Bishops & Priests

Details: 13 May 2011

Priests at the Council

During the Second Vatican Council, the priesthood of the Catholic Church was considered, discussed, and treated in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (entitled in Latin "Lumen Gentium") and in several other conciliar documents, but many of the Bishops at the Council complained at the time that the treatment of the priesthood in those documents was too scattered, meager, and inadequate, given the fact that Catholic priests, as men of the Church, undertake a most important work and a total dedication that is essential to the very life of Christ’s Mystical Body. So it was decided, after further discussion, that, in addition to what is taught by the Council scattered in other places, a separate Decree on the Priesthood would be issued (entitled in Latin "Presbyterorum Ordinis"), and this was formulated, voted on, and then promulgated on the second last day of the Council, December 7, 1965.

Bishop Guilford Young, one of the prelates who was deeply involved in that particular aspect of the Council’s work, commented: "The pivotal principle on which the Council’s teaching turns is that the priest is a man drawn from the ranks of the People of God to be made, in the very depths of his being like to Christ, the High Priest of mankind. The priest is consecrated by a special seal of the Holy Spirit. In virtue of this consecration, he acts in the Person of Christ, and, as a minister of Christ, the Head, he is deputed to serve the People of God. Through the priest Christ continues and fulfills the mission which He received from God the Father."

A New Balance

Bishop Young goes on to remark, "The teaching of Vatican Two corrects an off-balance view of the priesthood that we have had, at least in the west, for centuries. Looking at the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the tendency has been to see the priesthood as the point of departure to which the episcopate added an extension of jurisdiction plus extra-sacramental powers. The Council takes as its perspective the uniqueness and unity of the priestly consecration and mission of Christ, and then it sees in the first place the episcopate as the full and highest participation in that consecration and mission through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. In his turn Bishop communicates in a subordinate degree to priests this consecration and mission. Thus they become his co-workers and extension. Bishops and priests, being thus united in their participation in the one priesthood and ministry of Christ, although hierarchically graded, fundamentally are brothers. This brotherhood is not a mere communion ofmind and heart, but is a sacramental reality. Its intimacy is especially close among the priests of a Diocese, forming one body (the one "presbyterium") under the leadership of the Bishop. The Bishop, limited by time and space, cannot be everywhere at once, and this is why he has a body of co-workers, extensions of himself, his priests who teach, sanctify, and rule in his name. Hence the duty of loyalty and obedience that the priests must have to their Bishop."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, "In the ecclesial service of the ordained minister, it is Christ Himself Who is present to His Church, as the Head of His Body, Shepherd of His flock, High Priest of the redemptive sacrifice, the Teacher of truth.This is what the Church means by saying that the priest, by virtue of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, acts in the Person of Christ, the Head." The Catechism quotes Pope Pius XII, in his encyclical on the sacred liturgy ("Mediator Dei"): "It is the same priest, Christ Jesus, Whose sacred Person His minister truly represents. Now the minister, by reason of the sacerdotal consecration which he has received, is truly made like to the High Priest and possesses the authority to act in the power and place of the Person of Christ Himself. This priesthood is ministerial. That office which the Lord has committed to the pastors of His people is in the strict sense of the term a "service". It is entirely related to Christ and to men. It depends entirely on Christ and on His unique Priesthood. It has been instituted for the good of men and the communion of the Church. The Sacrament of Holy Orders communicates a sacred power, which is none other than that of Christ Himself."

Human Frailty

From my long ago youth I remember a little prayer we often would say for priests, one of whose verses was: "Keep them we pray Thee, dearest Lord, keep them for they are Thine, Thy priests whose lives burn out before Thy sacred shrine. Keep them, and O remember, Lord, they have no one but Thee, yet, they have only human hearts with human frailty." Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, (commonly known as Saint Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower), wrote: "My second experience was with regard to priests.Until then I never could understand the principal end of the reform of Carmel, to pray for sinners, that indeed ravished me, but to pray for priests whose souls I conceived to be purer than crystals! That caused me no little surprise. Ah, I understood my vocation during our pilgrimage to Italy. I had not to look far to gain a knowledge so useful and necessary. In the course of a month I came across many holy priests, and I saw that if their sublime dignity raised them above the angels, they were, none the less, men, weak and fragile. If then, holy priests, whom Jesus names in His Gospel the salt of the earth, are in such need of our prayers, what must be thought of those who are tepid? O my mother, how wonderful is our vocation! It is ours here in Carmel to preserve the salt of the earth!"

The Catechism notes: "This presence of Christ in the (ordained priestly) ministeris not to be understood as if the latter were preserved from all human weaknesses, the spirit of domination, error, and even sin. The power of the Holy Spirit does not guarantee all acts of ministers in the same way. While this guarantee extends to the sacraments, so that even the minister’s sin cannot impede the fruit of grace, in many other acts the minister leaves human traces that are not always signs of fidelity to the Gospel and consequently can harm the apostolic fruitfulness of the Church." Cardinal Cushing once said: "Catholics should beg God to shield their priests from every danger, to drive far from them the onslaughts ofthe infernal enemy. They should ask that each priest may daily increase in virtue and that his imperfections may melt away in the heat of divine love. They should pray that their priest may be, not only in the eyes of those who share our faith, but before all the world, truly a man of God, that Christ may live in him and in him walk this world once more."

In an old book of mine ("The World, the Flesh, and Father Smith") I remember reading: "It wasn’t easy to be a Bishop sometimes, because, although a Bishop has the Holy Spirit to help him, he was still in most matters an ordinary man liable to err. This is because that had been God’s way of building the Church, out of rickety human planks and bits of odd wood He had found lying about the world." An old prayer, I was taught to pray when I was a boy long ago says, "Jesus, Savior of the world, sanctify Your priests and all sacred ministers." It’s a prayer still worth praying!