Dumb Priest

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Brain

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This just occured to me. What does a priest do if he is struck dumb for some reason? ALL the sacraments are contingent on the pronouncemnt of words. I mean, for example what did the previous holy father do in his last few days, he couldnt fufill any of his priestly functions could he?
But we can pray silently, if he were to say inaudibly or pray the form to himself would it still be valid? put hand on a penitent’s head and cross, stand silent for a moment and elevate the host?
 
I don’t think that during a mass, it is a natural occurence to be immediately struck dumb. But recently one of our priests became ill, like our pope and could not vocalize audibly, so he opted to concelebrate mass with another priest. It works for us here!
 
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Brain:
This just occured to me. What does a priest do if he is struck dumb for some reason? ALL the sacraments are contingent on the pronouncemnt of words.
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I think that the Eucharist, Holy Orders, Confession, and Baptism all have words as an absolute requirement for validity (for liceity all of the sacraments require words of course). I’m not sure whether words are absolutely required for validity for Confirmation and Annointing of the Sick. For Matrimony, I don’t think words are absolutely required for validity. Matrimony is ministered by the bride and groom and does not require a priest/deacon in some extraordinary situations and I think that if the bride and groom were unable to speak that it would be sufficient for them to express consent some other way (by writing or something like that).
But we can pray silently, if he were to say inaudibly or pray the form to himself would it still be valid? put hand on a penitent’s head and cross, stand silent for a moment and elevate the host?
Click to expand...
If he can whisper I think it would still be valid. If he can’t speak at all then I don’t think those particular sacraments (Eucharist and Confession) would be valid.
 
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