Exodus 19:6 were priests. St. Jude tells us that some Christians in his day
(despite 1 Pet. 2:5-9) were guilty of the same sin when he states, “Woe to
them! For they walk in the way of Cain, and abandon themselves for the
sake of gain to Balaam’s error, and perish in Korah’s rebellion” (Jude
1:11).
In Old Testament Israel there were three levels of priests: the people of
Israel as a whole (Exod. 19:6); the ministerial priests chosen from the tribe
of Levi (Num. 3:5); and the High Priest (Exod. 31:30). This three-tiered
model of the priesthood was carried over and reflected in the people of God
of the New Testament: the universal priests are now the entire body of the
baptized (1 Pet. 2:5-9); the ministerial priests the ordained successors to the
Apostles (Rom. 15:16); and the High Priest is Jesus Christ (Heb. 3:1). In
both the Old and New Testaments, therefore, the fact that the entire body of
believers were regarded as priests was no obstacle to the existence of a
separate ministerial priesthood.
It is in the Catholic Church with her ordained hierarchical priesthood that
the laity can be truly a “priesthood of all believers.” It is the Catholic
Church that encourages its membership to “take up their cross,” to “drink
His cup,” to offer up their sufferings as a victim, to help orphans and
widows, to abstain from the defilements of the world, and to give alms.
These are regarded as acts of true worship and as sacrifices “acceptable and
pleasing to God” (Phil. 4:18). A Christianity that does not demand moral
change or good works to be justified, insisting simply on the sufficiency of
fiducial faith, is more a denial of the common priesthood than the
ministerial priesthood.
According to Catholic teaching, a man becomes a minister or priest through
the imposition of hands made by a bishop who at the same time recites the
solemn words of consecration as contained in the respective rites of
ordination for deacon, priest and bishop. One ordained as a bishop receives
the power to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to forgive sins, to
confirm and to ordain. The episcopate is not a sacrament distinct from the
priesthood, but rather its full expression. A bishop also has authority to
teach and guarantee the continuity of the Catholic Faith in his diocese and
to decide on questions relating to faith and morals: “Take heed to
yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you
overseers” (Acts 20:28). The bishops of the world together with the Pope
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