SECTION 7 



HOLY ORDERS 



The Sacrament of Holy Orders (sacramentum 

 ordinis) confers special graces as well as rights 

 and prerogatives. It likewise imposes certain 

 vocational duties and assigns to the recipient a 

 permanent place in the ecclesiastical hierarchy 

 (ordo). By means of this Sacrament the Cath- 

 olic Church preserves and propagates the priest- 

 hood, to which are entrusted the ordinary preach- 

 ing of the Gospel and the administration of the 

 Sacraments. 1 From the nature of this Sacra- 

 ment flow the following duties for clerics in par- 

 ticular and the faithful in general. 



i. Duties of Those Who Are Ordained. — 

 The candidate for Holy Orders must first of all 

 have a true vocation for the clerical state. "They 

 are said to be called by God," says the Roman 

 Catechism, "who are called by the lawful min- 

 isters of the Church" 2 (external vocation). 



1 Matt XX VIII, 1 8 sqq.; John legitimes Ecclesiae ministris vocan- 

 XX, 21 sqq.; I Cor. IV, i sq. tur." Cfr. Heb. V, 5; J. Coppin, 



2 Cat. Rom., P. II, c. 7, qu. 3: La Vocation, Roulers-Bruxelles 

 "Vocari . . . a Deo dicuntur, qui a 1903, pp. 427 sqq. 



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