The Sacrament Of Holy Orders… The Priesthood Of Jesus Christ

By RAYMOND DE SOUZA, KM

Part 1

This sacrament was instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ at the Last Supper, when He commanded the apostles to “Do this in memory of me,” and later on, after the Resurrection, He gave them the power to forgive sins through the Holy Spirit.
It has never ceased to amaze me that a mere man could be given divine powers! By Holy Orders, a man participates in the very Priesthood of Jesus Christ, a privilege not given to the angels, even the highest ones in Heaven!
If Catholic parents have a son desiring to be ordained to the priesthood, that should be a reason for the greatest joy for them! How sad that in our days many parents discourage the priestly vocation of their son and expect him to exercise some famous, profitable profession in the world instead!
Holy Orders is the sacrament that imparts to a man the gift of the Holy Spirit, so as to enable him to perform validly and worthily the sacred functions of deacon, priest, or bishop. As a deacon he can read the Gospel at Mass, preach to the people in God’s Name, confer Baptism, and officiate marriages. As a priest he can do all that plus consecrate the Eucharist and forgive sins. As a bishop, he can do everything a deacon and a priest do, plus he has the power to ordain deacons and priests, as well as other bishops.
The Sacrament of Holy Orders, therefore, can be conferred in three degrees: diaconate, priesthood, or episcopate.
The minister of this sacrament is always a bishop. The subject, or the recipient of the sacrament, is any baptized man. And by “man” here we do not mean a member of the human race, but a person of the male gender. Jesus did not call women to the priesthood, not even the most perfect Woman in the Universe, His Holy Mother. In future articles, we will study why Jesus called only males to the priesthood.
There is an important distinction to be made here: It is the difference between validity and lawfulness of the sacrament. Validity refers to the sacrament being given in fact, effectively; and lawfulness refers to the sacrament being given according to the mandate given by the Church of Jesus Christ. If a woman receives the sacrament by a trendy bishop, for instance, or if a man receives the sacrament by a bishop who modified the form in a substantial way, the sacrament will be invalid. The recipient will not be a priest. Period.
For the Sacrament of Holy Orders to be valid, both the minister of the sacrament and the recipient must act as Our Lord Jesus Christ ordained it. Only in this way will the sacrament be valid.
For valid Ordination to the diaconate, the man must be baptized. If a missionary bishop decides to ordain one of his unbaptized catechumens to the diaconate, someone who is still a pagan, regardless of the bishop’s goodwill or the good intentions of the pagan, the sacrament will not be valid. The man must be baptized first, must be part of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Catholic Church.
A pagan cannot be validly ordained a deacon. The baptismal character is necessary for one to receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders validly. In plain English, if an unbaptized man — a pagan — goes through the ceremony of Ordination to the diaconate, regardless of his good intentions, he comes out as unbaptized pagan as before, and not a true deacon.
But lawfulness has to do with its being done as Our Holy Mother Church teaches. So, a man who receives the sacrament without the Church’s permission, or against the Church’s explicit will, does receive the sacrament, but in an unlawful manner.
If a baptized layman receives the diaconate without Church permission, he truly becomes a deacon, but unlawfully, and cannot exercise the functions of a deacon without committing a sin.
For the valid Ordination to the priesthood, he does not need to be a deacon first, because the power given with priesthood includes that of diaconate. He must be baptized, as we have seen.
For Ordination to the episcopate (office of bishop), a man must first be a priest. A layman cannot be consecrated bishop. He must first receive the priesthood, and then the episcopate.
The sacrament is conferred by the imposition of hands and prayer. So, just like all the other sacraments, it is composed of two factors: a visible sign and a form (words). Seventy years ago, Pope Pius XII, in his apostolic constitution Sacramentum Ordinis of 1947, taught that the imposition of hands, or laying on of hands, shows that some kind of power is being given. The words of the prayer show that it is a sacred ministerial power, and express what kind of power is being given.
What is the rite of conferring diaconate? The bishop alone lays his hands upon the man’s head in silence, and then with hands extended over him, says the prayer of Ordination, including the essential prayer: “Send forth the Holy Spirit upon him, Lord, we beseech, that he be strengthened by the gift of Thy sevenfold grace to carry out faithfully the work of Thy ministry.”
Other prayers and ceremonies follow as appointed by the Church: The new deacon is vested in stole and dalmatic (look it up if you do not know what a dalmatic is), and is presented with the Book of the Gospels. A deacon can perform several ministerial functions: He can officiate marriages, funerals, Baptisms. He can read and preach the Gospel at Mass. But he cannot hear Confessions or celebrate Mass, because he has no power to absolve sins or to consecrate the Sacred Species.
These functions only a priest — or bishop, for that matter — can validly perform.
The rite of conferring priesthood: After preliminary ceremonies, during which the deacon to be ordained priest renews his promise of respect and obedience to his bishop, the bishop lays both hands on the candidate’s head in silence. The priests then do the same, one by one.
Then the bishop alone, with hands extended over the deacon(s), says the prayer of Ordination, the essential part of which is: “Grant, we beseech, Almighty Father, to this Thy servant, the dignity of the Priesthood; renew the Spirit of holiness deep within him; may he hold, O God, the office of second rank received from Thee and by the example of his behavior afford a pattern of conduct.”
Great indeed is the calling to the priesthood!
Next Article: The Rite of Ordination to the Episcopate.

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(Raymond de Souza, KM, is a Knight of the Sovereign and Military Order of Malta; a delegate for International Missions for Human Life International [HLI]; and an EWTN program host. Website: www. RaymonddeSouza.com.)