Sacramental Intention

Authority level: Dogma
Disciplinary status: Church discipline
Theological status: Theological synthesis
GuideThe controlling sacramental truths belong to Catholic dogma; their valid or licit celebration is governed by Church discipline and explained through sacramental theology.
Contents

Sacramental Intention is the minister's requisite intention to perform the sacramental action that the Church performs, together with the recipient's intention where the sacrament requires it.

Intending to do what the Church does

A human minister of a sacrament must intend at least to do what the Church does in that sacramental act. The minister need not possess perfect faith, understand every theological effect, or be personally holy. When the proper minister seriously performs the Church's essential rite with that intention, Christ acts through the sacrament despite the minister's sins.

The necessary intention is not bare playacting or a plan merely to imitate appearances. A positive act of the will excluding the sacrament itself or what the Church does makes the action simulated and invalid. Intention is ordinarily presumed from the serious celebration of the rite unless contrary evidence establishes exclusion.

Intention does not replace the sacramental sign

Good intentions cannot make invalid matter, altered essential words, or an incapable minister sufficient. Nor can an external rite be treated as optional because the minister claims an inward purpose. Christ entrusted determinate ecclesial signs to the Church; minister, sign, and intention belong together.

For Baptism, canon law expressly requires the use of true water with the prescribed form and, in a minister acting outside the ordinary order, the requisite intention. When a prudent doubt remains about whether Baptism was conferred or validly conferred, the Church provides for conditional Baptism after serious investigation rather than casual repetition.[1]

The recipient's will and disposition

Recipient intention is distinct from ministerial intention. An adult cannot be initiated against his will; Matrimony is made by the spouses' free consent; and other sacraments likewise require the recipient to be capable and properly disposed according to their nature. Infants receive Baptism through the faith and intention of the Church without a personal act they cannot yet make.[2]

A valid sacrament and a fruitful reception are not always the same question. The sacraments act by Christ's power, but their fruits in a recipient also depend on the absence of an obstacle and on fitting disposition. Sacramental intention therefore excludes both subjectivism, as though sincerity could create a sacrament, and mechanism, as though a rite were magic.[3]

References

  1. 1.Code of Canon Law, canons 834–878 — General sacramental discipline and the sacrament of Baptism
  2. 2.Responsum on the validity of Baptism — The essential baptismal form and the ministerial action of Christ and the Church
  3. 3.Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1127–1129 — Sacramental efficacy, the intention of the Church, and the recipient's disposition