Cardinal Fernández issues text on ‘validity’ of sacraments

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A typical Conciliar mixture of truth and error...

Cardinal Fernández issues text on ‘validity’ of sacraments
Cardinal Fernández's text does not contain specifics regarding the individual sacraments, but warned that changing 'the form of a Sacrament or its subject matter is always a gravely illicit act.'



Cardinal Fernández at his titular church in Rome, December 2023.

Feb 3, 2024
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Victor Manuel Cardinal Fernández has published a new document on “the validity of the sacraments,” which he says is a response to various unauthorized changes to the form of sacraments which render them invalid.

Entitled Gestis Verbisque, the 12-page text was released February 3 by the new prefect of the Congregation (Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). (See LifeSite’s translation here)

Unanimously approved on January 25  at the plenary assembly of CDF members and then by Pope Francis on January 31, the text has been published because – according to Fernández – “it must be noted that the liturgical celebration, particularly that of the Sacraments, is not always carried out in full fidelity to the rites prescribed by the Church.”

“Several times this Dicastery has intervened to settle doubts about the validity of Sacraments celebrated, within the framework of the Roman Rite, in disregard of liturgical norms, sometimes having to conclude with a painful negative response, noting, in those cases, that the faithful have been robbed of what is due to them,” wrote Fernández.

Aimed chiefly at bishops, Gestis Verbisque (GV) presents itself as an aid, and looks to highlight “some elements of a doctrinal nature with regard to discernment on the validity of the celebration of the Sacraments, paying attention also to some disciplinary and pastoral implications.”

Fernández drew heavily from the writings of the Second Vatican Council, along with texts from the Council of Trent, St. Thomas Aquinas and Popes Benedict XVI and Francis.

“The interventions of the Magisterium in sacramental matters have always been motivated by the fundamental concern for fidelity to the mystery celebrated,” he noted. “Indeed, the Church has a duty to ensure the priority of God’s action and to safeguard the unity of the Body of Christ in those actions that have no equal because they are sacred ‘par excellence’ with an efficacy guaranteed by Christ’s priestly action.”

Highlighting the matter and form required for the validity of each sacrament, GV noted that “it cannot be ignored that when the Church intervenes in determining the constituent elements of the Sacrament, she always acts rooted in Tradition to better express the grace conferred by the Sacrament.”

Quoting directly from the Council of Trent to note that the minis of the sacrament must have the “intention to do at least what the Church does,” Fernández reiterated that Council’s teaching that “Matter, form and intention are intrinsically united: they are integrated into the sacramental action in such a way that intention becomes the unifying principle of matter and form, making them a sacred sign by which grace is conferred ex opere operato.”

Principally, Fernández presented the text of a 2020 CDF ruling on Baptism, noting that altering the form of a sacrament is not a private or small issue, but one which affects the Church:

to change on one’s own initiative the celebratory form of a Sacrament does not constitute a simple liturgical abuse, as a transgression of a positive norm, but a vulnus inflicted at the same time on ecclesial communion and on the recognizability of Christ’s action, which in the most serious cases renders the Sacrament itself invalid, because the nature of ministerial action demands that one faithfully transmit what one has received.

While Fernández noted early in GV that “changing, therefore, the form of a Sacrament or its subject matter is always a gravely illicit act and deserves exemplary punishment, precisely because such arbitrary gestures are capable of producing grave harm to God’s faithful People,” he did not delve into specifics of each sacrament, but kept his commentary to more general reflections on the necessity of the matter and form of a sacrament.


Mass presidency

However, he did devote the third section of the document to “Liturgical presidency and the art of celebration,” drawing heavily from themes found in the Vatican II documents. Dealing thus more specifically with the Mass, Fernández highlighted how the “priest re-presents Christ himself in the event of the celebration.”

The priest is not possessed of a “power to be exercised arbitrarily,” the cardinal wrote, since “the Head of the Church, and therefore the true president of the celebration, is Christ alone.”

Warning especially against priests assuming undue ideas of authority, Fernández gave notable weight to the theme of the “baptismal priesthood,” as espoused in the Second Vatican Council’s Lumen Gentium.

“For this very reason, the minister should understand that the authentic ars celebrandi is one that respects and exalts the primacy of Christ and the actuosa participatio of the entire liturgical assembly, including through humble obedience to liturgical norms,” he wrote, paraphrasing the General Instruction of the Roman Missal.

Fernández closed his document by quoting from Pope Francis’ 2022 letter Desiderio Desideravi, which reaffirmed Francis’ restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass while promoting the reformed liturgy as “the unique expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite.”

Fernández did not deal with the traditional liturgy in his GV text, despite quoting from Desiderio Desideravi, writing instead that “The whole Church is called to guard the richness contained in them [sacraments], so that the primacy of God’s saving action in history may never be obscured, even in the fragile mediation of signs and gestures proper to human nature.”