254. Priests are under their own bishop.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 254

Ave Maria series

254  What happens in priestly ordination?

In priestly ordination the bishop calls down God’s power upon the candidates for ordination.  It imprints upon the souls of these men an indelible seal that can never be lost.  As a collaborator with his bishop, the priest will proclaim the Word of God, administer the sacraments, and, above all, celebrate the Holy Eucharist.  [1562-1568]

The laying on of the hands is the most solemn moment of the ordination and the essential act in the sacrament of Holy Orders.….254

During the celebration of a Holy Mass, the actual ordination of priests begins when the candidates are called by name.  After the bishop’s homily, the future priest promises obedience to the bishop and his successors.  The actual ordination takes place through the imposition of the bishop’s hands and his prayer.  215, 236, 259

“The priest continues (Christ’s) work of redemption on earth.”  St. John Vianney (1786-1859)

[1562-1568]

The ordination of priests - co-workers of the bishops

1562 "Christ, whom the Father hallowed and sent into the world, has, through his apostles, made their successors, the bishops namely, sharers in his consecration and mission; and these, in their turn, duly entrusted in varying degrees various members of the Church with the office of their ministry."(Lumen Gentium 28; compare John 10:36.)⁴³  "The function of the bishops' ministry was handed over in a subordinate degree to priests so that they might be appointed in the order of the priesthood and be co-workers of the episcopal order for the proper fulfillment of the apostolic mission that had been entrusted to it by Christ."(Presbyterorum Ordinis 2 § 2.)⁴⁴–Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

1563 "Because it is joined with the episcopal order the office of priests shares in the authority by which Christ himself builds up and sanctifies and rules his Body. Hence the priesthood of priests, while presupposing the sacraments of initiation, is nevertheless conferred by its own particular sacrament. Through that sacrament priests by the anointing of the Holy Spirit are signed with a special character and so are configured to Christ the priest in such a way that they are able to act in the person of Christ the head."(Presbyterorum Ordinis 2.)⁴⁵–CCC

1564 "Whilst not having the supreme degree of the pontifical office, and notwithstanding the fact that they depend on the bishops in the exercise of their own proper power, the priests are for all that associated with them by reason of their sacerdotal dignity; and in virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, after the image of Christ, the supreme and eternal priest, they are consecrated in order to preach the Gospel and shepherd the faithful as well as to celebrate divine worship as true priests of the New Testament."(Lumen Gentium 28; compare Hebrews 5:1-10; Heb 7:24; Hebrews 9:11-28-; Innocent I, Epist. ad Decentium:Patrologia Latina 20,554A; St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 2,22:PG 35,432B.)⁴⁶–CCC

1565 Through the sacrament of Holy Orders priests share in the universal dimensions of the mission that Christ entrusted to the apostles. The spiritual gift they have received in ordination prepares them, not for a limited and restricted mission, "but for the fullest, in fact the universal mission of salvation 'to the end of the earth,"'(Presbyterorum Ordinis 10; Optatam Totius 20; compare Acts of the Apostles 1:8.)⁴⁷ "prepared in spirit to preach the Gospel everywhere."(Optatam Totius 20.)⁴⁸–CCC

1566 "It is in the Eucharistic cult or in the Eucharistic assembly of the faithful (synaxis) that they exercise in a supreme degree their sacred office; there, acting in the person of Christ and proclaiming his mystery, they unite the votive offerings of the faithful to the sacrifice of Christ their head, and in the sacrifice of the Mass they make present again and apply, until the coming of the Lord, the unique sacrifice of the New Testament, that namely of Christ offering himself once for all a spotless victim to the Father."(Lumen Gentium 28; compare 1 Corinthians 11:26.)⁴⁹ From this unique sacrifice their whole priestly ministry draws its strength.(Compare Presbyterorum Odinis 2.)⁵⁰–CCC

1567 "The priests, prudent cooperators of the episcopal college and its support and instrument, called to the service of the People of God, constitute, together with their bishop, a unique sacerdotal college (presbyterium) dedicated, it is true, to a variety of distinct duties. In each local assembly of the faithful they represent, in a certain sense, the bishop, with whom they are associated in all trust and generosity; in part they take upon themselves his duties and solicitude and in their daily toils discharge them."(Lumen Gentium 28 § 2.)⁵¹ Priests can exercise their ministry only in dependence on the bishop and in communion with him. The promise of obedience they make to the bishop at the moment of ordination and the kiss of peace from him at the end of the ordination liturgy mean that the bishop considers them his co-workers, his sons, his brothers and his friends, and that they in return owe him love and obedience. –CCC

1568 "All priests, who are constituted in the order of priesthood by the sacrament of Order, are bound together by an intimate sacramental brotherhood, but in a special way they form one priestly body in the diocese to which they are attached under their own bishop. . . ."(Presbyterorum Ordinis 8.)⁵²The unity of the presbyterium finds liturgical expression in the custom of the presbyters' imposing hands, after the bishop, during the rite of ordination. –CCC

Sacrament  Ordination