The Effect of the Sacrament of Orders

The sacrament of orders confers sanctifying grace, as all sacraments do. And it is notably suitable that the sacrament which empowers a person to confect and dispense the sacraments as means of grace should itself bring grace to its recipient.

Since any sacred order which pertains to the sacrament of orders (that is, episcopate, priesthood, diaconate) sets a manin a place of power with reference to the dispensing of thesacraments, it marks him for this duty by an indelible character impressed upon his soul.

The character of orders presupposes the baptismalcharacter as already on the soul. It is the character impressed by baptism that renders a person capable of receiving the othersacraments.

The character of orders does not, of necessity,presuppose the character imprinted in the soul by confirmation. Butit is most suitable that confirmation be received before orders are conferred; for a man should come to ordination with all perfection she can manage to receive. Therefore, the Church requires that the candidate for orders be confirmed before he presents himself for ordination.

The character of orders is impressed as the sacrament is received, without dependence on the proper sequence ofordinations. Thus, if a man were to be ordained priest without having first been ordained deacon, his priesthood would be valid. But the order of deaconship would be supplied by the properordination. The Church requires, however, that orders be received in due succession.