Roman Catholic Universe

  WHY BISHOPS? St. Timothy in Ephesus and St. Titus in Crete each received instructions from the apostle Paul about the qualifications for a bishop (see 1 Tim 3:1-7)   (1 Tim 1:7-9) . This "noble" officer was to "teach" and to"manage" the affairs of the Church in each locale. (The Greek word for bishop, episkopos, literally means "overseer"). How did the office of bishop come about? Our Lord appointed the apostles to teach and govern the Church (see Mt 28:16-20) . Since the place of Judas had been vacated by the traitor's suicide, a successor was appointed by the other apostles to fill his "office" (see Acts 1:20)  -literally his "episcopacy" or "bishopric" (Greek,  episkopen). The first apostles, then, were bishops, as were their appointed successors In referring to ordained Church leaders, biblical writers do not always distinguish clearly between bishops/overseers and presbyters/ elders/priests. St. Luke, for ...

HOLY PRIESTHOOD In Leviticus, chapter 9, we read that God commands Moses, as part of the old covenant, to ordain a specialized, professional priesthood to offer sacrifices for the people. Late, as part of "the new covenant in (his) blood"  (Lk 22:20) , Jesus establishes a newly ordained priesthood for the church and gives its members the authority and power to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Lk 22:14-20) All Christians share in a common "Holy priesthood" offering "spiritual sacrifices" (1 Pt 2:5) such as prayer, almsgiving (see Heb 13:15-16) , and faith in Jesus  (see Phil 2:17) . But the special mission that Christ gave his apostles, their successors, and the priests they were to ordain -which includes, among other functions, presiding at the Eucharist and administering the sacrament of Reconciliation -was not to be shared by all of his followers. "For...all the parts (of Christ's body) do not have the same function" (Rom 12:4) The New...