The Priesthood

 The Catholic Priesthood A deep dive into the teachings about the priesthood.

The teaching of the Catholic Church on the priesthood is something I would like every Catholic, as well as non-Catholics, to understand.

You may have heard of this Latin phrase "IN PERSONA CHRISTI CAPITALIS"... which exactly the summarizes the the church's teaching on the priesthood.

In Persona Christi Capitalis simply means, "in the person of Christ the Head."

To break it down, every ordained priest, as he celebrates the sacraments, is not acting or celebrating them on his own... instead, he is standing in the place of Christ. [Which makes me wonder - do Protestants see their pastors in the same light? - David]     What this implies is that the priest is not the one celebrating any of the sacraments, even though he is the one physically present. Rather it is Christ himself who celebrates them.

    When the priest hears confessions, it is not his hand that offers absolution, but Christ's.     At Mass, when the priest says “This is my Body,” it is not the priest that should be understood as talking, for the priest has no power to give us his body. Rather it is Christ who speaks the words through him, just as He did during the Last Supper.     If, as Christians, we believe that the Resurrected Christ lives in glory and is omnipresent as He chooses (also shown in Scripture), then this makes perfect sense.

    If you read the book of Hebrews, you will understand the depth of this teaching.     We all know that the Eucharist is Christ offering himself for us. In that sacrifice, Christ is both the High Priest and the Victim—both the one offering a sacrifice (the role of a priest) for sins as well as the one sacrifice being offered (since He offered up Himself).

    Below is a little background to the teaching. . .

    During the fourth century, a group led by Bishop Donatus Magnus of Casae Nigrae started teaching that only men who are without sin can administer the sacrament validly.     This idea began after the Diocletianic Persecution, when some Christians had handed over sacred texts or denied their faith under pressure of torture or death. These individuals were called “traditores” (“those who handed over”), and the Donatists refused to accept clergy who had succumbed to this pressure, but then later returned to the Church.

    To the Donatists, a priest who had lapsedin this way, or by extension into other sin, if he was to later confess and return to the Church - anything he did thereafter is null and void. Thus if he baptizes you, your baptism is no good.     Likewise, if a less-than-perfect bishop was the one that ordained your parish priest, all the Masses and sacraments which that priest celebrates are just a waste of time. This heresy is known as Donatism.     St Augustine tackled this heresy. He rightly argued that... A. No one is perfect and no sin is irreconcilable except one - blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Men are human, and they are all prone to sin and moral failure, whether layman or priest. But God forgives, mercifully, the contrite heart that beseeches His forgiveness. B. The priest is simply a channel, like a river channel, through which grace flows. The real celebrant of each Sacrament is Christ Himself, so the priest’s personal moral state - rocks and imperfections in the channel intself - cannot impeded or invalidate the Sacrament.

    The Catechism puts it this way, "The sacrament is not wrought by the righteousness of either the celebrant or the recipient, but by the power of God.” ~ CCC 1128

    The moment a sacrament is celebrated in accordance with the intention of the Church (ex opere operato), the power of Christ and his Spirit acts in and through it, independently of the personal holiness of the minister.        However, it works both ways - the fruits of the sacraments depend also on the disposition of the one who receives them.     It is this teaching that makes all the priests equal. Truth is, every priest - like all men - is unique and gifted differently by the Holy Spirit. But at the altar, and in the confessional, every priest is the same because it is Christ that uses the priest, and not the other way round.     The priests' words and actions are prescribed. He is a vessel for Christ, not a platform for his own grand ideas.

    Recently, there have been arguments on how some priests are not called - it was their mother who made them enter seminary simply because she wants to bear the name, "Priests Mom."

    But there is a disconnect here. In the Catholic Church, for one to say a priest is not "called" is to question the seminary training, the discernment process, the validity of the person's ordination, and the action of the Holy Spirit. Gods plan is often fulfilled in ways not clear to our worldy mind.

    You can express dissatisfaction with the priest's conduct, or you may hate the fact that he is on social media, but once he has navigated the formation and discernment journey and is validly ordained (not an easy process!), he is called. Hiow he got there is God's concern, becasue it is God that has set him aside. The Lord uses him thereafter, and the sacraments he celebrates are no less valid, since it is Christ who celebrates them through him.

    And on a side note, mothers taking their boys to the seminary is not a bad thing. It was Hannah who took her son Samuel to the priest Eli. Samuel did not become less of a prophet because it was his mom who took him there.     The seminarial formation journey is such a rigorous process that a man who does not want be there won't last very long - even if his mom took you there!     Canonically, no priest is ordained below the age of 25. Anyone who becomes ordained does so because he chose to cooperate with God..., not because mom wants to be a priests mother.

CC Fr Kelvin Ugwu