Sacramental Character and “Ontological Change”

Abstract

This article is motivated by an apparent discrepancy: On the one hand, preachers (and seminarians) like to emphasize that ordination brings about an ontological change; on the other hand, official Church documents and theological accounts of the sacrament of orders and the sacraments, in general, seem to be silent about such a change. An examination of the theology of the sacramental character and of official documents shows: The metaphysical quality of the sacramental character is the same for baptism, confirmation, and ordination; since the Council of Trent, the sacramental character came more and more to be understood as something of ontological significance for the recipient; official documents and sacramentologists do not ascribe an ontological change to the sacramental rite.