Holy Orders
“I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through
the laying on of my hands...” (2 Tim. 1:6).
The sacrament of Holy Orders is that sacrament which imparts to man the
gift of the Holy Spirit to worthily perform the holy functions of deacon,
priest or bishop. One in Orders is a mediator between God and men,
offering the homage of the faithful to God and, in return, bringing down
from God to them His graces and blessings. At the Last Supper Christ
consecrated bread and wine into His Body and Blood and then told His
Apostles to “Do this in remembrance of me” (St. Luke 22:19). By these
words Christ ordained them priests to offer the sacrifice of the Mass and act
as “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4:1), including forgiving the
sins of others (St. John 20:23).
The matter of the sacrament of Orders is the imposition of hands made by
the bishop; the form the various solemn words of consecration found in the
Rites of Ordination for deacon, priest and bishop invoking God to bestow
on the ordinand the graces of the Holy Spirit related to each ministry.
Orders bestows:
(i)
the sacramental Character, the indelible mark on the soul with
gives the power for the exercise of the order conferred.
(ii)
sanctifying grace.
(iii)
sacramental grace and special actual graces needed for the worthy
discharge of the sacred functions.
Any baptized male is an eligible candidate for Holy Orders. This is a law
not of the Church’s own making but, as successive Popes have reaffirmed
in recent decades, one given to Her by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and
therefore cannot be altered:
“She (the Catholic Church) holds that it is not admissible to ordain
women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These
reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of
Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant
practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only
men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held
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