Folia Canonica 11. (2008)
PROCEEDINGS OF TENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. "Questioni attuali intorno al Battesimo" Budapest, 4th February 2008 - Michael Carragher: Intention of the Minister as Substantive Element of Baptism
228 MICHAEL CARRAGHER Distinction between intention and motive. The intention means that the will embraces the object specified, what ever that might be. It is one thing to receive or give something in jest or derision and still wish to give or receive and to intend this in every way, namely that the thing given or received be really given and received. Where there is intention of baptizing there in truth the sacrament, since the action is done fully and this intended. (In spite of the fact that the agent must be blameworthy because he does not worthily do what is done and intended.) But it is quite absurd that where there is no intention of doing a thing, the thing should be said to exist merely on account of the appearance of it. 19. What is the difference between intention and attentionP40 Although he who thinks of something else, has no actual intention, yet he has habitual intention, which suffices for the validity of the sacrament; for instance if, when a priest goes to baptize someone, he intends to do to him what the Churchdocs. Wherefore if subsequently during the exercise of the act his mind be distracted by other matters, the sacrament is valid in virtue of his original intention. Nevertheless, the minister of a should take great care to have actual intention. Innocent IV (Sinibaldo Fieschi) states that the minister should intend to baptize. It is not necessary that he should know what baptism is or that in it grace is conferred or that it is a sacrament. Nor is it needful that the minister believe this (even though he believes the contrary and accounts the whole thing as nonsense and deception). Nevertheless baptism produces its effect. Likewise it is not necessary that he who baptizes should know what the Church is, or whence it is, nor that he have in mind to do what the church does, nay, even if he has in mind the contrary, not to do what the Church does, nevertheless he does it, because he keeps to the form as long as intends to baptize. The minister expresses his intention in the words themselves and he need only mean them, without eliciting any other intention; and nothing else be said expressing the contrary. This is a very clear statement of a sincere intention. Outward decorum in administration sets up a presumption of correct intention. The Council of Trent abstained from any judgment about explanations of the intention, and merely affirmed the need of an intention of doing what the Church does. “ Summa Theologiae, 111, Q. 64. a.8, ad 3
