Recently a question answered on this site explained that Catholic bishops can perform seven sacraments, priests can perform five, and lay persons can perform one. Actually lay Catholics are able to perform two sacraments. Besides Baptism, what other sacrament can they perform?

smeogalla

marriage Oct 17 05, 9:54 PM

JoshCaleb12

This is interesting. Yes, marriage is a sacrament performed by, not the priest, but by the husband and wife that the priest merely witnesses. Additionally, baptism is a sacrament that can be performed by laity only in the event of an emergency. And evidently, the administration of communion can be performed by acolytes first and then laity when there aren't enough clergy available to do so. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_minister Oct 17 05, 10:33 PM

my_baby_love

smeogalla is correct, and Josh provides a good site. The marriage sacrament is actually performed by the bride and groom and the priest or bishop serve as a witness. Though a non-emergency baptism should not be performed by the laity, if such a mistake was to occur the baptism would still be valid. The administration of communion can be, and often is, performed by the laity. But that is not in and of itself considered a sacrament. Oct 18 05, 6:38 AM