Apologetics Session 8 - Priests and Bishops

Most Protestant clergy are "ministers", not priests. A matter of difference and misunderstanding, therefore, is priesthood itself. Sometimes we hear the Challenge, "Priesthood ended with the Jewish Temple! The Bible does not show Jesus instituting any priesthood."

A Catholic Response : The Church teaches that Christ instituted His priesthood at the Last Supper. The Catechism teaches,

CCC 611 The Eucharist that Christ institutes at that moment will be the memorial of his sacrifice.<1 Cor 11:25> Jesus includes the apostles in his own offering and bids them perpetuate it.<Cf. Lk 22:19> By doing so, the Lord institutes his apostles as priests of the New Covenant: "For their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."<Jn 17:19; cf. Council of Trent: DS 1752; 1764>

The priesthood of the New Covenant began when Jesus said, at the Last Supper, "Do this in remembrance of Me." Priests offer sacrifice: what were the Apostles to "do"? They were to do in a "remembrance" what Jesus was about to do on the cross: Jesus was to offer Himself as an offering to the Father in recompense for the sin of the world.

St. Paul recounts the meaning of Eucharist as he writes,

[1 Cor 11:23] For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
[24] and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
[25] In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
[26] For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

The Self-offering of Jesus is the ultimate and complete priesthood: God the Son offered Himself in sacrifice to God the Father. Jesus ordained His Apostles to "Do this", in the form of the bread and the wine. The bread becomes the sacrificed flesh of Christ.

[Jn 6:51] I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."

The bread and the wine that the priests consecrate become the Body and Blood of Christ, as Paul testifies:

[1 Cor 10:16] The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

The charge to "do this", to offer the sacrifice of Christ, was given to the Apostles and passed on to their successors the bishops of the Church. The bishops, in turn, as their work increased, ordained "presbyters" (elders) to help them in the sacramental work. These men later became known as "priests".
Early Church letters record the hierarchy of bishop, presbyters and deacons.
From Ignatius of Antioch,

"Indeed, when you submit to the bishop as you would to Jesus Christ, it is clear to me that you are living not in the manner of men but as Jesus Christ, who died for us, that through faith in his death you might escape dying. It is necessary, therefore--and such is your practice that you do nothing without the bishop, and that you be subject also to the presbytery, as to the apostles of Jesus Christ our hope, in whom we shall be found, if we live in him. It is necessary also that the deacons, the dispensers of the mysteries [sacraments] of Jesus Christ, be in every way pleasing to all men. For they are not the deacons of food and drink, but servants of the Church of God. They must therefore guard against blame as against fire" (Letter to the Trallians 2:1-3 - A.D. 110).

From Hippolytus,

"When a deacon is to be ordained, he is chosen after the fashion of those things said above, the bishop alone in like manner imposing his hands upon him as we have prescribed. In the ordaining of a deacon, this is the reason why the bishop alone is to impose his hands upon him: He is not ordained to the priesthood, but to serve the bishop and to fulfill the bishop's command. He has no part in the council of the clergy, but is to attend to his own duties and is to acquaint the bishop with such matters as are needful. . . .
"On a presbyter, however, let the presbyters impose their hands because of the common and like Spirit of the clergy. Even so, the presbyter has only the power to receive [the Spirit], and not the power to give [the Spirit]. That is why a presbyter does not ordain the clergy; for at the ordaining of a presbyter, he but seals while the bishop ordains. (The Apostolic Tradition 9 - A.D. 215).

Challenge 2: Bishops. What about the bishops - how can Catholics say that the Apostles could pass on their authority to "bishops" - or anyone, for that matter.
Response 2: Catholics believe that Christ did intend His Apostles to pass on the authority He gave them, to teach, to forgive, to celebrate the Eucharist, and so on, to others - to bishops after them. Did Christ intend His work to stop with the death of the last Apostle? Of course not. Jesus said He would be with his Church until the end of time:

[Mt 28:18] And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
[19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
[20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."

Jesus intended this work to continue until the close of this age. Thus in the Bible, Paul laid hands on Timothy, entrusting him with the overseeing of his church:

[2 Tim 1:6] Hence I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands;

Paul later in this same letter continues,

[2 Tim 4: 1] I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:
[2] preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching.
[3] For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings,
[4] and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.
[5] As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

The Apostles passed on their authority, and their commission to preach the true Gospel, to bishops who would continue after them. The early Church cited "apostolic succession" as a gauge of orthodoxy, of trustworthiness concerning the true Gospel of Christ.
Two early references are Irenaeus (AD 189), and Tertullian (AD 200). Both of these men had to deal with some who broke away from the apostolic truth in one heresy or another.

"It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known to us throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like what these heretics rave about" (Irenaeus: Against Heresies 3:3:1 - A.D. 189).

"Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true. To these things all the Asiatic churches testify, as do also those men who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present time" (Irenaeus, ibid., 3:3:4).

"But if there be any [heresies] which are bold enough to plant [their origin] in the midst of the apostolic age, that they may thereby seem to have been handed down by the apostles, because they existed in the time of the apostles, we can say: Let them produce the original records of their churches; let them unfold the roll of their bishops, running down in due succession from the beginning in such a manner that [their first] bishop shall be able to show for his ordainer and predecessor some one of the apostles or of apostolic men-a man, moreover, who continued steadfast with the apostles. For this is the manner in which the apostolic churches transmit their registers: as the church of Smyrna, which records that Polycarp was placed therein by John; as also the church of Rome, which makes Clement to have been ordained in like manner by Peter" (Tertullian: Demurrer Against the Heretics 32 - A.D. 200).

The Catholic Church continues this apostolic succession, every bishop traced back to the apostles, grounding our Faith in the teachings of Christ Himself.