc." Similar things were prescribed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by Alexander III and Gregory IX. From the thirteenth century the conditional form prevailed in all the churches of the Latins. At first it was employed only in the sacraments which imprint a character, especially in baptism and order; later it was employed also in the other sacraments, for example, in penance. Therefore, from the constant usage of the Church it is now established that the conditional form is lawful.

⁶³ Cf. Billuart, De sacr. diss. 1, a. 6, appendix 2; Concina, De sacr. diss. unic., c. 6; Benedict XIV, De syn. dioec. l. 7, c. 6, n. 1.

⁶⁴ Capitularium collect. l. 2, n. 184 (Migne, Patr. lat. 97, 770).

⁶⁵ Migne, l.c. 89, 823.