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The Church sanctifies us after we enter into her bosom through baptism. Newly born into natural life, we can already take refuge in sanctifying grace. The faith of one person, even more, the faith of the whole Church, benefits the child through the action of the Holy Spirit, which gives unity to the Church and communicates the goods of one another. This supernatural maternity of the Church, which the Holy Spirit confers, is truly marvellous. Spiritual rebirth which is brought about by baptism is in some way similar to bodily birth. Just as children in the womb of their mothers do not feed themselves, but rather are nourished from the sustenance of the mother, so also the little ones who do not have the use of reason and are like children in the womb of their mother the Church, receive salvation through the action of the Church and not by themselves.

The priestly power of the Church, which proceeds directly from Christ, stands out in all its greatness. Christ is the source of every priesthood: for the priesthood of the Old Law was as its figure: but the priesthood of the New Law acts in the person of Christ, as is written in 2 Cor (2:10): What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the person of Christ.

The saving mediation between God and man is perpetuated in the Church through the sacrament of Holy Orders, which gives to men the power — through sacramental character and consequent graces — to act as ministers of Jesus Christ on behalf of all souls. That one person can carry out an act that another cannot does not stem from a difference of goodness or malice, but from an acquired power, which one possesses and the other does not. Therefore, since the layman does not receive the power to consecrate, he cannot bring about the consecration, no matter what his personal goodness may be.

This point in another language