course, if our baptism is not valid we can have no valid Sacraments, our Orders, Penance, and Eucharist are alike vain. So it would hardly seem worth while making so much fuss about our form of Consecration. Only in this point again one has to notice the vagueness and inconsistency of their ideas. All through their theology one is struck by an indefiniteness and a want of method that would be inconceivable to Catholic theologians. Although they have not, as we shall see, our idea of the indelible character of the three Sacraments, at any rate when once they are sure of valid baptism they do not repeat it.[1] Confirmation is administered by the priest immediately after baptism. The whole body is anointed with chrism, and the priest says the form: "The seal of the gift of the Holy Ghost. Amen." It should be noted that we recognize this as valid confirmation, our Uniates do so too, and no Latin bishop ever thinks of reconfirming a convert from Orthodoxy.[2] But the Orthodox do not believe that the character of confirmation is indelible: two sins and two only can efface it — heresy and schism. Confirmation is the regular means by which any one is received into their communion, not only Latins and Uniates, but even people who were originally baptized and confirmed Orthodoxly, and who have since fallen away.[3] We have seen how the Holy Eucharist is administered in churches. The pious layman goes to communion four times a year — at Christmas, Easter, Whit Sunday and on the falling asleep of the Mother of God (August 15th). The Blessed Sacrament is reserved for the
- ↑ They have, however, sometimes done even this (E. d'Or. ii. p. 135); it is the case of an Orthodox Russian in Syria who turned Catholic (of course we did not rebaptize him), went back, and was rebaptized by them!
- ↑ This fact ought to sufficiently answer the question whether a priest can validly confirm. It is known that the Pope gives leave to do so to certain Latin priests in missions. But he cannot by an act of jurisdiction give them any new potestas ordinis. It seems certain then that every priest has the power of confirming, although in the Latin Church they are not allowed to use it, just as a layman may not baptize except in case of necessity. The bishop is the ordinary minister of Confirmation.
- ↑ This reconfirmation is an innovation. The Greek Fathers taught that the character of confirmation is indelible, just as did the Latin Fathers. See the quotations in E. d'Or. ix. pp. 65-76: La reconfirmation des apostats dans l'Église gréco-russe.
