3. The Sacrament of Holy Orders only confers the perpetual power, not the right, to exercise the functions of a priest. The newly ordained cannot therefore make use in any place of their sacerdotal powers, until they have received ecclesiastical authorization.
The qualification for the sacred ministry consists in the transmission of the powers appertaining to the sacerdotal office: those of a teacher, a priest and a pastor. In the Old Testament the priestly powers were hereditary in Aaron’s family (Exod. xxviii.); in the Hew Testament they are handed down by spiritual descent by means of Holy Orders. Besides these powers, the priest receives at ordination abundant graces belonging to his state. Outwardly he may appear the same, but inwardly he is a changed man. An indelible character is imprinted upon his soul by that ordinance; the powers he has received can never be lost, into whatever sins he may fall. He who has once been a priest cannot again become a layman (Council of Trent, 23, 4); a priest who has apostatized and been reconciled to the Church is not re-ordained. All the sacerdotal acts of a priest who has seceded from the Church are valid, only he cannot forgive sins (except in the case of the dying, when no other priest can be had). Priests of the schismatic Greek Church are not ordained again, if they return to the allegiance of the Catholic Church; but the Protestant clergy most certainly are. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction is given to the priest by his bishop; the bishops receive it from the Pope. The secular authorities have no power to grant ecclesiastical jurisdiction, for it is not theirs to give. Even in the time of the apostles the deacons were not nominated by the people; the apostles ordained those who had been chosen and appointed them to the work (Acts vi. 3, 6). St. Timothy was consecrated to the episcopate by the imposition of the hands of the priesthood (1 Tim. i. 14). Consequently the apostles called themselves the “ministers of Christ” (1 Cor. iv. 1). Any one who should attempt to exercise sacerdotal functions without the authorization of the bishop, would. as Our Lord says, be a thief and a robber, because “be entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth in some other way” (John x. 1). A priest must have faculties for hearing confessions, from the bishop of the diocese where he happens to be. This is separate from the pastoral office. A catechist, or teacher, who imparts religious instruction should also have the episcopal authorization. Any one who should be so daring as to exercise any priestly functions without having been admitted to Holy Orders or without episcopal authorization, would, in Catholic countries, be punished by the secular government; at any rate, terrible chastisements would fall on him from God. King Ozias presumed, in spite of the warning of the priests, to burn incense on the altar of incense; he was immediately struck with leprosy, and was a leper until the day of his death (2 Par. xxvi.). In the time of Moses, Core, with two hundred and fifty of the leading men of the synagogue, rebelled against Moses and presumed to offer incense in the tabernacle; they were destroyed by fire from the Lord, and the earth swallowed up the three ringleaders (Numb. xvi.).
4. No one can be admitted to priest’s Orders who has not attained the age of twenty-four years (Council of Trent, 23, 12).
[Note: The current age for ordination is now twenty-five]
The Holy See has the right of dispensing candidates for the priesthood if they are within twenty months of the required age. Besides the prescribed ages, those who are to be raised to the priesthood must possess the following qualifications: They must have the knowledge suited to, and necessary for, the due discharge of their functions; they must be conspicuous for piety and chastity; they must have been born in wedlock and be free from physical defects which might excite derision in others. Men who have been married twice are disqualified for the priesthood, although those who have been married once may, under certain conditions, be received. All men cannot be priests (Eph. iv. 11; 1 Cor. xii. 29). Yet we frequently find all the faithful spoken of as priests (1 Pet. ii. 9), inasmuch as they ought to accomplish to the glory of God good works which are in a certain measure a spiritual oblation; they are priests inasmuch as they immolate themselves in the service of God as spiritual victims. In the same sense the faithful in general are spoken of as kings, because they ought to rule over their fleshly lusts.
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