Quote from
CCC: 1374
Quote:
The mode of Christ's presence under the
Eucharistic species is unique.
It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend."201 In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "
the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.
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“powers” of the RC Priest retained after excommunication
The following discussion is a quote from:
Catholic Digest – Jan 1995, pg 126
Q:
Our former priest has been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church and h as opened his own Church, which he calls “Christ Catholic Mission”. He now has some kind of connection with what he calls the “Catholic Church of God and Christ” with headquarters in Missouri. More and more people are attending his church. Some are former Catholics, but those I asked did not know whether this priest
still had the power of consecrating the bread and wine for Communion. Does he? M.M
A.Yes. But he commits a grave sin of disobedience if he is excommunicated… The priest’s Consecration can be valid, that is, there can be the
real change of bread and wine INTO the body and blood of Christ, but it is illicit because of his excommunication and brings
him no actual graces.
You sometimes hear that the reason the Church recognizes the validity of an excommunicated priest’s Mass, and
his continuing power to forgive sin, is the salvation of the dying in cases of necessity. But the deeper reason is
the mark of the Holy Orders, along with Baptism and Confirmation,
puts on the soul.
Of course “Mark on the soul” is just a figure of speech to indicate the difference between the baptized and the nonbaptized , the confirmed and the nonconfirmed,
the ordained and the nonordained. Once
the status of a soul is established by any of the three sacraments, it cannot be changed by any human power so as to be like it was before the reception of these sacraments.
The apostate priest does not lose the power to confect the Eucharist or forgive sins through the sacrament of Penance. He does, by his apostasy, lose the power to do these things licitly, without sin.
========== The following is a
quote of John Paul II ===========
The priest offers the holy Sacrifice in persona Christi; this
means more than offering "in the name of'
or "in place of" Christ. In persona means in specific sacramental identification with "the eternal High Priest"[42] who is the author and principal subject of this sacrifice of His, a sacrifice in which, in truth, nobody can take His place. Only He -- only Christ -- was able and is always able to be the true and effective "expiation for our sins and . . . for the sins of the whole world."[43] Only His sacrifice -- and no one else's -- was able and is able to have a "propitiatory power" before God, the Trinity, and the transcendent holiness.
Awareness of this reality throws a certain light on the character and significance of the priest celebrant who, by
confecting the holy Sacrifice and acting "in persona Christi," is sacramentally (and ineffably) brought into that most profound sacredness, and made part of it, spiritually linking with it in turn all those participating in the eucharistic assembly.
CATHOLIC LIBRARY: Dominicae Cenae (1980)
Dominicae Cenae
On the Mystery and Worship of the Eucharist
His Holiness Pope John Paul II
Promulgated on February 24, 1980
To All the Bishops of the Church.
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What say you?
(updated to add underline and highlight for parts that some folks are missing)