Bishops & Priests

Details: 29 April 2011

Made By Christ

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, citing extensively the Second Vatican Council, teaches that "Christ Himself is the Source of ministry in the Church. He instituted the Church. He gave her authority and mission, orientation and goal." The Council declared, "In order to shepherd the People of God and to increase their numbers without cease, Christ the Lord set up in His Church a variety of offices which aim at the good of the whole Body. The holders of office, who are invested with a sacred power, are, in fact, dedicated to promoting the interests of their brethren, so that all who belong to the People of God may attain salvation." The Catechism notes, "Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to His Apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time. Thus it is the sacrament of apostolic ministry. It includes three degrees: episcopate, presbyterate, and diaconate."

The impending ordinations to the diaconate and priesthood in the coming month in our Diocese and the expectation of a new Bishop, when our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, activates the canonically required retirement of the current Bishop, make a reflection on the episcopacy and the priesthood quite timely and perhaps very useful as well. The Catechism says, "Today the word "ordination" is reserved for the sacramental act, which integrates a man into the order of Bishops, priests, or deacons, and which goes beyond a simple election, designation, delegation, or institution by the community, for it confers a gift of the Holy Spirit that permits the exercise of a sacred power, which can come only from Christ Himself through His Church. Ordination is called a consecration, for it is a setting apart and an investiture by Christ Himself for His Church. The "laying on of hands" by the Bishop, with the consecratory prayer, constitutes the visible sign of this ordination."

The Catechism teaches, "No one can give himself the mandate and the mission to proclaim the Gospel. The one sent by the Lord does not speak and act on his own authority, but by virtue of Christ’s authority, not as a member of the community, but speaking to it in the name of Christ. No one can bestow this grace upon himself, but it must be given and offered. This fact presupposes ministers of grace, authorized and empowered by Christ. From Him Bishops and priests receive their mission and faculty, the sacred power, to act in the Person of Christ the Head. Deacons receive the strength to serve the People of God in the diaconate of liturgy, word, and charity, in communion with the Bishop and his presbyterate. The ministry in which Christ’s emissaries do and give by God’s grace what they cannot do and give by their own powers is called a sacrament by the Church’s Tradition. Indeed, the ministry of the Church is conferred by a special sacrament."

Hierarchical Structure

The entire third chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church proclaimed by the Second Vatican Council (entitled in Latin "Lumen Gentium") is concerned with the intrinsically hierarchical nature and structure of the Catholic Church as instituted and intended by Jesus Himself, when He walked on our earth (John 20:21). "Jesus willed that the successors of His Apostles, namely the Bishops, should be shepherds in His Church even to the consummation of the world."

The Council says, "Continuing in the same task of clarification begun by the First Vatican Council, this Council has decided to declare and proclaim before all men its teaching concerning Bishops, the successors of the Apostles, who, together with the Successor of Peter, the Vicar of Christ and the visible head of the whole Church, govern the House of the living God. The divine mission entrusted by Christ to the Apostles will last until the end of the world (Matthew 28:20), since the Gospel which was to be handed down by them is for all time and the source of life for the Church. For this reason the Apostles took care to appoint successors in this hierarchically structured society. Among the various ministries which, as Tradition witnesses, were exercised in the Church from the earliest times, the chief place belongs to the office of those who, appointed to the episcopate in a sequence running back to the beginning, are the ones who pass on the apostolic seed. Thus, as Saint Irenaeus testifies, through those who were appointed Bishops by the Apostles, and through their successors down to our own time, the apostolic tradition is manifested and preserved throughout the world."

Fullness

The Catechism remarks, "The Second Vatican Council teaches that the fullness of the Sacrament of Holy Orders is conferred by episcopal consecration, that fullness namely which, both in the liturgical tradition of the Church and the language of the Fathers of the Church, is called the high priesthood, the summit of the sacred ministry. Episcopal consecration confers, together with the office of sanctifying, also the offices of teaching and ruling. In fact, by the imposition of hands and through the words of consecration, the grace of the Holy Spirit is given and a sacred character is impressed in such wise that Bishops, in an eminent and visible manner, take the place of Christ Himself, Teacher, Shepherd, and Priest and act as His representative. By virtue, therefore, of the Holy Spirit, Who has been given to them, Bishops have been constituted true and authentic teachers of the faith and have been made pontiffs and pastors" (Acts of the Apostles 1:8; 2:4; John 20:22-23; 1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6-7).

"One is constituted a member of the episcopal body in virtue of the sacramental consecration and the hierarchical communion with the head and members of the college (of Bishops). The character and collegial nature of the episcopal order are evidenced among other ways by the Church’s ancient practice which calls for several Bishops to participate in the consecration of a new Bishop. In our day the lawful ordination of a Bishop requires a special intervention by the Bishop of Rome because he is the supreme visible bond of communion of the particular churches in the one Church and the guarantor of their freedom."

"As Christ’s vicar, each Bishop has the pastoral care of the particular church entrusted to him, but at the same time he bears collegially with all his brothers in the episcopacy the solicitude for all the churches. Though each Bishop is the lawful pastor only of the portion of the flock entrusted to his care, as a legitimate successor of the Apostles, he is, by divine institution and precept, responsible with the other Bishops in the apostolic mission of the Church. The above considerations explain why the Eucharist celebrated by the Bishop has a quite special significance as an expression of the Church gathered around the altar, with the one who represents Christ, the Good Shepherd and Head of His Church, presiding." The Second Vatican Council teaches, "In the Bishops, therefore, for whom priests are the assistants, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Supreme High Priest, is present in the midst of those who believe."