The Baltimore Catechism No. 3 states:
Q. 612: Can the Sacraments be given conditionally?
A. The Sacraments can be given conditionally as often as we doubt whether they were properly given before, or whether they can be validly given now.
Q. 613: What do we mean by giving a Sacrament conditionally?
A. By giving a Sacrament conditionally we mean that the person administering the Sacrament intends to give it only in case it has not been given already or in case the person has the right dispositions for receiving it, though the dispositions cannot be discovered. [emphasis added.]
Q. 614: Give an example of how a Sacrament is given conditionally.
A. In giving Baptism, for instance, conditionally-or what we call conditional Baptism-the priest, instead of saying absolutely, as he does in ordinary Baptism: "I baptize thee," &c., says: "If you are not already baptized, or if you are capable of being baptized, I baptize thee." &c., thus stating the sole condition on which he intends to administer the Sacrament.
Q. 617: What is the use and effect of giving the Sacraments conditionally?
A. The use of giving the Sacraments conditionally is that there may be no irreverence to the Sacraments in giving them to persons incapable or unworthy of receiving them; and yet that no one who is capable or worthy may be deprived of them. The effect is to supply the Sacrament where it is needed or can be given, and to withhold it where it is not needed or cannot be given.
I have a CCC but I could not find whether it superseded any of these points.
My question: what’s to stop priests from using Conditional Salvation to knowingly or unknowingly enforce a mistaken agenda, if they may set conditions at their discretion?
What if their bishop had thought it surely is God’s will to send laborers into the vineyard, and so they didn’t save the potential candidate unless they resolved to be a priest?
What if, hypothetically speaking of course, a bishop had caved a bit to the needs of his people and mistakenly decided some of their vain ambitions were morally imperative for the candidates he ordained to the priesthood?
Is conditional salvation thought to be passed on in the case of Holy Orders? Suppose there was some priest somewhere who read The Communist Manifesto and thought Marxism is surely what the Lord intended, and he became a bishop, and felt sure in his conscience that the Lord only wanted to ordain Marxists? Would all the priests he ordained not be able to administer the Sacraments unless they tried to convert people to Marxism? Would the priests they ordained be also unable?
I have also heard it suggested, but I can’t remember where, that the fact that a priest can apply conditional salvation without discovery implies they are not actually making Christ present but are “putting on Christ” as the Protestants say they do when they read scripture and get saved. Can it be the cost of not having to be one’s own priest and live a little closer to God is being subject to the choices of a fallible person?
Q. 612: Can the Sacraments be given conditionally?
A. The Sacraments can be given conditionally as often as we doubt whether they were properly given before, or whether they can be validly given now.
Q. 613: What do we mean by giving a Sacrament conditionally?
A. By giving a Sacrament conditionally we mean that the person administering the Sacrament intends to give it only in case it has not been given already or in case the person has the right dispositions for receiving it, though the dispositions cannot be discovered. [emphasis added.]
Q. 614: Give an example of how a Sacrament is given conditionally.
A. In giving Baptism, for instance, conditionally-or what we call conditional Baptism-the priest, instead of saying absolutely, as he does in ordinary Baptism: "I baptize thee," &c., says: "If you are not already baptized, or if you are capable of being baptized, I baptize thee." &c., thus stating the sole condition on which he intends to administer the Sacrament.
Q. 617: What is the use and effect of giving the Sacraments conditionally?
A. The use of giving the Sacraments conditionally is that there may be no irreverence to the Sacraments in giving them to persons incapable or unworthy of receiving them; and yet that no one who is capable or worthy may be deprived of them. The effect is to supply the Sacrament where it is needed or can be given, and to withhold it where it is not needed or cannot be given.
I have a CCC but I could not find whether it superseded any of these points.
My question: what’s to stop priests from using Conditional Salvation to knowingly or unknowingly enforce a mistaken agenda, if they may set conditions at their discretion?
What if their bishop had thought it surely is God’s will to send laborers into the vineyard, and so they didn’t save the potential candidate unless they resolved to be a priest?
What if, hypothetically speaking of course, a bishop had caved a bit to the needs of his people and mistakenly decided some of their vain ambitions were morally imperative for the candidates he ordained to the priesthood?
Is conditional salvation thought to be passed on in the case of Holy Orders? Suppose there was some priest somewhere who read The Communist Manifesto and thought Marxism is surely what the Lord intended, and he became a bishop, and felt sure in his conscience that the Lord only wanted to ordain Marxists? Would all the priests he ordained not be able to administer the Sacraments unless they tried to convert people to Marxism? Would the priests they ordained be also unable?
I have also heard it suggested, but I can’t remember where, that the fact that a priest can apply conditional salvation without discovery implies they are not actually making Christ present but are “putting on Christ” as the Protestants say they do when they read scripture and get saved. Can it be the cost of not having to be one’s own priest and live a little closer to God is being subject to the choices of a fallible person?
