Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Issues New Note on Validity of the Sacraments in the "face of continued liturgical abuses"
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The Note from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, entitled “Gestis verbisque,” was published on Saturday, February 3.
The Note was discussed and approved unanimously by the Cardinals and Bishops who are Members of the Dicastery and were present at the recent Plenary Assembly. Pope Francis then approved the text of the Note.
It reaffirms that the formulas and material elements established in the essential rite of each Sacrament cannot be changed at will in the name of creativity.
Doing so, in fact, renders the Sacrament itself invalid; therefore, it never existed and no Sacramental grace was conferred.
Presenting the document, Cardinal Victor Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, explained the Note’s genesis. (Vatican News)
Note from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “Gestis verbisque” on the validity of the Sacraments, 02.03.2024
Presentation
Already on the occasion of the Plenary Assembly of the Dicastery in January 2022, the Cardinals and Bishops Members had expressed their concern about the multiplication of situations in which they were forced to ascertain the invalidity of the Sacraments celebrated. The serious changes made to the matter or form of the Sacraments, rendering their celebration null and void, had then led to the need to track down the people involved to repeat the rite of Baptism or Confirmation and a significant number of faithful have rightly expressed their concern. For example, instead of using the formula established for Baptism, formulas such as the following were used: "I baptize you in the name of the Creator..." and "In the name of your father and mother... we baptize you". Priests also found themselves in such a serious situation. The latter, having been baptized with formulas of this type, painfully discovered the invalidity of their ordination and of the sacraments celebrated up to that moment.
While in other areas of the Church's pastoral action there is ample space for creativity, such inventiveness in the context of the celebration of the Sacraments is rather transformed into a "manipulative will" and cannot therefore be invoked.[1] Changing, therefore, the form of a Sacrament or its matter is always a seriously illicit act and deserves an exemplary punishment, precisely because similar arbitrary gestures are capable of producing serious damage to the faithful People of God.
In the speech addressed to our Dicastery, on the occasion of the recent Plenary Assembly, on 26 January 2024, the Holy Father recalled that «through the Sacraments, believers become capable of prophecy and testimony. And our time has a particular urgent need for prophets of new life and witnesses of charity: let us therefore love and make loved the beauty and saving power of the Sacraments!". In this context he also indicated that "particular care is required of ministers in administering them and in revealing to the faithful the treasures of grace that they communicate".[2]
This is how, on the one hand, the Holy Father invites us to act in such a way that the faithful can fruitfully approach the Sacraments, while on the other hand he strongly underlines the call for "particular care" in their administration.
We ministers are therefore required to have the strength to overcome the temptation to feel like owners of the Church. On the contrary, we must become very receptive to a gift that precedes us: not only the gift of life or grace, but also the treasures of the Sacraments that have been entrusted to us by Mother Church. They are not ours! And the faithful have the right, in turn, to receive them as the Church provides: it is in this way that their celebration corresponds to Jesus' intention and makes the Easter event current and effective.
With our religious respect as ministers towards what the Church has established regarding the matter and form of each Sacrament, we manifest before the community the truth that "the Head of the Church, and therefore the true president of the celebration, is Christ alone".[ 3]
The Note that we present here does not therefore deal with a merely technical or even "rigorous" issue. By publishing it, the Dicastery primarily intends to luminously express the priority of God's action and humbly safeguard the unity of the Body of Christ which is the Church in her most sacred gestures.
May this Document, unanimously approved on 25 January 2024 by the Members of the Dicastery gathered in the Plenary Assembly and then by the Holy Father Francis himself, renew in all the ministers of the Church the full awareness of what Christ told us: «You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you" (Jn 15:16).
Víctor Manuel Card. FERNÁNDEZ
Prefect
Presentation
Already on the occasion of the Plenary Assembly of the Dicastery in January 2022, the Cardinals and Bishops Members had expressed their concern about the multiplication of situations in which they were forced to ascertain the invalidity of the Sacraments celebrated. The serious changes made to the matter or form of the Sacraments, rendering their celebration null and void, had then led to the need to track down the people involved to repeat the rite of Baptism or Confirmation and a significant number of faithful have rightly expressed their concern. For example, instead of using the formula established for Baptism, formulas such as the following were used: "I baptize you in the name of the Creator..." and "In the name of your father and mother... we baptize you". Priests also found themselves in such a serious situation. The latter, having been baptized with formulas of this type, painfully discovered the invalidity of their ordination and of the sacraments celebrated up to that moment.
While in other areas of the Church's pastoral action there is ample space for creativity, such inventiveness in the context of the celebration of the Sacraments is rather transformed into a "manipulative will" and cannot therefore be invoked.[1] Changing, therefore, the form of a Sacrament or its matter is always a seriously illicit act and deserves an exemplary punishment, precisely because similar arbitrary gestures are capable of producing serious damage to the faithful People of God.
In the speech addressed to our Dicastery, on the occasion of the recent Plenary Assembly, on 26 January 2024, the Holy Father recalled that «through the Sacraments, believers become capable of prophecy and testimony. And our time has a particular urgent need for prophets of new life and witnesses of charity: let us therefore love and make loved the beauty and saving power of the Sacraments!". In this context he also indicated that "particular care is required of ministers in administering them and in revealing to the faithful the treasures of grace that they communicate".[2]
This is how, on the one hand, the Holy Father invites us to act in such a way that the faithful can fruitfully approach the Sacraments, while on the other hand he strongly underlines the call for "particular care" in their administration.
We ministers are therefore required to have the strength to overcome the temptation to feel like owners of the Church. On the contrary, we must become very receptive to a gift that precedes us: not only the gift of life or grace, but also the treasures of the Sacraments that have been entrusted to us by Mother Church. They are not ours! And the faithful have the right, in turn, to receive them as the Church provides: it is in this way that their celebration corresponds to Jesus' intention and makes the Easter event current and effective.
With our religious respect as ministers towards what the Church has established regarding the matter and form of each Sacrament, we manifest before the community the truth that "the Head of the Church, and therefore the true president of the celebration, is Christ alone".[ 3]
The Note that we present here does not therefore deal with a merely technical or even "rigorous" issue. By publishing it, the Dicastery primarily intends to luminously express the priority of God's action and humbly safeguard the unity of the Body of Christ which is the Church in her most sacred gestures.
May this Document, unanimously approved on 25 January 2024 by the Members of the Dicastery gathered in the Plenary Assembly and then by the Holy Father Francis himself, renew in all the ministers of the Church the full awareness of what Christ told us: «You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you" (Jn 15:16).
Víctor Manuel Card. FERNÁNDEZ
Prefect
(Translated from the Vatican.va Press Bulletin Release)
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