Brilliant Bits of Thomas Aquinas via Balthasar

For Mark at Joe vs. the Volcano:

"the absolution of confession contains an element of the reestablishment of reconciliation with the Church, which can be thought of as represented in a genuine (even though nonhierarchical) manner by a layman. This is why a great many theologians, including St. Thomas Aquinas, have attributed a quasisacramental effect to confession to a layman, which was in vogue in the West roughly from 1000 to 1500 A.D. (4 Sent. 17, q 3, a 3, qla 2, ad 1).

Explorations in Theology II: Spouse of the Word, 323>

"according to St. Thomas, the Fiat of the mother of God was spoken loco totius generis humani and not, for instance, loco totius Ecclesiae. (It could equally be said that, in her, the Church speaks her Fiat to God for the whole human race.)

Ibid., 163