Diaconate And Presbyterate

[Resurrexi]

Is it necessary for validity (as distinct from llicitness) for one being ordained to the Presbyterate do have first been ordained to the Diaconate?

Edited September 7, 2008 by StThomasMore

[cappie]

Thomas Aquinas asks in the Summa whether the episcopate is an order and "whether the character of one order necessarily presupposes the character of another order." and answered that it was not necessary for the to receive the minor as their powers were distinct. Noting that in the early church there were some that were ordained priests without having received the other lower orders. He adds it was decided by the "legislation of the church" that candidates for the higher orders must have first humbled themselves in the lower. And so those who have been ordained are not to be re-ordained but receive what was lacking through subsequent ordination to the lower order. Thus according to Aquinas one could be validly though illicitly, be ordained a presbyter without having been ordained a deacon.

But Thomas Aquinas does teach there is a theological imperative regarding sequential ordination from the presbyterate to the episcopate. For Aquinas there are only three sacred orders the priesthood the diaconate and the sub-diaconate

cfr: Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae Supp Q 35 art 5 Q37 art 3 Q40 art 5

Ritual, Text, and Law
By Roger Edward Reynolds, Kathleen G. Cushing, Richard Gyug
Published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004.