:tiphat: Hi, All!
I think I was very clear in my response above where I specifically staed " – priest or convict --" My answer simply encompassed more than the example of an escaped convict but rather the underlying question of validity of Confession in terms of the ability to absolve, be he a priest or a layman, becasue the chances of running into an escaped convict in the Confessional is, we should admit, improbable.
So it should be clear that going on pilgrimage and partaking of the Sacrament in good faith leaves you without worry. It is only in the case that the Penitent KNOWS that the Confessor has no powers of Absolution that it is invalidated. If it is unknown to the Penitent, then there is no issue at all.
There are no priest “licenses” per-se. A document called a “celebret” is issued by the Chancery but these are only valid for a very brief time period. They state, with the Bishop’s seal, that Fr. X. is a priest in good standing. Typically, they are valid from the date of departure from one’s diocese to the date of return.
When a man is ordained a priest, he received all the powers of the priethood, highest among them being the powers to confect/confer 6 of the 7 Sacraments (Priests cannot confer Holy Orders of any rank). Oh wait, that’s 7 of the 8 Sacraments if you count Bingo. Sorry, waht was I thinking?
But the Authority to validly and licitly use these powers typically from the priest’s proper bishop. Ordination does not come with an automatic authority to celebrate/confer these Sacraments everywhere and anywhere. In Seminary, there are usually certain moral courses that must be passed before certain faculties are given. We called these our “canonical courses.” Without them, we wouldn’t receive ceratin faculties. A large example comes from the turn of the 20’th century. There was such a lack of priests, that in the USA, bishops were ordaining men very early on in seminary, “Solo ad MIsssam.” (Only for Mass). That’s it; That’s all they could do. They weren’t allowed to teach, preach, confess or anything else . . they didn’t have the preparation yet to be given these other faculties.
Typically, a priest does not have general faculties to confer the Sacrament of Confirmation. (Mind you, pretty much all question of faculties, except regarding Holy Orders, go out the window when someone is in danger of death). To confirm, outside the danger of death, for a priest to confirm an adult who was baptized in a prior ceremony, he usually needs to get specific faculties, for each specific Confirmation Candidate, for a specific date, etc etc., which faculties cannot be transfered. These faculties are needed for validity of the Sacrament. It is not a trandsfer of the power to confer the Sacrament, because that came at his priestly ordination. It is the authority to USE that power which is a “faculty.” In my diocese, we were given “general faculties” to confirm adults who had been previously baptized, without need for permissions and rescripts, but only at the Easter Vigil. (If an adult has not been baptized, then the baptism and coinfirmation must happen in the same ceremony and both sacraments must be confered by the same priest. That does not need specific rescripts for faculties, if a priest was granted the normal faculties by his bishop upon his ordination.).
More clear, or more murky?
– Fr. L.
