Morals of the Church
Library › Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology › Volume II › Book III. On the Aids of the Christian Life, or on the Sacraments › Treatise VII. On Order › Dissertation I. On Order Considered in Itself

Part — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Part I. On the Existence of the Sacrament of Order

589.

Here dogmatic theologians first inquire whether Order, taken generally, is a sacrament; then to which grades the character of a sacrament belongs. Now:

I. Order, or sacred Ordination, is a true and properly so-called sacrament of the New Law; this proposition is of faith from the Council of Trent: "If anyone says that Order, or sacred Ordination, is not truly and properly a sacrament instituted by Christ the Lord, or that it is a certain human fiction devised by men unskilled in ecclesiastical matters, or that it is only a certain rite of choosing ministers of the Word of God and of the Sacraments, let him be anathema."1

II. With respect to the diverse grades of Order, the character of a sacrament belongs to the Presbyterate and Diaconate, and very probably to the Episcopate; the Subdiaconate more probably, and the minor Orders almost certainly, are not sacraments. It is said:

  1. Presbyterate is a sacrament. This is proximate to faith from these words of the Council of Trent: "If anyone says that through sacred Ordination the Holy Spirit is not given, and that therefore Bishops say in vain: Receive the Holy Spirit; or that through it a character is not imprinted; or that he who was once a priest can become a layman again, let him be anathema."2

Christ instituted the Presbyterate, with respect to the power of consecrating and offering the true Body and Blood of the Lord, at the Last Supper. "If anyone says," so says the Council of Trent, "that by those words, 'Do this in commemoration of Me,' Christ did not institute the Apostles as priests, or did not ordain that they and other priests should offer His Body and Blood, let him be anathema."3 But with respect to the power of remitting and retaining sins, He instituted it after the resurrection, when He handed this power to the Apostles in these words: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained."4

  1. Diaconate is a sacrament. It is the very common opinion of theologians, and so certain that it cannot be denied without temerity.5

  2. Episcopate is a sacrament distinct from Presbyterate. This is today the common and very probable opinion (St. Alphonsus, VI, 738).6

Christ instituted the Episcopate after His resurrection and before the ascension, as theologians commonly admit (St. Alphonsus, Opera dogmatica, 7, p. 123, fourth, and p. 124, sixth).

  1. Subdiaconate and the minor orders do not seem to be sacraments, because they do not seem to have been instituted by Christ (cf. St. Alphonsus, VI, 737).7

In writings left to us from antiquity, the first mention of these orders, as of a matter known to all, occurs in St. Cornelius, Pope, around the year 252; he speaks thus about Novatian: "Therefore that defender of the Gospel was ignorant that there ought to be one Bishop in the Catholic Church, in which it was not hidden from him - for how could it be hidden? - that there were forty-six Presbyters, seven Deacons, seven Subdeacons, forty-two Acolytes, and fifty-two Exorcists and Lectors together with Porters."8 Anastasius Bibliothecarius also relates in the history of Pope St. Caius, who held the See of Peter from the year 283 to 296: "He established that all Ordinations in the Church should ascend thus: if someone deserved to be a Bishop, he should be ordained Porter, Lector, Exorcist, Sequens (Acolyte), Subdeacon, Deacon, Presbyter, and thereafter Bishop."9

III. Although the character of a sacrament belongs to several Orders, nevertheless it must simply be said that there is only one sacrament of Order. For "the division of Order is not of an integral whole into its parts, nor of a universal whole, but of a potestative whole, whose nature is this: that the whole according to its complete notion is in one, while in the others there is some participation of it. And so it is here. For the whole fullness of this Sacrament is in one order, namely the priesthood; but in the others there is a certain participation of order. And therefore all orders are one sacrament" (St. Thomas, Supplement, q. 37, a. 1, ad 2).

1 Session 23, canon 3.

2 Session 23, canon 4.

3 Session 22, canon 2.

4 John 20:22-23.

5 Cf. Pesch, op. cit., n. 615.

6 Cf. Pesch, op. cit., n. 614.

7 Pesch, op. cit., n. 592.

8 Epistle to Fabian of Antioch, c. 3.

9 Historia de vitis Romanorum Pontificum, c. 29.

The Existence of the Sacrament of Order