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Please refer to the Sacramental
Preparation section if you are desiring to prepare to receive
a specific sacrament.
The Seven Sacraments of the Roman Catholic
Church
General Information
The sacramental principle is another characteristic tenet of Roman
Catholicism. The sacramental system worked out especially in the
Middle Ages by the schoolmen and subsequently at the Council of
Trent envisaged sacraments primarily as causes of grace that could
be received independent of the merit of the recipient. Recent
Catholic sacramental theology emphasizes their function as signs
of faith. Sacraments are said to cause grace insofar as they are
intelligible signs of it, and that the fruitfulness, as distinct
from the validity, of the sacrament is dependent on the faith
and devotion of the recipient. Sacramental rites are now administered
in the vernacular, rather than in Latin, to increase the intelligibility
of the signs.
Conservative Catholicism connected sacramental theology to Christology,
stressing Christ's institution of the sacraments and the power
of the sacraments to infuse the grace of Christ, earned on Calvary,
to the recipient. The newer emphasis connects the sacraments to
ecclesiology. We do not encounter Christ directly, but in the
church, which is his body. The church mediates the presence and
action of Christ.
The number of sacraments was finally fixed at seven during the
medieval period (at the councils of Lyons 1274, Florence 1439,
and Trent 1547). In addition Roman Catholicism has innumerable
sacramentals, e.g., baptismal water, holy oil, blessed ashes,
candles, palms, crucifixes, and statues. Sacramentals are said
to cause grace not ex opere operanto like the sacraments, but
ex opere operantis, through the faith and devotion of those using
them.
Three of the sacraments, baptism, confirmation, Eucharist,
are concerned with Christian initiation
Baptism
The sacrament is understood to remit original sin and all personal
sin of which the recipient sincerely repents. All must be baptized
or they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. But not all baptism
is sacramental baptism by water. There is also "baptism of
blood," which is received by dying for Christ (e.g., the
"holy innocents," Matt. 2:16 - 18), and "baptism
of desire," which is received by those who, implicitly or
explicitly, desire baptism but are prevented from receiving it
sacramentally. "Even those who through no fault of their
own do not know Christ and his church may be counted as anonymous
Christians if their striving to lead a good life is in fact a
response to his grace, which is given in sufficient measure to
all."
Confirmation
A theology of confirmation was not developed until the Middle
Ages. Confirmation was said to be the gift of the Spirit for strengthening
(ad robur) while baptismal grace is for forgiveness (ad remissionem).
This distinction has no basis in the Scriptures or the fathers,
but has been retained to the present following ratification by
the Council of Trent. Today, however, the rite is sometimes administered
at the same time as baptism and by the priest, not the bishop,
to emphasize that both are really aspects of the one sacrament
of initiation.
Eucharist
Distinctively Catholic doctrines on the Eucharist include the
sacrificial nature of the Mass and transubstantiation. Both were
defined at Trent and neither was modified at Vatican II. The unbloody
sacrifice of the Mass is identified with the bloody sacrifice
of the cross, in that both are offered for the sins of the living
and the dead. Hence Christ is the same victim and priest in the
Eucharist as he was on the cross. Transubstantiation, the belief
that the substance of bread and wine is changed into the body
and blood of Christ, was first spoken of at the Fourth Lateran
Council (1215). The Eucharist is also known as Holy Communion.
Two sacraments, reconcilation and anointing the sick,
are concerned with healing
Reconciliation
By the Middle Ages the sacrament of reonciliation had four components
which were confirmed by the Council of Trent: satisfaction (the
doing of an act of penance), confession, contrition, and absolution
by a priest. All grave sins had to be confessed to a priest who
acted as judge. Since Vatican II the role of the priest in penance
is understood as healer, and the purpose of the sacrament is reconciliation
with the church rather than the restoration of friendship with
God. Through contrition the sinner's union with God is restored,
but he is still required to seek forgiveness in the sacrament
of penance because his sin compromises the mission of the church
to be a holy people.
Anointing the Sick
During the Middle Ages the rite of anointing the sick was reserved
increasingly for the dying, hence the description of Peter Lombard:
extreme unctio (last anointing). Vatican II relabeled the sacrament
"anointing of the sick," stating explicitly that it
"is not a sacrament reserved for those who are at the point
of death." The last sacrament is now known as viaticum, received
during Mass if possible. Earlier, this was called Extreme Unction.
There are two sacraments of vocation and commitment:
marriage and orders
Marriage
The sacramentality of marriage was affirmed by the councils of
Florence and Trent. Marriage is understood to be indissoluble,
although dispensations, chiefly in the form of annulment (a declaration
that a valid marriage never existed), are permitted. The grounds
of nullity so carefully delimited in the 1918 Code of Canon Law
have now been broadened to embrace many deficiencies of character.
Orders
Vatican II recognized that all the baptized participate in some
way in the priesthood of Christ, but confirmed Catholic tradition
on the clerical hierarchy by decreeing that there is a distinction
between the priesthood conferred by baptism and that conferred
by ordination.
The ordained priesthood has three orders: bishops, priests, and
deacons. The first and third are offices of the NT church. The
office of priest emerged when it was no longer practical to continue
recognizing the Jewish priesthood (owing to the destruction of
the temple and the great influx of Gentiles into the church) and
with the development of a sacrificial understanding of the Lord's
Supper.
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