St. Thomas Aquinas: Whether the Episcopate is an Order?

St. Thomas Aquinas: Whether the Episcopate is an Order? Aug 6, 2020 13:19:59 GMT

Post by Admin on Aug 6, 2020 13:19:59 GMT

Article 5. Whether the episcopate is an Order?

Objection 1. It would seem that the episcopate is an Order. First of all, because Dionysius (Eccl. Hier. v) assigns these three orders to the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the bishop, the priest, and the minister. In the text also (Sent. iv, D, 24) it is stated that the episcopal Order is fourfold.

Objection 2. Further, Order is nothing else but a degree of power in the dispensing of spiritual things. Now bishops can dispense certain sacraments which priests cannot dispense, namely Confirmation and Order. Therefore the episcopate is an Order.

Objection 3. Further, in the Church there is no spiritual power other than of Order or jurisdiction. But things pertaining to the episcopal power are not matters of jurisdiction, else they might be committed to one who is not a bishop, which is false. Therefore they belong to the power of Order. Therefore the bishop has an Order which a simple priest has not; and thus the episcopate is an Order.

On the contrary, One Order does not depend on a preceding order as regards the validity of the sacrament. But the episcopal power depends on the priestly power, since no one can receive the episcopal power unless he have previously the priestly power. Therefore the episcopate is not an Order.

Further, the greater Orders are not conferred except on Saturdays [The four Ember Saturdays]. But the episcopal power is bestowed on Sundays [Dist. lxxv, can. Ordinationes]. Therefore it is not an Order.

I answer that, Order may be understood in two ways. In one way as a sacrament, and thus, as already stated (Supplement:37:4), every Order is directed to the sacrament of the Eucharist. Wherefore since the bishop has not a higher power than the priest, in this respect the episcopate is not an Order. In another way Order may be considered as an office in relation to certain sacred actions: and thus since in hierarchical actions a bishop has in relation to the mystical body a higher power than the priest, the episcopate is an Order. It is in this sense that the authorities quoted speak.

Hence the Reply to the First Objection is clear.

Reply to Objection 2. Order considered as a sacrament which imprints a character is specially directed to the sacrament of the Eucharist, in which Christ Himself is contained, because by a character we are made like to Christ Himself [Cf. III:63:3]. Hence although at his promotion a bishop receives a spiritual power in respect of certain sacraments, this power nevertheless has not the nature of a character. For this reason the episcopate is not an Order, in the sense in which an Order is a sacrament.

Reply to Objection 3. The episcopal power is one not only of jurisdiction but also of Order, as stated above, taking Order in the sense in which it is generally understood.

St. Thomas Aquinas: Whether the Episcopate is an Order? Aug 6, 2020 13:46:33 GMT

Post by Admin on Aug 6, 2020 13:46:33 GMT

Aug 6, 2020 13:19:59 GMT Admin said:

Summa Theologica

Article 5. Whether the episcopate is an Order?

Reply to Objection 2. Order considered as a sacrament which imprints a character is specially directed to the sacrament of the Eucharist, in which Christ Himself is contained, because by a character we are made like to Christ Himself [Cf. III:63:3]. Hence although at his promotion a bishop receives a spiritual power in respect of certain sacraments, this power nevertheless has not the nature of a character. For this reason the episcopate is not an Order, in the sense in which an Order is a sacrament. [....]

It appears that this second Objection (disproven by St. Thomas) materialized into a novelty of Vatican II, that the episcopacy is the "fullness" of the priesthood.

In this sense, some have argued that an elevation to the Episcopacy perfects, if you will, any defects of priestly Orders.

Here is a Novus Ordo article that speaks to how this idea of the episcopacy being the 'fullness' of the priesthood was promoted in Vatican II:

Vatican II on the Church: The Bishops

[Emphasis - The Catacombs]

Catholic Culture| Mar 08, 2010 | In On the Documents of Vatican II

In his Angelus message of October 22, 1995, Pope John Paul II called Lumen Gentium “the keystone of the Council’s whole Magisterium”. In many ways its most important chapter was the third, “On the Hierarchical Structure of the Church and in Particular on the Episcopate”, for it was here that the Council intentionally presented its greatest doctrinal development on a single topic. Referring to (and fully endorsing) Vatican I’s work on the papacy, the Council fathers state: “Continuing in that same undertaking, this Council is resolved to declare and proclaim before all men the doctrine concerning bishops, the successors of the apostles, who together with the successor of Peter, the Vicar of Christ, the visible Head of the whole Church, govern the house of the living God” (18).

The core of this “doctrine concerning bishops” is this:

By episcopal consecration the fullness of the sacramental Orders is conferred, that fullness of power, namely, which both in the Church’s liturgical practice and in the language of the Fathers of the Church is called the high priesthood, the supreme power of the sacred ministry. But episcopal consecration, together with the office of sanctifying, also confers the office of teaching and governing, which however, of its very nature can be exercised only in hierarchical communion with the head and the members of the college. For…it is clear that, by means of the imposition of hands and the words of consecration, the grace of the Holy Spirit is so conferred, and the sacred character so impressed, that bishops in an eminent and visible way sustain the roles of Christ Himself as Teacher, Shepherd and High Priest, and that they act in His person. (21)

In other words, bishops have the fullness of orders by which they, like the Pope, have the office of teaching, ruling and sanctifying in the Church. [...]

The chapter concludes with a brief consideration of priests who, “although they do not possess the highest degree of the priesthood [this again appears to contradict St. Thomas who noted there are not 'degrees' of the priesthood in his reply to the second Objection? - The Catacombs], and although they are dependent on the bishops in the exercise of their power, are nevertheless united with the bishops in sacerdotal dignity” (28). [...]

An understanding of the immense dignity of the episcopal office, as fully developed in this section of Lumen Gentium, is not only important in its own right, but it provides a particular insight into the mind of Pope John Paul II, who was both active at Vatican II and firmly convinced of its importance to the Church. [...]

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A brief reminder, one of many spoken by Pope St. Pius X, on the importance of adhering to the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas:

"St. Thomas perfected and augmented still further by the almost angelic quality of his intellect all this superb patrimony of wisdom which he inherited from his predecessors and applied it to prepare, illustrate and protect sacred doctrine in the minds of men (In Librum Boethii de Trinitate, quaest, ii, 3). Sound reason suggests that it would be foolish to neglect it and religion will not suffer it to be in any way attenuated. And rightly, because, if Catholic doctrine is once deprived of this strong bulwark, it is useless to seek the slightest assistance for its defence in a philosophy whose principles are either common to the errors of materialism, monism, pantheism, socialism and modernism, or certainly not opposed to such systems." - Doctoris Angelici 29 June 1914