Could a non-priest hear confessions?

[DL82]

Because the ability to hear confessions and give sacramental absolution is not automatic to the sacrament of holy orders, but is part of the ‘power of the keys’ given to St Peter and passed on to priests via the bishops, could the Church allow bishops to give the power of the keys to a deacon, a lay person, a woman? Could there ever be an “Extraordinary Minister of Reconciliation”?

 

[FightingFat]

Anyone can hear a confession, only an ordained priest can give absolution- in persona Christi.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Because the ability to hear confessions and give sacramental absolution is not automatic to the sacrament of holy orders, but is part of the ‘power of the keys’ given to St Peter and passed on to priests via the bishops, could the Church allow bishops to give the power of the keys to a deacon, a lay person, a woman? Could there ever be an “Extraordinary Minister of Reconciliation”?

The Power to hear Confessions and give Absolution is part of the priesthood received in Holy Orders. A Bishop give a priest permission of jurisdiction to celebrate that Sacrament in his diocese, He does not give him the power to celebrate the Sacrament. Canon Law gives ANY validly Ordained priest the ability to hear a Confession and give Absolution anywhere, under certain circumstances.

 

[teachccd]

Because the ability to hear confessions and give sacramental absolution is not automatic to the sacrament of holy orders, but is part of the ‘power of the keys’ given to St Peter and passed on to priests via the bishops, could the Church allow bishops to give the power of the keys to a deacon, a lay person, a woman? Could there ever be an “Extraordinary Minister of Reconciliation”?

You are correct in that a deacon receives the Sacrament of Holy Orders yet he cannot absolve sin. Each sacrament involves both form and matter. This is inherent as understood by the Church from Christ Himself. In the case of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the priest is the vicar of Christ and is the matter that is necessary for the sacrament and the prayer of absolution is the form. For this same reason a woman could never become a priest. This “passing on” or commissioning was given by our Lord to His Church and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit must be maintained since it is not of our origin but of God’s…teachccd

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

The requirement for priests to somehow receive faculties in order to validly absolve penitents derives from a theory of orders that sees the episcopacy as the fullness of orders and the lower grades of sacramental orders (priesthood and diaconate) as somehow dependent upon some bishop’s full priesthood. The power of absolution is tied to holy orders (one can’t absolve without having received holy orders) but that power is also contained to different degrees in different grades of orders. Deacons simply can’t do it, they have received the same sacrament but not to a degree that would enable such use of the keys. Priests, on the other hand, are capable of absolving but they remain essentially the co-workers of a bishop who extend his (full) ministry, thus though by their orders they have the potential to absolve this can only be actuated when they are acting in the place (by being delegated) of some bishop, sometimes the bishop of Rome. Bishops, on the other hand, having the fullness of the priesthood, act of their own power, so to speak (though more accurately the power of Christ most fully bestowed upon them) and do not need to share in anyone else’s ministry in order to wield this authority.