Can a Priest living in sin celebrate Mass

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Reading from the Catechism
When a sacrament is celebrated according to the norms of the Church and in faith, we believe that it confers the grace it signifies. While a human being is the minister of the sacrament, Christ Himself is the one who is at work: He baptizes, He confirms, He absolves, He changes the bread and wine into His Body and Blood, He unites a couple in marriage, He ordains, and He anoints. Acting in His sacraments, Christ communicates the grace– that sharing in the divine life and love of God– offered through each sacrament. (Confer the Catechism , #1127-28.)

Question:
If a Priest who is deliberately living in sins without others knowing, ministering a mass, and pray to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Are the bread and wine truly bless?

If No, how should we deal with this as parishioners

If yes, Doesn’t that violate the below scriptures.

John 9:31
We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but he is ready to hear those who worship him and do his will.

Ephesians 5:7
Don’t participate in the things these people do.

Matthew 5:24
leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
 
Russel said:
If a Priest who is deliberately living in sins without others knowing, ministering a mass, and pray to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Are the bread and wine truly bless?
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The state of the priest’s soul does not impact the efficacy nor the validity of the Sacraments, which would include the Eucharist. The reason for this being that all Sacraments come from God. The priest is His medium. No matter how dark the sins of the priest are, they cannot overcome nor prevent God’s graces from taking their course. The belief that a priest in mortal sin cannot administer the Sacraments is a heresy that the Church condemned centuries ago.
 
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Russel said:
Question:
If a Priest who is deliberately living in sins without others knowing, ministering a mass, and pray to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Are the bread and wine truly bless?
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You answered your own question:
Russel said:
While a human being is the minister of the sacrament, Christ Himself is the one who is at work: He baptizes, He confirms, He absolves, He changes the bread and wine into His Body and Blood, He unites a couple in marriage, He ordains, and He anoints
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I think the only thing a priest wouldn’t be able to do if he was in mortal sin is exorcise a demon because he needs God’s Grace for that.
 
I kind of think a lot of liturgies would be canceled if a priest couldn’t. I mean, they aren’t perfect and need the sacrament of reconciliation too.
 
Russel said:
If a Priest who is deliberately living in sins without others knowing, ministering a mass, and pray to change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Are the bread and wine truly bless?
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Truly blessed? Yes. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, emphasis mine:
1127 Celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify.48 They are efficacious because in them Christ himself is at work: it is he who baptizes, he who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament signifies. The Father always hears the prayer of his Son’s Church which, in the epiclesis of each sacrament, expresses her faith in the power of the Spirit. As fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to his power.

1128 This is the meaning of the Church’s affirmation49 that the sacraments act ex opere operato (literally: “by the very fact of the action’s being performed”), i.e., by virtue of the saving work of Christ, accomplished once for all. It follows that "the sacrament is not wrought by the righteousness of either the celebrant or the recipient, but by the power of God."50 From the moment that a sacrament is celebrated in accordance with the intention of the Church, the power of Christ and his Spirit acts in and through it, independently of the personal holiness of the minister. Nevertheless, the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them.
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I’ve had children baptized and been to many Masses of some pretty bad dudes. While I am attempting to open an investigation into the baptism of my son I generally can see how most sacraments are not affected by the priest.
 
The Sacraments still work even though the priest is in mortal sin.

Remember Caiaphas in John 11:51. He prophesied the salvation that Christ would bring even though he was about to kill him. God still works through his ministers even when they are mortally sinful.
 
Yes, he can.

There was a big controversy about this in the early Church, and the Church ruled that the sacraments confected by a sinful priest are indeed valid.
 
If you don’t mind my asking, why? Was it not done with the proper formula?
 
St Augustine fought the Donasists over this issue and others. It was a very big issue. Throughout the Roman Empire there were people who had publicly apostatized under the threat of the persecutions, both clergy and lay people. These people were called traditors, and the Donasists insisted not only that they could perform sacraments, but that there was no sacrament of penance that could forgive apostasy (that whole “sins against the Holy Spirit” thing). So any sacraments they performed were not valid. It became quite violent.
 
The Priest could be a secret serial killer and it would not effect the validity of the Sacraments.
 
Russel said:
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The state of grace of the priest is irrelevant to validity of the sacraments.

Catechism
1548 In the ecclesial service of the ordained minister, it is Christ himself who is present to his Church as Head of his Body, Shepherd of his flock, high priest of the redemptive sacrifice, Teacher of Truth. This is what the Church means by saying that the priest, by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, acts in persona Christi Capitis …
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The sacraments are gifts, not something earned or owed. As gifts, they don’t rely on anyone’s personal merit (except Christ’s, of course).
 
Formula was correct but there is enough of a question of intent that it needs to be investigated.
 
Ok, if I had serious doubts about one of my kids, I would look into a conditional baptism.

I never quite understand the requirement of a priest’s intent. I know the statement normally made: intent to do as the Church does. But that still seems ambiguous. So I am not wanting to be nosy, but why do you question his intent? Just wanting a possible example of how intent would not be present.
 
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Hoosier-Daddy said:
While I am attempting to open an investigation into the baptism of my son
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I’m quite intrigued by this as something similar happened at an Anglican church near me. It came out that the priest, who was a married man, was committing adultery with his assistant curate, who was a married woman. There were also rumours of violence towards his wife. At least one family wanted to have their child re-baptised because of it. Of course, the baptism was valid and the re-baptism never took place, but there was a lot of damage done. I was myself baptised and confirmed by an Anglican bishop who was greatly loved in the diocese, but it later came out that he had been involved in covering up child sexual abuse committed by one of his priests, and he showed no care towards the victim, who by this time was homeless. I know that my baptism is valid, but it’s disappointing to learn that the minister who conferred the sacrament was such an awful person.
 
We all live in sin. If receiving the sacraments depended on the state of the minister’s soul we would all be deprived of the sacraments most of the time. The validity of the sacraments does not depend on the state of a priest’s soul. Receiving God’s grace is not prevented by the state of a priest’s soul.
 
I am in heated discussion with a Christian from another denomination over this.
Are the any Bible verses you can provide that could support the Church stands on this.
 
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