Are Protestant Sacramentals valid?

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I apologize if this is in the wrong sub-section. I wasn’t sure if it was “other religions” or “sacraments”.

I’m looking to invite some of my Roman Catholic friends to an Anglo-Catholic Tridentine Mass for Ash Wednesday. I know they aren’t able to receive Communion, but what about the ashes?

Then it got me thinking to other sacramentals (rosaries, palms, scapulars, etc.) and I wasn’t sure if they’d be seen as valid in the eyes of Roman Catholics if they were consecrated by Protestant priests/ministers.
 
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Validity doesn’t really apply to sacramentals. They are not direct means of grace, but rather things that help us be open to it. So no worries about that.

Edit for elaboration:
A properly performed baptism actually cleanses a person of sin. In the Eucharist, one actually receives Jesus Christ. But what is said with the imposition of ashes? “Remember that you are but dust, and to dust you shall return.” You are not becoming dusty; you’re already dust. Its function is to remind us of what we are and help us open ourselves to a proper relationship between creature and Creator, not to actually make us dust.

Edit for more elaboration:
I pray an Anglican rosary. It is “valid” because prayer is valid. Rosaries do not improve the soul; praying does, and rosaries help pray.
 
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Well, sacramentals are typically blessed, aren’t they? There are certain blessings which the laity (which Catholics say that protestant ministers are) can say efficaciously (blessing food, children, etc.), but there are others which the laity (which, again, we say that protestant ministers are) cannot say.

Prayers (and the objects we use to recite them) are one thing- blessings (which I would have to assume Anglican clergy would perform over the palms/ashes, correct?) are another. Blessings of this kind require priestly ordination, and we only broadly recognize our own and those of the Orthodox as valid. There would be another discussion to be had if the particular minister in question were once a Catholic (or Orthodox) priest, but it isn’t worth going into that technicality unless the minister in question has valid (Catholic or Orthodox) holy orders.
 
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And yet, even given all that and accepting that the blessing of a validly ordained priest confers a special holiness to something, it can still perfectly well serve its purpose without it. Unblessed ashes can still remind us that we are dust. Do you not ask for a blessing for your food, even if there’s no priest there to bless it for you? Are prayers not heard unless one is holding a blessed rosary?

Edited to add: there may be plenty of things of which I’m unaware that do require a priestly blessing. However, the sacramentals in question can still serve their purpose, blessing or no.
 
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The bigger question in my mind is, why are you inviting them?

Roman Catholics are going to have their own services all over the planet for Ash Wednesday. Are you in some area where there are no Roman Catholic churches, or where the Anglo-Catholic church is the only one offering Tridentine Mass?
Or do you just think it’s a cool Mass for them to attend? With nice music or whatever?

And isn’t it the Roman Catholic friends’ issue to figure out if they can receive ashes or whatever? I personally don’t see a problem with them receiving ashes; it may be questionable whether such ashes are validly blessed, but unblessed ashes could be received in some symbolic way the same way as I could conceivably get some ashes from a Protestant minister handing them out on the train platform.
And yes, Protestant ministers do that around here because apparently a lot of people want to get ashes on Ash Wednesday who aren’t necessarily Catholics or churchgoers. I have no idea why but this is what I read in the papers and even hear from priests.
 
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HopkinsReb said:
And yet, even given all that and accepting that the blessing of a validly ordained priest confers a special holiness to something, it can still perfectly well serve its purpose without it. Unblessed ashes can still remind us that we are dust. Do you not ask for a blessing for your food, even if there’s no priest there to bless it for you? Are prayers not heard unless one is holding a blessed rosary?
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Sure, but this isn’t what the OP is asking. They want to know if we see these as “valid sacramentals”, and that’s what I sought to answer- not whether any symbolism is lost because the blessings aren’t valid.
 
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If the priest isn’t one that Roman Catholics would recognize as a priest, then he doesn’t have any power to bless stuff, so no, the sacramentals aren’t validly blessed - in other words they are lacking the blessing that is actually a second sacramental.

Edited to add, the rosary itself is still a sacramental though (the blessing would be a separate sacramental according to the catechism) and the priest has nothing to do with that so any object you used devotionally could be a sacramental, even if you obtained it from the Anglo-Catholic church.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
If the priest isn’t one that Roman Catholics would recognize as a priest, then he doesn’t have any power to bless stuff, so no, the sacramentals aren’t valid.
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Yes, that’s what I’m trying to get across.
 
Alrighty, a check of myself to see if I understand y’all correctly. Tell me what you think of my first post, edited with changes in italics:

Validity doesn’t really apply to sacramentals in the same way as it does to sacraments. They are not direct means of grace, but rather things that help us be open to it. So while Catholics would not recognize them as being validly blessed, they are not illicit as receiving Communion would be.

A properly performed baptism actually cleanses a person of sin. In the Eucharist, one actually receives Jesus Christ. But what is said with the imposition of ashes? “Remember that you are but dust, and to dust you shall return.” You are not becoming dusty; you’re already dust. Its primary function is to remind us of what we are and help us open ourselves to a proper relationship between creature and Creator, not to actually make us dust. As such, even if the blessing is invalid, the ceremony has value.

I pray an Anglican rosary. It is “valid” because prayer is valid. Rosaries do not improve the soul; praying does, and rosaries help pray.
 
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HopkinsReb, I edited my post because it was not clear.

When a rosary gets blessed, according to the Catholic catechism, there are two sacramentals here:
  1. Rosary itself is a sacramental
  2. The blessing is a second sacramental
If I get a rosary from any source, or any other prayer item from any source, regardless of whether it’s a Catholic source, and I use it to say Catholic prayers, I have Sacramental category (1) above.

But I can only get Sacramental category (2), the blessing on the object, from the priest having a valid apostolic succession, which generally means Catholic or Orthodox priest. A few Anglican priests might qualify as Motley and Picky have discussed, but not all of them across the board.

Here’s the Catechism section on the types of sacramentals, for reference

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c4a1.htm
 
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Well, technically, this isn’t a Holy Day of Obligation. There’s no obligation to go to Mass. My church has three Masses and one service that day. I’m supposing the service is going to be presided over by the deacon as it was two years ago when I went. So not an obligation but a really good idea.
 
Thanks for all the (name removed by moderator)ut so far! This is making things a bit clearer, it sounds like they are invalid sacramentals, but licit ones.

Just to clarify: I’m inviting them to the Mass because it’s a Tridentine one, which they don’t have access to at their local churches in the suburbs. Also this church I attend is absolutely gorgeous with great music, and they booked a full blown 30 member choir for the evening. It’s going to be quite special and really set the stage for our Lenten season.

I figured, might as well invite them to it, but didn’t want cause angst with them if they had to accept blessings twice (once for ashes once for communion) while in line.
 
Episcopalian said:
I figured, might as well invite them to it, but didn’t want cause angst with them if they had to accept blessings twice (once for ashes once for communion) while in line.
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I may be wrong, but I don’t think they’re supposed to even go up for a blessing during Communion.
 
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