Transignification?

[jmj1984]

Thank you Father. It may also be useful to remind people that the priest, when celebrating the sacraments, never acts on his own accord. The priest acts both “in the person of Christ” and as a representative of the bishop, and where the bishop is, there is the Catholic Church (to paraphrase St. Ignatius of Antioch). It is Christ and the Church, acting through the priest, who says “This is my body” and “This is my blood”, so the intention of Christ and His Church supplies whatever is lacking in the intention of the individual priest. The Church, as an extension of the Incarnation, and thus Her ordained ministers, act for, in, and with Christ. The sacraments are thus not dependent upon the faith, holiness, or understanding of the individual minister.

That being said, I’ve always struggled with the Church’s general acceptance of evangelical Protestant baptisms. As a former Evangelical myself, I can assure you that we did not, in any conscious sense, intend to baptize as the Church baptizes…in fact, most evangelicals explicitly reject the sacramental character of baptism. For Evangelicals, baptism is a mere external symbol of an internal reality that has already taken place…it affects nothing in the ontological sense. I can understand how the intention of the Church suffices for the deficiencies of an ordained minister in communion with a Catholic bishop and the Pope of Rome, but how does this work for those who have removed themselves from the Church? When I was baptized in an Evangelical Mennonite church years ago, if someone had asked me or the minister “do you intend to baptize as the Catholic Church does?” we would have both said “no…this baptism is completely distinct from the Catholic Church’s baptism, which is heresy…” …in fact any Evangelical church I know would rebaptize Catholics simply because Catholic baptism is seen as a completely separate animal…
(For the record I was conditionally baptized prior to my confirmation…)

Its interesting to note that up until the mid 20th century the church generally asked for conditional baptisms for many non-catholic sects.

 

[FrDavid96]

Let’s try this. This just MIGHT help.

Here is a prayer that has been printed in the Roman Missal for a very long time (though I don’t know how long exactly, probably centuries). It’s also printed in the current Sacramentary on page 1009 in English only. I don’t know about the new Roman Missal which will take effect for the US in November.

Formula Intensionis Ante Missam (Statement of Intention)

Composed by Pope Gregory XIII (1572 - 1585). From the Roman Missal.

Ego volo celebrare Missam, et conficere Corpus et Sanguinem Domini nostri Iesu Christi, iuxta ritum sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae, ad laudem omnipotentis Dei totiusque Curiae triumphantis, ad utlitatem meam totiusque Curiae militantis, pro omnibus, qui se commendaverunt orationibus meis in genere et in specie, et pro felici statu sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae.

Gaudium cum pace, ememdationem vitae, spatium verae paenitentiae, gratiam et consolationem Sancti Spiritus, perseverantiam in bonis operibus, tribuat nobis omnipotens et misericors Dominus. Amen.

My purpose is to celebrate Mass and to make present the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the rite of the holy Roman Church to the praise of our all-powerful God and all His assembly in the glory of heaven, for my good and the good of all His pilgrim Church on earth, and for all who have asked me to pray for them in general and in particular, and for the good of the holy Roman Church.

May the almighty and merciful Lord grant us joy and peace, amendment of life, room for true repentance, the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit and perseverance in good works. Amen.
I copied it from this webpage (to save myself a lot of typing)
stjosephrichmond.org/prayers.html#Formula Intensionis Ante Missam

A priest who says this prayer before Mass, and does so sincerely, would be celebrating a valid Mass. He would have sufficient intention to validly celebrate and to validly consecrate.

What I would caution people is NOT to imagine other words substituted in that prayer. Take it exactly as written.

The temptation here is to imagine taking out the words “make present the Body and Blood…” and replace those words with “transubstantiation” or something similar. Don’t do that. Take the prayer exactly as-is.

Now, imagine a priest who does not personally believe in Transubstantiation (that is, after all the original question). Even though the priest does not believe in it, so long as he sincerely intends “to celebrate Mass and to make present the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the rite of the holy Roman Church” that intention is enough to satisfy the requirement of the Church’s Sacramental theology that a priest must have “proper intent” to consecrate the Eucharist.