Whether Faith Is Required of Necessity in the Minister of a Sacrament?
Objection 1: It seems that faith is required of necessity in the
minister of a sacrament. For, as stated above (A. 8), the intention
of the minister is necessary for the validity of a sacrament. But
"faith directs in intention" as Augustine says against Julian (In
Psalm xxxi, cf. Contra Julian iv). Therefore, if the minister is
without the true faith, the sacrament is invalid.
Obj. 2: Further, if a minister of the Church has not the true faith,
it seems that he is a heretic. But heretics, seemingly, cannot confer
sacraments. For Cyprian says in an epistle against heretics (lxxiii):
"Everything whatsoever heretics do, is carnal, void and counterfeit,
so that nothing that they do should receive our approval." And Pope
Leo says in his epistle to Leo Augustus (clvi): "It is a matter of
notoriety that the light of all the heavenly sacraments is
extinguished in the see of Alexandria, by an act of dire and
senseless cruelty. The sacrifice is no longer offered, the chrism is
no longer consecrated, all the mysteries of religion have fled at the
touch of the parricide hands of ungodly men." Therefore a sacrament
requires of necessity that the minister should have the true faith.
Obj. 3: Further, those who have not the true faith seem to be
separated from the Church by excommunication: for it is written in
the second canonical epistle of John (10): "If any man come to you,
and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house, nor say
to him; God speed you": and (Titus 3:10): "A man that is a heretic,
after the first and second admonition avoid." But it seems that an
excommunicate cannot confer a sacrament of the Church: since he is
separated from the Church, to whose ministry the dispensation of the
sacraments belongs. Therefore a sacrament requires of necessity that
the minister should have the true faith.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says against the Donatist Petilian:
"Remember that the evil lives of wicked men are not prejudicial to
God's sacraments, by rendering them either invalid or less holy."
_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 5), since the minister works
instrumentally in the sacraments, he acts not by his own but by
Christ's power. Now just as charity belongs to a man's own power so
also does faith. Wherefore, just as the validity of a sacrament does
not require that the minister should have charity, and even sinners
can confer sacraments, as stated above (A. 5); so neither is it
necessary that he should have faith, and even an unbeliever can
confer a true sacrament, provided that the other essentials be there.
Reply Obj. 1: It may happen that a man's faith is defective in regard
to something else, and not in regard to the reality of the sacrament
which he confers: for instance, he may believe that it is unlawful to
swear in any case whatever, and yet he may believe that baptism is an
efficient cause of salvation. And thus such unbelief does not hinder
the intention of conferring the sacrament. But if his faith be
defective in regard to the very sacrament that he confers, although
he believe that no inward effect is caused by the thing done
outwardly, yet he does know that the Catholic Church intends to
confer a sacrament by that which is outwardly done. Wherefore, his
unbelief notwithstanding, he can intend to do what the Church does,
albeit he esteem it to be nothing. And such an intention suffices for
a sacrament: because as stated above (A. 8, ad 2) the minister of a
sacrament acts in the person of the Church by whose faith any defect
in the minister's faith is made good.
Reply Obj. 2: Some heretics in conferring sacraments do not observe
the form prescribed by the Church: and these confer neither the
sacrament nor the reality of the sacrament. But some do observe the
form prescribed by the Church: and these confer indeed the sacrament
but not the reality. I say this in the supposition that they are
outwardly cut off from the Church; because from the very fact that
anyone receives the sacraments from them, he sins; and consequently
is hindered from receiving the effect of the sacrament. Wherefore
Augustine (Fulgentius, De Fide ad Pet.) says: "Be well assured and
have no doubt whatever that those who are baptized outside the
Church, unless they come back to the Church, will reap disaster from
their Baptism." In this sense Pope Leo says that "the light of the
sacraments was extinguished in the Church of Alexandria"; viz. in
regard to the reality of the sacrament, not as to the sacrament
itself.
Cyprian, however, thought that heretics do not confer even the
sacrament: but in this respect we do not follow his opinion. Hence
Augustine says (De unico Baptismo xiii): "Though the martyr Cyprian
refused to recognize Baptism conferred by heretics or schismatics,
yet so great are his merits, culminating in the crown of martyrdom,
that the light of his charity dispels the darkness of his fault, and
if anything needed pruning, the sickle of his passion cut it off."
Reply Obj. 3: The power of administering the sacraments belongs to
the spiritual character which is indelible, as explained above (Q.
63, A. 3). Consequently, if a man be suspended by the Church, or
excommunicated or degraded, he does not lose the power of conferring
sacraments, but the permission to use this power. Wherefore he does
indeed confer the sacrament, but he sins in so doing. He also sins
that receives a sacrament from such a man: so that he does not
receive the reality of the sacrament, unless ignorance excuses him.
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