SACRAMENTALS. – These are things or actions which the Church, in some way imitating the Sacraments, uses to attain, by virtue of her intercession, effects that are chiefly spiritual (CIC, can. 1144). The term, as a noun, is not found in theological usage before the twelfth century. Until then, what is now designated as s. was indicated by the term sacrament, used to signify any sensible rite that had a relation to spiritual and supernatural realities. In the twelfth century the Scholastics began to distinguish between Sacramenta salutis (Hugh of Saint Victor), or necessitatis (Alger of Liège), or maiora (Abelard)—that is, those now called Sacraments in the strict sense—and the sacramenta ministratoria, veneratoria, preparatoria; sacramenta minora, sacramenta dignitatis—that is, the simple religious ceremonies and practices performed both during and outside the administration of the Sacraments.
I. NATURE OF THE SACRAMENTALS
Like the Sacraments, the sacramentals consist in something perceptible, are endowed with an efficacy superior to that of the good works of private individuals, and finally obtain spiritual effects. Unlike the Sacraments, however, they do not seem to require that the perceptible rite signify the effect toward which it is ordered; in this respect, therefore, there is nothing to prevent the invocation of the name of Jesus and works of mercy from being included among the sacramentals. Moreover, the efficacy of the Sacraments is ex opere operato, deriving from the merits of Jesus Christ, whereas the sacramentals obtain their effects through the impetratory efficacy of the Church. The Sacraments also produce sanctifying Grace, whereas the sacramentals do not; finally, the former are of divine institution, while the latter are of ecclesiastical institution.The definition in the CIC also makes clear the relationship that the sacramentals have with ceremonies in general. By these are understood all actions relating to public worship. Thus, acts of private worship are excluded from the number of ceremonies, and in them the value of the homage rendered to God is emphasized, irrespective of their practical efficacy with regard to spiritual effects. The sacramentals, on the other hand, are things or actions, of public or private use, that possess a practical efficacy, insofar as the Church has attached to them her impetration in order to obtain particular effects.
II. ENUMERATION OF THE SACRAMENTALS
The ancient theologians grouped them into six classes, designated by the well-known verse: « orans, tinctus, edens, confessus, dans, benedicens ». Orans refers to the Lord’s Prayer and the other prayers of the Church, especially public ones; tinctus indicates the sprinkling with holy water and sacred anointings; edens, the consumption of blessed foods; confessus, the recitation of the Confiteor and other acts of humiliation; dans, almsgiving and works of mercy in general; benedicens, the many blessings imparted over persons and things. Following the indications of the CIC, modern authors enumerate the sacramentals according to another criterion. First they distinguish between things and actions; then they divide things into blessed, consecrated, and exorcised things, and actions into blessings, consecrations, and exorcisms. It should be specified (cf. E. Doronzo, De Sacramentis in genere, Milwaukee 1947, p. 544) that blessings and consecrations do not exactly fulfill the concept of a sacramental established by the CIC when they involve only a separation of things from profane use and therefore a certain legal holiness, but do so when they also entail the impetration of some spiritual effect. Exorcisms fall within the CIC’s definition only insofar as the expulsion or repression of the demon is the object of the Church’s impetration, not insofar as it is effected by the Church through the exercise of that power of command over demons which Christ conferred upon her. Those same good works to which the Church has attached the acquisition of indulgences for the living do not fulfill the CIC’s definition, because the benefit of an indulgence for the living is not an effect of the Church’s impetration, but is conferred by the Church through the exercise of that power of jurisdiction by which she was constituted the custodian of the merits and satisfactions of Christ and the saints.Once this has been specified, it may be affirmed that the modern division is more scientific, because it is founded on the different kinds of impetration, the essential characteristic of a sacramental; it is also exhaustive, because all sacramentals can be included within its various members. Indeed, either the impetration is linked to the use of a permanent thing (sacramentals-things), or it consists in a transitory action (sacramentals-actions). Moreover, the impetration either concerns positive goods (blessings or consecrations), or concerns the removal of evils (exorcisms). The difference between consecrations and blessings consists in the fact that consecrations always have the effect of permanently separating an object or a person from profane use (and therefore in them the anointings accompany the words); in blessings, on the other hand, only words are used, and only constitutive blessings, unlike those that are merely invocative, entail a permanent separation from profane use.
III. EFFICACY OF THE S
The question presents two aspects: what the nature of this efficacy is, that is, the manner in which the s. operate, and what effects in particular are obtained.1) The s. may first of all be considered as ceremonies, and as such they possess, by their nature, the virtue of arousing religious knowledge and sentiments in the soul. Moreover, as good acts, they have meritorious value for whoever performs them. Finally, they are endowed with a special efficacy insofar as they are informed by the Church’s intercession. This is precisely the proper efficacy of the s., whose nature is clarified by the following observations: a) the s. are not instruments which God uses to sanctify souls, but actions by which the Church solicits from God the conferral of Graces; b) the efficacy of the s., insofar as it derives from the Church’s intercession, does not depend, as on a cause, upon the moral dispositions of the minister or of the subject. Hence it is said that the s. do not act « ex opere operanti ministri vel subiecti », and in this they agree with
the Sacraments; they differ from them, however, because the efficacy of the latter is « ex opere operato ». The question may be raised whether, in addition to this efficacy, founded upon the intercession of the Church, the s. may not possess another « ex opere operato ». The CIC makes no mention of II. Several authors (e.g., Michel) affirm this with regard to those s. whose effect is to dedicate things or persons to divine service; indeed, the external rite, considered objectively and performed according to the prescribed norms, when the subject offers no impediment, produces the effect of consecrating the thing or person to divine service. The same may be affirmed of those s. to which the Church has attached some indulgence. These effects are not due to the intercession and merits either of the minister or of the subject, or of the Church, but to the mere performance of the external rite, which nevertheless possesses such virtue by institution of the Church. It may therefore be held that some s. produce the effect of deputation to divine worship or of remission of temporal punishment « ex opere operato, vi institutionis ipsius Ecclesiae ». It must not be forgotten, however, that, according to the definition of the CIC, deputation to divine worship and an indulgence granted to the living do not fall among the specific effects of the s., because they are not obtained through the intercession of the Church; c) finally, it should be observed that, once the rite has been performed according to the prescribed norms, the Church’s intercession follows infallibly, but the attainment of the interceded-for effects is conditioned by all the requirements on which the efficacy of prayer in general depends. In this case, since the intercession is made by the Church, the bride of Christ, the conditions on the part of the person praying are always fulfilled; but the requirements on the part of the thing requested or of the person for whom prayer is offered may be lacking.
2) The CIC speaks generally of effects that are especially spiritual. Most authors distribute them into the following categories: a) actual graces that incite one to perform acts of faith, hope, charity, penance, etc.; b) the expulsion or repression of the demon; c) temporal goods, such as health, good weather, etc., always, however, insofar as they conduce to eternal salvation and fall within the plan of God’s ordinary Providence.
Uncertainties and divergences exist among authors concerning the question whether and in what sense the efficacy of the s. extends to sanctifying Grace, the remission of venial sins, and the remission of temporal punishment. It seems evident that the question posed should be resolved in the following terms: a) just as every prayer, so too the ecclesiastical prayer incorporated into the s. may have any benefit as its object, and therefore also the conversion of sinners, the conferral or preservation of sanctifying Grace, the forgiveness of mortal and venial sins, and the remission of temporal punishment; b) if the question is whether these benefits, intended by the Church, can be directly conferred by God, so that the conferral immediately follows, in the order of reality, upon the Church’s intercession, the answer must be that, according to the common opinion of theologians, the infusion of sanctifying Grace, and consequently also the forgiveness of mortal sins, can be obtained only through the Sacraments « ex opere operato » and through perfect charity or meritorious works « ex opere operanti... ». Therefore, when the sanctification of souls is requested of the Lord, what is directly obtained are only the actual Graces that dispose the individual to receive the Sacraments or to perform those good works to which God has linked sanctification. Consequently, the infusion of sanctifying Grace and the forgiveness of mortal sins cannot constitute an immediate effect of the s. With regard to venial sins, because of their analogy with grave faults, it must be thought that the s. do not obtain their forgiveness immediately, but directly obtain only those Graces particularly suited to arousing sentiments of repentance, through which venial sins are blotted out.
The question concerning the remission of temporal punishment may be summarized in three points: a) the Church has the power to institute s. possessing the efficacy to remit temporal punishment immediately; b) indeed, such an s. actually exists, for the benefit of the souls in purgatory, and it is the entire liturgy of the dead. Therefore, if the prayers of the Church can immediately obtain the remission of temporal punishment for the dead, there seems no reason why they should not obtain it also for the living; c) but it is probable that no s. specifically ordered to this purpose exists with regard to the living.