Bishops & Priests

Details: 06 May 2011

Succession

The Second Vatican Council teaches, "For the discharging of their great duties the Apostles were enriched by Christ with a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Who came upon them (Acts of the Apostles 1:8; 2:4; John 20:22-23). This spiritual Gift they passed on to their helpers by means of the imposition of hands (1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6-7), and it has been transmitted down to us (the Bishops at the Second Vatican Council) in episcopal consecration. This sacred Council teaches that by episcopal consecration is conferred the fullness of the Sacrament of Holy Orders."

Before he became our Pope, our present Holy Father, at that time Father and later Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, wrote many theological and pastoral works concerning the episcopacy. Father Timothy Byerley has studied these works and notes how the authenticity of apostolic teaching, that is, the sure and certain transmission of the undiluted, unmutilated, complete, and unsullied doctrine of Jesus, must always be linked in logical unity with the principle of apostolic succession in the Catholic Church. "Apostolic succession is derived from the Christological and missiological data of the New Testament. As Jesus was sent by the Father, so He sent His Apostles. ‘He who receives you receives Me’ (Mark 10:40; Luke 10:16; John 13:20). Christ designates, authorizes, and commissions certain men to be His Apostles. He endows them not only with the authority to teach but also with sacramental powers. Accordingly, it also becomes quite clear in Saint Paul that the sacramental authority of the Apostles is a specific ministry and in no way describes ( the ordinary and usual) Christian life as a whole. Paul’s writings confirm and define more clearly what the Gospels indicate: a distinct sacramental office of ministers of the New Covenant. In these ministers, i.e. Bishops and priests, the Apostles’ Christ-given authority continues vis-a-vis the Church and the world. Because the sacramental authority to confect the Eucharist is exclusive to the Bishop and the priest, a theology of communion that centers around the Holy Eucharist implicitly necessitates the principle of apostolic succession."

Ignatius of Antioch

One of the earliest witnesses to the presence in the Church of the threefold level of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, that is, the orders of Bishops, priests, and deacons, is the martyr Saint Ignatius of Antioch. He was a disciple and convert of Saint John the Apostle and a close and good friend of Saint Polycarp of Smyrna. He was the successor of Saint Peter the Apostle in Antioch, becoming the Bishop of that See in the year 69 A.D. He was arrested in the year 107 for being a leader of the Christians, and he was taken to Rome where he eventually died, fed to lions on December 20, 110 A.D. in the Roman amphitheatre to amuse the pagan rabble.

While being transported by ship to Rome for his execution, he wrote seven letters, all of which we still have intact, six to the Christians in each of the ancient cities of Ephesus, Magnesia, Tralles, Philadelphia, Smyrna, and Rome, and another letter to Saint Polycarp. The Book of the Acts of the Apostles tells us that it was in Antioch that the followers of Christ were called Christians for the first time (Acts of the Apostles 11:26). It is significant that the name "Catholic" is also found to be Antiochian in origin. It is found for the first time in writing in an Ignatian letter, to indicate the Universal or Great Church as distinguished from various heretical or schismatic sects and denominations which already had begun to break off from the Church founded by Christ. Saint Ignatius wrote in his letter to the Christians in Smyrna: "Wherever the Bishop is, there let the people be, for there is the Catholic Church."

What He Wrote

Saint Ignatius wrote to the Smyrnaeans: "Let no one do anything touching the Church apart from the Bishop. You must all follow the lead of the Bishop, as Jesus Christ followed that of the Father. Follow the priests as you would the Apostles. Reverence the deacons as you do the commandments of God. It is not permitted without authorization from the Bishop either to baptize or to hold a Eucharist (Agape=Love Feast), but whatsoever he approves is also pleasing to God. It is well to revere God and the Bishop. He who honors a Bishop is honored by God."

To the Trallians, he wrote: "Let all respect the deacons as representing Jesus Christ, and respect the Bishop as the type of God the Father, and esteem the priests as God’s high council and as the apostolic college. Apart from these, no church deserves the name of Church. Beware of heretics, and, if you are aware of them, you will not be puffed up and you will cling inseparably to God, to Jesus Christ, and to the Bishop and thus to the precepts of the Apostles. He that is inside the sanctuary is pure and he that is outside the sanctuary is impure. In other words, he that does anything apart from the Bishop, the presbytery, or the deacons has no pure conscience."

To the Philadelphians, he wrote: "It was the Holy Spirit Who kept preaching in these words: Apart from the Bishop do nothing. Preserve your persons as shrines of God; cherish unity, shun divisions; do as Jesus Christ did, for He too did as the Father did. Be obedient to the Bishop as to the commandments, and so too be obedient to the priests, and love one another with an undivided heart. Surely all those who belong to God and Jesus Christ are the very ones who side with the Bishop."

To the Magnesians, he wrote: "I exhort you to strive to do all things in harmony with God. The Bishop is to preside in the place of God, while the presbyters (priests) are to function as the council of Apostles, and the deacons, who are most dear to me, are entrusted with the service-ministry of Jesus Christ. Let there be nothing among you tending to divide you, but be united with your Bishop and with those who preside (in his place, i.e. the priests), being for the world a pattern and a lesson of incorruptibility. The proper thing, then, is not merely to be styled Christians, but also to be such. There are those who say a man is a Bishop but completely disregard him in their conduct. Such persons, I claim, do not have a good conscience, inasmuch as they do not assemble for the liturgy in the fixed order prescribed by him."

To the Ephesians, he wrote: "Assuredly, if the prayer of one or two has such efficacy, how much more does that of the Bishop and the entire Church. Let us take care, therefore, not to oppose the Bishop that we might be submissive to God. Hence it is proper for you to act in agreement with the mind of your Bishop and this you do. Certain it is that your priests (your presbytery) do that. This is a credit to their name and a credit to God, for your priests harmonize with the Bishop as completely as the strings with a harp. This is why in the symphony of your concord and love the praises of Jesus Christ are sung."

The Second Vatican Council says, "Bishops have been appointed by the Holy Spirit and are the successors of the Apostles as pastors of souls. Together with the Supreme Pontiff and under his authority, they are sent to continue through the ages His work as the eternal Pastor."