Holy Orders
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Holy Orders
Holy Orders is a call from God, not to be confused with a career choice or a right that anyone can invoke. Like Matrimony, it is a Sacrament of Service or Vocation. Unlike the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist), which are intended for everyone in the Church, Holy Orders is a call given only to some and only to men. It is a gift given as God wills and the Church confirms, not because of what a man can do but because of what he has become through ordination.
There are three degrees of Holy Orders in the Catholic Church: Bishop, Priest, and Deacon.- Bishops receive the fullness of Holy Orders and can trace their ordination in succession all the way back to the Apostles themselves. The importance of this apostolic succession for the preservation of the Church’s teaching is clearly documented as early as the second century, and indeed in Scripture itself. Bishops receive the office of Jesus for sanctifying, teaching, and guiding or governing the faithful under their care. They are assigned by the Pope to serve the Church in a particular geographic area called a Diocese or Archdiocese, and they share in the Pope’s responsibility for the whole Church as his brothers.
- Priests are also ordained into Jesus’ ministerial priesthood, but to a lesser degree. They serve as co-workers with their bishops, to whom they promise obedience and by whom they are ordained, and he assigns them to serve the people in a particular parish or ministry and to share in his office of sanctifying, teaching, and governing. As priests, they receive from Christ the power to forgive sin and to offer the Mass.
- Deacons are also ordained by the bishop, but not to the priesthood. A deacon’s ministry is one of service, so that bishops and priests may focus primarily on those duties reserved to them. Deacons may assist at the Mass, preach and teach, witness and bless marriages, preside at funerals, baptize, and carry out works of charity, but they cannot hear confessions or offer the Mass.
"The discernment of a vocation is above all the fruit of an intimate dialogue between the Lord and his disciples. Young people, if they know how to pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God's call."
— Pope Benedict XVI, Response to questions by the bishops of the United States in Washington, D.C., April 16, 2008Stewards of Vocation
Jesus calls us as his disciples to a new way of life—the Christian way of life—of which stewardship is a part. But Jesus does not call us as nameless people in a faceless crowd. He calls individually, by name. Each one of us—clergy, religious, layperson, married, single, adult, child—has a personal vocation. God intends each one of us to play a unique role in carrying out the divine plan. The challenge, then, is to understand our role—our vocation—and to respond generously to this call from God. Christian vocation entails the practice of stewardship. In addition, Christ calls each of us to be stewards of our personal vocations, which we receive from God. —from the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults
- Bishops receive the fullness of Holy Orders and can trace their ordination in succession all the way back to the Apostles themselves. The importance of this apostolic succession for the preservation of the Church’s teaching is clearly documented as early as the second century, and indeed in Scripture itself. Bishops receive the office of Jesus for sanctifying, teaching, and guiding or governing the faithful under their care. They are assigned by the Pope to serve the Church in a particular geographic area called a Diocese or Archdiocese, and they share in the Pope’s responsibility for the whole Church as his brothers.
