Conditional Sacraments

[Digitonomy]

For which of the seven sacraments may the sacrament be administered conditionally?

Br. Rich SFO recently suggested that only those sacraments “required for salvation” could be given conditionally. This didn’t make much sense to me, but I admit I really hadn’t thought about it before.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Digitonomy:

For which of the seven sacraments may the sacrament be administered conditionally?

Br. Rich SFO recently suggested that only those sacraments “required for salvation” could be given conditionally. This didn’t make much sense to me, but I admit I really hadn’t thought about it before.

My opinion is:

Baptism can be conditionally received because of the necessity of the Sacrament for Salvation or access to the other Sacraments. There is a conditional Form for Baptism.

Holy Communion is repeatable.

Anointing of the Sick is repeatable.

Reconciliation is repeatable.

Marriage if proved invalid is celebrated again. Never conditionally.

Confirmation would “revive” if received with an impediment to the grace or would only be celebrated again if absolutely proved invalid. There is no conditional Form for Confirmation that I can find.

Ordination could be if there is some doubt as to it’s validity. (extremely rare because so much care is taken)

Conditional Baptism never takes place in public and also conditional Ordination would never take place in public.

 

[Digitonomy]

Excellent. Many thanks.

Now for the nitpicking…

1. Do the Eastern Churches use the same approach to conditional sacraments (mostly regarding baptism)?
2. Are there any restrictions as to the frequency of Annointing of the Sick? My thought is if it could be administered say, only once a day… suppose the priest is on the way out after annointing my father, when I find out he’s actually part of the Polish National Catholic Church. Dubious of the validity of his orders, I call up my parish priest for a “real” annointing. But since the PNCC priest might have validly annointed my father already, my priest could do so conditionally.
3. Similar question for matrimony. As I understand it in the Latin Church, the presence of an ordained cleric is only required for licity, not validity. But suppose this is a Byzantine wedding, and afterward the validity of the cleric’s ordination is called into question. There is reason for serious doubt, but the “priest” has disappeared. Due to political unrest, natural disaster, take your pick, validity of the ordination can’t be ascertained one way or the other. Could the marriage be repeated conditionally? Or would oikonomia apply, and the original marriage presumed valid?

Sorry for my far-fetched situations, but I often find it’s a good way to shed light on the misunderstandings I may have.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Excellent. Many thanks.

Now for the nitpicking…

1. Do the Eastern Churches use the same approach to conditional sacraments (mostly regarding baptism)?
2. Are there any restrictions as to the frequency of Annointing of the Sick? My thought is if it could be administered say, only once a day… suppose the priest is on the way out after annointing my father, when I find out he’s actually part of the Polish National Catholic Church. Dubious of the validity of his orders, I call up my parish priest for a “real” annointing. But since the PNCC priest might have validly annointed my father already, my priest could do so conditionally.
3. Similar question for matrimony. As I understand it in the Latin Church, the presence of an ordained cleric is only required for licity, not validity. But suppose this is a Byzantine wedding, and afterward the validity of the cleric’s ordination is called into question. There is reason for serious doubt, but the “priest” has disappeared. Due to political unrest, natural disaster, take your pick, validity of the ordination can’t be ascertained one way or the other. Could the marriage be repeated conditionally? Or would oikonomia apply, and the original marriage presumed valid?

Sorry for my far-fetched situations, but I often find it’s a good way to shed light on the misunderstandings I may have.

These are interesting discussions, they are however not your common everyday discussions.

1. I don’t know about the East and Conditional Baptism.
2. No, he could be anointed again that day if you had serious doubts about the first Anointing. I believe that most pastors would say I’ll come by sometime next week to Anoint him, unless there is the possibility he might die tonight.

3, I would guess that a Bishop would need to decide and more than likely the original marriage presumed valid. Possibly with a renewal of the exchange of vows in private with a miminster and witnesses only.

 

[Ghosty]

1. Do the Eastern Churches use the same approach to conditional sacraments (mostly regarding baptism)?

I don’t believe so. My understanding is that the Eastern Orthodox have an “all or nothing” approach to it, though they’ll may extend leniency in certain cases with approval.

The Oriental Orthodox are far more nuanced. For example, the Coptic Orthodox do not practice conditional Baptism to my knowledge, but they do recognize Catholic Baptisms as valid. Where it gets confusing is that they do “re-Baptize” those who come into the Coptic Church if those people were not Baptized by triple immersion. If you were Baptized by triple immersion, you would be accepted as a Copt without the ritual of triple immersion. Thing is, they don’t view this as a new Baptism per se, but rather as the “filling in the proper form” for Coptic Baptism. The Grace is present regardless, but Copts put a strong emphasis on the symbolism and ritual of triple immersion Baptism, and to be a Copt is to be thrice-immersed. It’s a rather unique perspective and practice, but the closest I can think of for comparison in Latin practice would be having a valid but illicit marriage “blessed” by the Church. It’s not a precise comparison, but I think it suffices to convey the principle, and to indicate that it’s not a matter of the invalidity of the Sacrament.

The other Oriental Orthodox may have their own practices on the matter.

Peace and God bless!