Bolding mine. Looks like it’s up to the bishop to permit blessings of sacramentals by lay people. So the nun very likely had the bishop’s permission.
But - being stubborn - I still think the unblessed rosaries, chaplets, and holy cards that I use in my prayers are sacramentals. They are not used for anything other than prayer & meditaion.
A sacramental is not just an object. The sign of the cross is a sacramental. So is an exorcism.
From Fr Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary:
Objects
or actions that the Church uses after the manner of sacraments, in order to achieve through the merits of the faithful certain effects, mainly of a spiritual nature. They differ from sacraments in not having been instituted by Christ to produce their effect in virtue of the ritual performed. Their efficacy depends not on the rite itself, as in the sacraments, but on the influence of prayerful petition; that of the person who uses them and of the Church in approving their practice. The variety of sacramentals spans the whole range of times and places, words and actions, objects and gestures that, on the Church’s authority, draw not only on the personal dispositions of the individual but on the merits and prayers of the whole Mystical Body of Christ.
The Catholic Encyclopedia has the following categories:
The number of the sacramentals may not be limited; nevertheless, the attempt has been made to determine their general principles or rather applications in the verse: “Orans, tinctus, edens, confessus, dans, benedicens”.
- Orans indicates public prayer, whether liturgical or private;
- tinctus, the use of holy water and the unctions in use at various consecrations;
- edens, the eating of blessed foods;
- confessus, the general avowal of faults which is made in the Confiteor recited at Mass, at Communion, in the Divine Office;
- dans, alms;
- benedicens, papal and episcopal blessings etc., blessings of candles, ashes, palms etc.
Another distinction classifies sacramentals according to whether they are acts, e.g. the Confiteor mentioned above, or things, such as medals, holy water etc. The sacramentals do not produce sanctifying grace ex opere operato, by virtue of the rite or substance employed, and this constitutes their essential difference from the sacraments.
The Bishop has delegated the right to bless the Miraculous Medals to the nuns at Rue du Bac, because of the affluence of visitors and pilgrims.
I am not trying to second guess the local ordinary’s judgment…but that is an odd move. If not for his delegation, the effect of a blessing by a nun would be no different than the effect of a blessing by any of us.
a priest.