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 III. On the Effects of the Sacrament of Order

597.

The effects of the sacrament of Order are:

I. Sanctifying grace: in itself second grace, accidentally first grace (n. 6).

II. Sacramental grace, which consists in this: that the sanctifying grace which the sacrament of Order confers is both directed to this, that the ordained lead a life congruent with their state and faithfully fulfill the ministries annexed to it, and gives a right to actual graces to be obtained in order to those effects.

III. Character. 1. The existence of character is clear from what was said in n. 8. But from the fact that character is imprinted through the sacrament of Order, it is deduced that through all Orders which are sacraments, and therefore through Diaconate, Presbyterate, and Episcopate, character is imprinted. It is disputed, however, whether those individual Orders imprint a distinct character, or only one character, which is enlarged through the following Orders.

  1. The effect of the character is that a man receives the power of confecting and administering sacred things and is deputed to them. Nevertheless, character and power do not differ in reality, but consist in the same real quality. But what kind of power is conferred by the individual Orders is sufficiently clear from what was said in n. 588.

Holy Orders