hurch."[57] Many a man
has all the innate and acquired talent to be an excellent judge, a
proficient ambassador, an efficient naval or military officer; but
over and above capability, there is needed commission or appointment
by competent authority. So, in like manner, bishops and priests
possess the power to pardon, but jurisdiction is needed to say on whom
and where this power is to be exercised. Merely because a man is
ordained validly, this does not give him the power to absolve; without
jurisdiction, his absolution has no more value than would that of a
layman.

It will be evident that as jurisdiction comes from God but through the
Church, she can control those who are to exercise the power of
pardoning sin. Hence, she insists that her priests shall carefully
study the moral law, just as a lawyer does civil law. She exacts that
those who hear confessions shall, by examination, prove their
competency in the way of knowledge. She trains from boyhood her
Levites to the sacred work they have to do, and she permits only those
to be admitted to the Ministry of Reconciliation whose piety, past
conduct, and judgment commend them for confessions. To those so
approved she gives jurisdiction--or, as it is technically called,
"faculties"--specifying where and on whom such power may be exercised.
This jurisdiction is always granted for a limited period of time,
during which it may be withdrawn if deemed advisable by the grantor.

Thus, then, is every care taken in the selection and in the
preparation of priests for the work of hearing confessions and
absolving from sin. Even after they are duly appointed, the
restriction of the power to time, places, persons, and causes,
together with the varied tests of competency afforded by the
conferences on cases of conscience and other theological knowledge,
held at frequent and regular intervals in each diocese, under the
direction of the bishop, constitute a solid control over those
exercising the Ministry of Reconciliation. Then the priest's own
belief and conscience, as well as the obligation to confess his sins
and seek absolution for them, add to the faithful exercise of his
duties as confessor.

Beyond these human precautions and considerations, the very fact that
God instituted the Tribunal of Penance as the usual channel for
pardoning sin, obliges us to realize that He himself would protect the
administration of the sacrament. For this sacred work, His priests,
during many y