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 II. On the Ministration of Order

Part — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Part I. On the Person Ministering

598.

I. The ordinary minister of sacred ordination is a consecrated Bishop (canon 951); namely, in this sense, that, once his consecration is posited, he always confers Orders validly. It is disputed only whether a Bishop acts validly who, without an apostolic dispensation, consecrates a Bishop without two other assisting Bishops. That such a manner of acting is illicit is clear both from canon 954 and from the Roman Pontifical; nevertheless it seems altogether to be said that it is valid. For so Pius IV in the Brief of August 11, 1562, the Holy Office,1 and the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide.2 There is added the fact that only one of the Bishops in the Roman Pontifical is called the consecrator, and that in the other sacraments also one minister suffices.

Corollary. Ordinations performed by Jansenist, Old Catholic, and Russian Bishops are valid. But the ordinations of Anglicans are invalid by defect of minister, form, and intention, as Leo XIII authentically declared.3

1 March 13, 1669 (Collectio, n. 177).

2 May 18, 1695 (Collectio, n. 239).

3 Constitution Apostolicae curae, September 13, 1896.

The minister of Orders

599.

II. The extraordinary minister of sacred ordination is one who, although he lacks the episcopal character, has received from law or from the Apostolic See by a special indult the power of conferring some Orders (canon 951). Now this power has been conferred by law as follows:

  1. Cardinals, from their promotion in Consistory, enjoy the faculty of conferring first tonsure and minor Orders, provided the one to be promoted has dimissorial letters from his proper Ordinary (canon 239, § 1, 22).

  2. A Vicar and Prefect Apostolic, an Abbot or Prelate nullius, if they lack the episcopal character, can nevertheless, in their own territory and only while they hold office, confer first tonsure and minor Orders both on their own secular subjects according to the norm of canon 956,1 and on others who exhibit the dimissorial letters required by law; ordination performed by them outside these limits is null (canon 957, § 2).

  3. A Provicar and Proprefect, and others to whom the care of a vicariate or prefecture has devolved according to the norm of canon 309, enjoy the faculty with which the Vicar or Prefect was endowed (canon 310, § 2).

  4. A regular Abbot of governance, even without a territory nullius, can confer first tonsure and minor Orders, provided the one to be promoted is subject to him by force of at least simple profession, and he himself is a priest and has legitimately received the abbatial blessing. Outside these limits, ordination conferred by him, every contrary privilege having been revoked, is null, unless the one ordaining is endowed with the episcopal character (canon 964, 1°).

Question. Can the Supreme Pontiff confer on a simple priest the power of ministering the Subdiaconate and Diaconate?

Response 1. With respect to the Subdiaconate, it is commonly admitted: both because it is not a sacrament; and because Pope St. Gelasius, in his letter to Bishop Lucianus,2 seems to teach this implicitly; and because Supreme Pontiffs have several times put this doctrine into practice.3

Response 2. With respect to the Diaconate, there is dispute. Some affirm it, relying on the Bulls of which there will be discussion presently. Others deny it, and they respond to the things alleged by their opponents: 1° the Bull of Innocent VIII directed to the Cistercian Abbots (1489), at least insofar as it grants the faculty of conferring the Diaconate, does not seem genuine;4 2° the Bull of Boniface IX to the Augustinian Abbot of the monastery of St. Osyth in the province of London (1400), by which, besides the faculty of ministering the Subdiaconate and Diaconate, the faculty of ministering the Presbyterate was also conferred, was revoked by him in the year 1403.5 There is added that the said Bull probably conferred nothing else except permission to receive Orders independently of the Bishop of London, so that the matter concerned not the power of Order but the power of jurisdiction.

1 Cf. p. 462.

2 Migne, Patrologia Latina LIX, p. 50 (in VI).

3 Cf. Many, De S. Ord., p. 146.

4 Cf. Gasparri, De Sacr. Ordin., t. II, p. 85; Wernz, Ius Decretalium, II, p. 48; Pastor, Geschichte der Papste, III, p. 253.

5 Cf. Gillmann, Zur Lehre der Scholastik vom Spender der Firmung und des Weihesakraments, p. 137; Sagmuller, Kirchenrecht, I, p. 202 (ed. 1914); Dictionnaire de theologie catholique, s.v. Ordre, la theologie moderne, col. 1386.

The minister of Orders