Ecclesial Ministry In The Church

By DON FIER

The Christian faithful, as we saw last week, are comprised of all who have been incorporated in Christ through the saving waters of Baptism. As taught by the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC): “From the baptismal fonts is born the one People of God of the New Covenant, which transcends all the natural or human limits of nations, cultures, races, and sexes” (n. 1267).
Each member of the faithful, from the Pope to the newborn infant who has just been baptized, is equal in dignity as a child of God. Likewise, all are called, each in accordance with the gifts he or she has received, to “cooperate in the building up of the Body of Christ” (CCC, n. 872).
Moreover, through baptismal rebirth, we “have become sharers in Christ’s priestly, prophetic, and royal office” (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCCC], n. 177). That each baptized Christian is called to the common priesthood of Christ is clear in Scripture: “Like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).
There is a wide diversity of gifts, and the level of ability bestowed on each varies greatly, but all are called to participate in “the mission which God has entrusted to the Church to fulfill in the world” (CCC, n. 871).
We also saw last week that there are three general types of vocations by which the faithful are called to share in the threefold office of Christ. “By divine institution there exist sacred ministers who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders [bishops, priests, and deacons] and who form the hierarchy of the Church. The other members of the Church [who serve in the midst of the world] are called the laity. In both the hierarchy and the laity there are certain of the faithful who are consecrated in a special manner to God by the profession of the evangelical counsels: chastity or celibacy, poverty, and obedience” (CCCC, n. 178). It is the first of these three general vocations that the Catechism now examines: the hierarchy, or the ecclesial ministry.
The faithful are first reminded of the foundational importance of recognizing that “Christ is himself the source of ministry in the Church. He instituted the Church. He gave her authority and mission, orientation and goal” (CCC, n. 874). The fathers of the Second Vatican Council emphatically emphasize this truth in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church:
“For the nurturing and constant growth of the People of God, Christ the Lord instituted in His Church a variety of ministries, which work for the good of the whole body. For those ministers, who are endowed with sacred power, serve their brethren, so that all who are of the People of God, and therefore enjoy a true Christian dignity, working toward a common goal freely and in an orderly way, may arrive at salvation” (Lumen Gentium [LG], n. 18 §1).
So why do the People of God need the ecclesial ministry? In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul alludes to an answer to this question by asking a series of rhetorical questions: “How are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14-15).
One might argue that Christ Himself preached to the whole people during His public ministry. However, it is likewise true that the Lord “called the Twelve into his more intimate following and let them participate in a special way in his mission (Mark 3:13-19; 6:6b-13)” (German Bishops’ Conference, The Church’s Confession of Faith [CCF], pp. 243-244). It was they who were specially empowered by Christ.
Simply put, as the Catechism teaches, “No one — no individual and no community — can proclaim the Gospel to himself. . . . No one can give himself the mandate and the mission to proclaim the Gospel. . . . No one can bestow grace on himself; it must be given and offered” (CCC, n. 875).
It was for this reason that Christ explicitly chose and specially trained the apostles — so that they could understand His message and continue His ministry. He gave them the charism and the power to proclaim the Good News, to heal the sick and to forgive sins, to expel demons, to administer the sacraments in His name and by His authority.
Throughout the course of history, it is in and through Jesus Christ that bishops and priests continue to receive “the sacred power” to act in persona Christi Capitis (in the person of Christ the Head). “In the ecclesial service of the ordained minister,” the Catechism explains, “it is Christ himself who is present to his Church as Head of his Body, Shepherd of his flock, high priest of the redemptive sacrifice, Teacher of Truth” (CCC, n. 1548).
Likewise, it is in and through Christ that “deacons receive the strength to serve the people of God in the diaconia [service] of liturgy, word, and charity, in communion with the bishop and his presbyterate” (CCC, n. 875). The Sacrament of Holy Orders is the means through which the ministry of the Church is conferred, the means by which “the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time” (CCC, n. 1536).
From her very beginning, as recorded in the New Testament, there is evidence of particular ministerial offices in the Church. In letters to various communities, St. Paul refers to superiors and laborers in ecclesial service (see 1 Thess. 5:12) and speaks of deacons and bishops (see Phil. 1:1). Elders (or presbyters) are mentioned frequently throughout the Acts of the Apostles. There has been a range of office structures and titles in the Church, then, from apostolic times.
Thus, “the office of proclamation and leadership, the carrying on of the Apostles’ activity, took on an essential meaning quite early. Evangelists, pastors, and teachers (Eph. 4:11), resting on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets (Eph. 2:20), see to the upbuilding of the body of Christ, of the Church. They guarantee continuity with the apostolic origin and foster the unity of all believers (Eph. 4:13)” (CCF, p. 244).
As far back as the early second century (~AD 110), St. Ignatius of Antioch bears witness to the exercise of the ordained ministry within a three-tiered structure: “a bishop as leader of the local Church, the presbyters who assist him, and the deacons who look after certain liturgical functions and the charitable ministries” (ibid.).

A Collegial Form

The Catechism now makes a vital distinction in its exposition on the hierarchical offices of the Church: “Intrinsically linked to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry is its character as service” (CCC, n. 876). Just as “the Son of man came not to be served but to serve” (Matt. 20:28a), so too are ecclesial ministers not to “lord it over” (Mark 10:42) those under their charge, but to act as “slaves of Christ” in service to their flock. They are to take Christ as their model and imitate Him who “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7), and gave “his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28b).
“Likewise, it belongs to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry that it have a collegial character” (CCC, n. 877). What is meant by the word collegiality? As defined by the Catechism, it is “the principle that all the bishops of the Church with the Pope at their head form a single ‘college,’ which succeeds in every generation the ‘college’ of the Twelve Apostles, with Peter at their head, which Christ instituted as the foundation of the Church. This college of bishops together with, but never without, the Pope has supreme and full authority over the universal Church” (CCC, Glossary).
Similarly, “it belongs to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry that it have a personal character” (CCC, n. 878). Jesus says to each who is called to the ordained ministry, “Follow me!” (John 21:22). Each must witness personally and bear personal responsibility for the mission entrusted to him. Yet, “the ministerial character of the ecclesiastical office also requires that the office never be conferred on the individual alone, but on the individual only in communion with other officeholders, as a participation in the one common office” (CCF, p. 246).
Each bishop holds his office within the college of bishops and acts in communion with them and under the Vicar of Christ (cf. Christus Dominus, n. 4; LG, nn. 22-23). Each priest holds his office within a diocese and under his bishop (cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis, nn. 7-8; LG, n. 28). “No individual priest and no individual bishop can fulfill his office in isolation as an individual, but only in brotherly connection and collaboration with others who exercise the same ministry” (CCF, p. 246). Thus, “sacramental ministry . . . has a personal character and a collegial form” (CCC, n. 879).

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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)