So lets say you were baptized and later found out

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dddave

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So lets say you were baptized and later found out the priest who did the baptism was locked up for molesting kids… How exactly did the power of Christ flow through this person?
 
The power of Christ flows through him as a product of his ordination to the priesthood. His sinning doesn’t invalidate his ordination or any of the sacraments that he administered.
 
dddave said:
So lets say you were baptized and later found out the priest who did the baptism was locked up for molesting kids… How exactly did the power of Christ flow through this person?
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The sinfulness of the minister does not affect the power of the Sacraments. If the Sacrament is performed with the correct form and with the intent of the Church, it is valid.

This question was settled in the 4th Century in response to the Donatist heresy, which held that the grace of the sacraments depended upon the worthiness of the minister. The Church states that the sacraments are effected “*ex opere operato” *by Christ independently of the worthiness of the minister.
 
dddave said:
how convenient
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Excuse me? Can you please clarify your comment. What are you trying to say?

Catholic teaching is that Christ is the effector of His Sacraments. Thus, if the minister has the intent to confect the Sacrament as Christ intended it, and uses the proper form, the Sacrament is valid. It has nothing to do with convenience.
 
dddave said:
So lets say you were baptized and later found out the priest who did the baptism was locked up for molesting kids… How exactly did the power of Christ flow through this person?
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By this logic, no sacrament could ever be valid.

Where would you find a sinless priest?

Clearly, if a priest conducts a sacrament while in mortal sin, he commits further mortal sins. But, as long as he has the correct intent and form, the sacrament is valid.

God Bless
 
mercygate said:
The sinfulness of the minister does not affect the power of the Sacraments. If the Sacrament is performed with the correct form and with the intent of the Church, it is valid.
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Yep, you are correct on this. If the rite is performed correctly it is valid no matter what happens in the future. This also applies to all other Sacraments and not just baptism.
 
Hello. 🙂

Something similar happened to me. No, the priest who baptized me did not molest children…but he did leave the Church a few years later to marry a woman who was at that time, married.

I asked my parents at the time I found out about it, if that meant I was no longer baptized. My parents told me that he was a priest at that time of my baptism so my baptism was valid.
 
I think dddave has bugged out. His posts were only 5, and each of them rather naive. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but he just seems to “know” what he “knows” and wasn’t really looking for an answer.
 
Baptism can be administered by anyone who wills what the Church wills. The person who baptizes does not even have to be a Christian - an emergency baptism can be done by an athiest.
 
dddave said:
how convenient
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Would it make any difference if he had gotten drunk the night before?

Or told a lie when a parishioner asked him if a dress made her look fat?

Or he got into a verbal tussle with his mother on the phone the night before and said something very disrespectful to her?

What if he had been very envious of a parishioner who had a nice car while he is stuck with some jalopy?

We all sin and fall short of the glory of God.
 
Sacraments have an innate value of their own - coming from God Himself, they’d have to, He knows better than to arrange things otherwise. The priest is just the conduit.

It’s just like a diamond has the same inherent value whether it’s sold to you by an honest jeweller or a thief.
 
dddave said:
So lets say you were baptized and later found out the priest who did the baptism was locked up for molesting kids… How exactly did the power of Christ flow through this person?
Click to expand...
What you’re advocating here is called the Donatist Heresy. It dates back to the 3rd Century AD, and is the proposition that the validity of a sacrement is contigent on the state of grace of the celebrant.

The Church rejects that and properly calls it heresy – if it were true, it would make every one of us liable for** someone else’s** sins. You could never be sure you’d been properly baptized, married, absolved of your sins, or even been to Mass, since you could never be sure your priest was in a state of grace. That’s obviously both wrong and unjust.

A properly ordained priest can validly perform any sacrement, regardless of his sins or lack thereof.
 
dddave said:
how convenient
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Sarcasm gets one no where.

Logically, the baptism and the graces etc go to the child, the child has no knowledge of the priests misdeeds and what ever else and neither did the parents, him having being ordained a priest has the right to administer baptism, for God to withold the graces without others knowing just because a priest has sinned is illogical.

Priests sin in other ways too, it doesn’t have to be child molestation.

You could ask ‘how can the grace of christ through a sinful person’

or even ask ‘why ask someone to pray for you, they are sinful people, the graces don’t flow through them’

and etc.

:rolleyes:
 
🙂 even a pagan can baptise a person who wants to be baptised if no there is no other option.such as in a near death situation.
 
dddave said:
So lets say you were baptized and later found out the priest who did the baptism was locked up for molesting kids… How exactly did the power of Christ flow through this person?
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The same way that it flowed through Paul who murdered the first Christians. The same way that it flowed through Moses who murdered and David who murdered…

God utilizes sinners as instuments of His grace. You mentioned, " how convenient" in another post. Do you have a better plan than God??
 
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