Sacerdotal Character at the Second Vatican Council

The Thomist 67 (2003): 539-77 SACERDOTAL CHARACTER AT THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL GUY MANSINI, O.S.B. Saint Meinrad Seminary Saint Meinrad, Indiana THE TEACHING OF THE Second Vatican Council on the sacramentalityofthe episcopate, together with its insistence that all three munera of teaching, sanctifying, and ruling are imparted by episcopal ordination, seems to lead naturally to the idea that the character imparted by the sacrament is the locus of the munera of teaching and ruling in the same way as it has always been thought to be the seat of the power of sanctifying. Moreover, certain conciliar passages seem practically to suggest this. So, Lumen gentium 21b, just after stating that all three munera are conferred by consecration, adds the following: it is very clear that by the imposition of hands and the words of consecration the grace of the Holy Spirit is conferred in such a way and a sacred character is imprinted in such a way that, in an outstanding and visible way, bishops discharge the functions of Christ himself as Teacher, Pastor and Priest, and act in his person [perspicuum est manuum impositione et verbis consecrationis gratiam Spiritus Sancti ita conferri et sacrum characterem ita imprimi, ut Episcopi eminenti ac adspectabili modo, ipsius Christi Magistri, Pastoris et Pontificis partes sustineant et in Eius persona agant]. Presbyterorum ordinis 2c also says: the priesthood of presbyters is conferred by that special sacrament in which presbyters, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are signed with a special character and thus configured to Christ the Priest, in such a way that they can act in the person of Christ the Head [Sacerdotium Presbyterorum ... peculiari ... illo Sacramento confertur, quo Presbyteri, unctione Spiritus Sancti, speciali 539 540 SACERDOTAL CHARACTER AT VATICAN II charactere signantur et sic Christo Sacerdoti configurantur, ita ut in persona Christi Capitis agere valeant]. Acting the person of Christ the Head, moreover, is a matter of instructing, sanctifying, and ruling the Church his body-all three-as is dear from the first part of Presbyterorum ordinis le. It is not surprising, therefore, to certain scholars, among them the most asserting that the character is, or is the locus of, all three munera, and without making any distinctions. Thus Jean Galot comments on the passage from Presbyterorum ordinis: "The character provides the foundation for the empowerment to speak in the name of Christ, to proclaim the Word of God, and to expound with authority the gospel message.... Note that the power conferred by the character is not just cultic and sacramentaL" If the character has the past been understood to be limited in that way, that is a mistake that we need not repeat, according to Galot.1 For Ghislain Lafont, the council "expands the meaning of the [character]: it cannot be reduced to an instrumental power over the Eucharist." The character makes the bishop pastor, and "confirms and consecrates a Christian's charism of presiding over a particular Church." It "habituates" him generaHy and across the board "to act responsibly the name with the authority of Christ ... in the acts of his ministry."2 And Sara Buder has this to say apropos of Lumen gentium 21: According to the Council ... the sacrament itself confers a new share in Christ's threefold office of priest, prophet (or teacher), and pastor. The character imposed by episcopal ordination is explicitly linked to the sacramental role of bishops, who "take the part of Christ himself, teacher, shepherd and priest, and act as his representatives" or "in eius persona."3 1 Jean Galot, S.J., Theology ofthe Priesthood (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1984), 208-9. 2 Ghislain Lafont, Imagining the Catholic Church, trans. John Burkhard (Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 2000), 159. However, Lafont continues, we need not think of a power that is '"physically' permanent," but only of a permanent "configuration to Christ the Pastor" (ibid., 160). 3 Sara Butler, "Official Teaching on the Ministerial Priesthood," unpublished paper of October 12, 1995, p. 8; but for the same idea see her "Priestly Identity: 'Sacrament' of Christ the Head," Worship 70 (1996): 303. GUY MANSINI, O.S.B. 541 The first statement is unassailable; it is the second I wish to contest. For...