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General sense
A minister in the general sense performs any of a wide array of services in the church such as a Youth Minister or a Minister of Religious Education. In some parishes of the Catholic church in the United States there are ministers of hospitality, music ministers, etc. There are also lectors who read scriptural passages to the congregation, altar servers and acolytes who assist the clergy at the altar, cantors who lead the singing, and ushers who direct the seating and procession of the congregation. These are all called lay ministers or liturgical ministers. They are lay persons; they are not ordained, nor is the word minister used as a form of address in speaking to them. In the United States, and to a lesser extent in other countries, Catholic deacons, priests, and bishops are sometimes called ordained ministers
Sacramental sense
The other kind of minister in Catholic parlance is a person who ministers a sacrament, meaning that he or she is a conduit of the sacramental power. This is not an office or position but instead a function that different kinds of people may perform, depending on the sacrament. There are two kinds of ministers in this sense. The ordinary minister of a sacrament has both the spiritual power to perform the sacrament (i.e. a valid sacrament) and the legal authority to perform the sacrament (i.e. a licit sacrament). An extraordinary minister (Latin: minister extraordinarius) has the spiritual power but may only perform the sacrament in certain special instances under canon law (i.e. emergencies). If an extraordinary minister performs a sacrament illegally, the sacrament still happens but the person ministering could be liable for an ecclestiastical penalty, such as the interdict. If a person who is neither an ordinary nor an extraordinary minister attempts to perform a sacrament, no preternatural effect happens, i.e., the putative sacrament is not merely illicit, but invalid).
Below is a table outlining each sacrament, its ordinary ministers, and its extraordinary ministers (if any), with stipulations regarding its exercise by extraordinary ministers in parenthesis.
| Sacrament | Ordinary ministers | Extraordinary ministers |
|---|---|---|
| Baptism | clergy1 | laity or an unbaptized person (illegal except in emergencies, but still valid) |
| Confirmation | bishop | priest (illegal except in emergencies or with permission of the bishop--as for adult confirmation--but still valid.) |
| Eucharist (consecration)² | bishop or priest | none; always invalid |
| Distribution of Holy Communion³ | clergy | acolyte (legal when not enough clergy are available) other laity (legal when not enough clergy or acolytes) |
| Reconciliation | bishop or priest | none; always invalid |
| Anointing of the Sick | bishop or priest | none; always invalid |
| Holy Matrimony | husband and wife with clergy as witness | husband and wife alone, or with specially deputized lay person as ecclesial witness. If there is no witness, the marriage is valid but must be regularised at a later date. |
| Holy Orders (bishop)4 | one bishop as principle consecrator, two or more bishops as co-consecrators | fewer than three bishops; legal with permission of the Pope |
| Holy Orders (priest and deacon) | bishop | currently, always invalid; historically with papal indult[2] |
Traditionalist Catholics
In certain Indult Catholic priestly societies, such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, the practices of ordination as they existed until the Second Vatican Council are followed. These include a series of minor orders to which men seeking the priesthood are ordained while in seminary. Porters, Lectors, Exorcists, and Acolytes are technically "instituted", and so are considered laymen. These are followed by ordination to as a subdeacon, which is considered a "major order", but conferral of which is not considered the sacrament of "holy orders". Instead, ordination to the minor orders, or to the subdiaconate, is considered a "sacramental". In the rest of Catholicism, the minor orders of lector and acolyte are received, and a person is made a "candidate." These ministries are not orders; they are conferred during seminary, the theological education training to be a priest, followed by ordination for six months to one year as a transitional deacon . Permanent deacons are instituted in these minor orders before their diaconal ordination. Some laypersons of good character may act as ushers, porters, lectors, eucharistic ministers, cantors, or may teach the faith as catechists and may help advise the clergy or church courts, even acting as judges in marriage tribunals.
Notes
- Clergy means a bishop, priest, or deacon.
- The Eucharist has two parts. The first part of the Eucharistic sacrament is the consecration of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ {transubstantiation}.
- The second part of the Eucharist is communion, or the distribution of the consecrated elements. More people may participate as ministers in this part, so it is treated separately.
- Since the conferral of Holy Orders has special rules when ordaining a bishop, the episcopal ordination is treated separately.
Footnotes
- ^ John Paul II, discourse...Partecipazione dei fedeli laici al ministero presbyterale, April 22 1994, english trans. in Observatore Romano May 1, 1994 and Origins 24 (June 4, 1994), pp 40 -- 42
- ^ CIC 1917, can. 951
