To: one_less who wrote (46898 ) 5/9/2002 1:26:52 PM From: Neocon Read Replies (2) | Respond to Sure. The idea of sacramentality ensures that a priest's character is not at issue, except as a matter of discipline. The priest is a priest in virtue of his ordination, which is held to give the faculty of dispensing several sacraments. He can perform the Eucharist, and therefore trans- substantiate bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ; he can grant absolution, if there is a valid confession; and he can perform Extreme Unction. Any Catholic can perform baptism, although ordinarily the priest does it; matrimony depends upon the exchange of vows, although a priest usually presides; and confirmation and the dispensing of holy orders belong to bishops. In most Protestant churches, the primary function of a minister is to give sermons and be a spiritual counselor. In the Catholic Church, the primary function of a priest is to dispense the sacraments. Since all sin, the state of soul at any given time does not affect his ability to dispense the sacraments.
