Part II: Holy Orders — Introduction
Holy Orders is the sacrament by which certain men are consecrated and empowered to serve the Church in the sacred ministry of the altar, the pulpit, and the pastoral care of souls. It is divided into major orders (episcopate, priesthood, diaconate) — each sacramental — and minor orders (subdiaconate, acolyte, exorcist, lector, porter) — not sacramental but ecclesiastically instituted. The relationship of Holy Orders to other sacraments is fundamental: it is through ordination that priests receive the power to consecrate the Eucharist, to absolve in Penance, and to administer Extreme Unction. The treatise covers institution, matter and form, sacramental effects, division of orders, minister, recipient, and clerical celibacy.
Part II: Holy Orders
Introduction
PART II HOLY ORDERS INTRODUCTION Between the priesthood {or do in esse) and ordination to the priesthood (ordo in fieri), there is a distinction similar to that between the married state and matrimony. The election of a pope is not a Sacrament, and it is possible to conceive of a divinely instituted priesthood into which a man could enter without receiving a Sacrament. In order, therefore, to show that Holy Orders is a true Sacrament, it is not enough to prove that the priesthood has been divinely instituted; it must also be demonstrated that the act by which a man becomes a priest is a true Sacrament (sacramentum ordinis, or, more correctly, ordinationis) . In other words, we must prove that the distinction between the clergy (from KX*jp<>99 a lot, or something assigned by lot, especially the portion of an inheritance, an allotment) and the laity (from Aaos, the people),1 is based upon a Sacrament. iCfr. Cone Trident., Sess. VII, can. 10. 52 INTRODUCTION 53 A specific question to be answered is whether the three hierarchical orders existing in the Catholic Church, — the episcopate, the priesthood, and the diaconate, — are sacramental, and what is the nature of the subdiaconate and the four minor orders.