The sacrament of Holy Orders originates in Christ’s will to provide a number of His disciples, with a wider participation in their own consecration and mission, as ministers who in His name would have carried out the priestly functions.

The fundamental issue is that of the priesthood of Christ. A Son "that the Father has consecrated and sent into the world"(John 10,36).In Him a new, rich and perfect ministry was achieved. He wished to communicate this participation to those who were later called upon to follow Him, and in particular a group of twelve called the apostles. In saying that Jesus "appointed the twelve", Mark the Evangelist (3,14.16) tends to present the creation of this group as a creation, which inaugurates a new people of God.

Because Jesus wanted to build a lasting Church, his calling of the twelve included the intention of providing them with successors. He therefore wanted, so as to nourish His Church, the presence of Bishops, just as He wanted perpetual successors for the universal pastoral authority entrusted to Peter. The Second Vatican Council recognised even better the consequences of Christ’s wishes, teaching the sacredness of the episcopacy: " Episcopal consecration the fullness of the sacrament of Orders is conferred, that fullness of power, namely, which both in the Church's liturgical practice and in the language of the Fathers of the Church is called the high supreme power of the sacred ministry." (LG 21).

A problem also remains concerning the origins of the presbyterate. The Council does not state that Christ specifically wanted the presbyterate. It only says that "The ministerial function of bishops was transferred to the deacons at a subordinated level, so that they, organised in the Order of deacons, could co-operate in the Episcopal order, for the righteous achievement of the apostolic mission entrusted to them by Christ" (PO 2).

Fortunately, the Gospels provide us with further illumination on this matter. They show us Jesus surrounded by many disciples. Among these disciples twelve are chosen. The disciples are not simple believers; they are those who followed Jesus and wish to dedicate themselves to His kingdom. In the language of the Gospels, the word "disciple" has always had this meaning. Hence it is explained that Jesus invites these disciples on a mission. Luke’s gospel reports in a clearly distinct manner the mission entrusted to the twelve and also another mission: "The Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them before Him, two and two, into all the cities and villages He himself was to visit"(10,3). He speaks of a mission to those disciples as He had done with the other twelve.

If we compare the two missions, we observe that the object is the same: preaching the good news. These seventy-two disciples are provided, just like the twelve, with Christ’s authority in their teachings.

But they also receive a guarantee: "He who listens to you, listens to me, he who despises you, despises Me, and despises Him that sent Me"(10,16). The power conferred upon the two groups is analogous. In particular the power to expel demons explicitly granted to the twelve (Mark 3,15), is also exercised by the seventy-two and Jesus Himself proclaims it to be effective: "I watched while Satan was cast down like a lightening flash from Heaven. Behold, I have given you the right to trample on snakes and scorpions, and all the power of the enemy..." (Luke 10,17-19).

In this there is Christ’s wish to create, with the twelve, many disciples that would help them in accomplishing their mission. The twelve preserve a superior authority, but the mission is similar. Therefore Jesus wanted the twelve to be surrounded by numerous co-operators, with a priestly role similar to theirs. He founded the hierarchy that was to include not only bishops but also many deacons.

If in the Church’s current life deacons exercise the wonderful power of pronouncing forgiveness for sins and above all the power to offer the Body and Blood that nourish humanity with divine life, they owe this to the will of Christ who called a large number of disciples to the authentic and elevated ministry of priesthood.

1 The priesthood of Christ

Because the sacrament of the Holy Orders allows man to participate in the priesthood of Christ, Christ remains the reference point in any considerations about priesthood. It is a question of understanding first of all in what sense Christ was a priest.

Jesus never referred to Himself as a priest because He wished to avoid any identification with the Levitic priesthood. In the parabola of the Good Samaritan, He manifests a reproach to contemporary priests: a legalism that did without charity. The parabola teaches that mercy will be at the centre of the new priesthood.

Jesus reveals His intentions of creating another priesthood, with a transcendent nature, a qualified priesthood such as that of Melchisedek. In the trial held in front of the Sanhedrin, in answering the high priest’s question of His identity, He refers to the beginning of Psalm 110: "Sit at my right" with the aim of attributing to Himself the following words "You are a priest forever in the manner of Melchisedek". This allusion is once again repeated and developed in the Letter to the Hebrews, that interpretates Melchisedek as a person "no date of birth or of death, there he stands, the true figure of the Son of God", who is superior to Abraham and eternally a priest (7,3).

The two fundamental aspects of priesthood are perfectly manifest in Christ: the consecration, which involves His entire human being and His entire human existence with the sanctity of the Son of God made man, and the mission, consumed in the offering of the sacrifice of redemption and in the elevation to heavenly glory, with the gift of a new life for mankind.

So as to express this mission within the framework of earthly life, Jesus defines Himself as the Good Shepherd, specifying that the good shepherd "lays down his life for his sheep" (John 10,11). With this personal offering of His own life, He accomplishes within Himself the ideal prophetic figure of the servant: "So it is that the Son of Man did not come to have service done to him, he came to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for the lives of many" (Mark 10,45; Matt. 20,28). This humble service qualifies the pastoral mission in the sense of the most sincere love.

3*The priesthood of the Apostles and the Disciples

With His teachings, Jesus wished to reach out to all men and allow everyone to participate in His own priesthood, to take part in the sanctity that He Himself was endowed with. Founding a new people of God, He created a universal priesthood, common to all, with the capacity of offering spiritual sacrifices, associated to the unique sacrifice of the crucifix.

With the call addressed to the disciples, He founded another participation in His own priesthood, a participation that consists in the ministry of priesthood. He expected from those He had called an availability to serve the Kingdom of God that he wished to establish on earth. At the end of his earthly life he clarified some of the fundamental duties that are part of this service. It meant the ministry of the word: "Go out all over the world and preach the Gospel to the whole of creation" (Mark 16,14). The ministry also involved the cult and the sacraments. In addition to the order to baptise in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28,19), they also were endowed with the power to forgive sins (John 20,22-23) and the apostles received the invitation to celebrate the Eucharistic Supper in memory of Christ. The ministry entrusted was also one of pastoral care, with authority, according to the words: "And as my Father has allotted a Kingdom to me, so I allot to you" (Luke 22,29). Jesus, who provided for the future of the Church, hence formulated three priestly functions: the Word, the cult and pastoral care.

In theological meditation there have been many attempts to reduce the three functions to a single one, but with the risk of not respecting their full value. The Council emphasised in particular the importance of the service of the word for bishops and for deacons (LG 25: PO 4), but it also placed the accent on the excellence of the Eucharist, affirming that the bishops "exercise above all their holy ministry in the Eucharistic cult or synaxis" (LG 28) and that 'the deacons exercise their main function in the Eucharistic mystery"(PO 13). Chronologically, the ministry of the word is the first one, since it is necessary for spreading the faith; but the religious ministry is more important when exercised during the Eucharistic celebration.

As far as the concept of minister is concerned, the Council has provided two meanings depending on the different texts. Sometimes it only indicates the direction of the functions or the organisation. More often it refers to the totality of the bishop’s or the deacon’s mission: the ministers’ objective is to "ensure priests for the people of God" (LG 18). The bishops " presiding in place of God over the flock, whose shepherds they are, as teachers for doctrine, priests for sacred worship, and ministers for governing."(LG 20).

– The first ordinations

The decisive role of Jesus’ initiative is manifest for the formations of the first priests. But we may ask if for the first apostles there was a kind of first ordination or whether the expression of Christ’s will was sufficient.

It seems that the Gospels report words and gestures made by Jesus that indicate a first ordination. Before He left us, He had defined the mission and the powers consigned to His disciples; He had prayed, in the priestly prayer, so as to ask the Father for their consecration: "consecrated in the truth" (John 17,17). Even the laying-on of the hands, which belongs to the rite of ordination, appears in Jesus’ final gesture when, before the Ascension, he lifted His hands to bless the Apostles, after promising them power from above through the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Luke 24,48-50).

Jesus’ words and gestures are a preamble for the Pentecost. In this event, the apostles received the Holy Spirit who made them capable of accomplishing the mission entrusted to them by Christ. The coming of the Spirit upon them had a similar effect to that of being ordained to priesthood.

In the Pentecost, the Holy Spirit created the birth of the Church with the spiritual gifts needed by each of its members. The Holy Spirit visited Mary so as to bestow upon her the gifts needed for exercising her spiritual motherhood. He came to the apostles as if to ordain them, introducing them fully to their participation in the priesthood of Christ. In this first ordination, unique in its kind, the words were pronounced by Jesus, the prayer and the hands imposed were His, the spiritual transformation for the mission was operated by the Holy Spirit.

The Acts of the Apostles have provided us with a certain amount of information about the first priestly ordination in the life of the Church (6,1-6). Their story about the ordination of the Seven had been understood, in a long lasting tradition, as the institution of deacons. But this interpretation has been contested, to the extent that the Council decided not to quote this text for founding the restoration of the permanent diaconate.

Discontent had appeared among the Greek speaking Jews because their widows were ignored in the "daily service". This service had been interpreted as a daily distribution of meals to the poor. Many clues however oppose this interpretation. There was not a distribution of meals, instead money was provided each week for the poor so as to provide for fourteen meals. Why should seven men have been nominated when three would have been enough for providing this service for the entire city of Jerusalem? Why summon the entire Christian community to solve such a small problem? Why call upon men "filled with the Holy Spirit and with knowledge" simply to provide a meal service?

As the context suggests, the "service in the refectories" must be understood following a religious and not a social interpretation: it is a reference to the bread that was cooked everyday in the homes (Àt 2,46). The "widows" are not needy people but women dedicated to the serving the Church (see 1 Tim 5,5). They complained because they were ignored, being unable to participate sufficiently in the Eucharist possibly because there were not enough celebrants who spoke Greek.

The problem therefore was finding a sufficient number of these celebrants. The solution came with the decision to ordain seven Greek speaking men. The first ordination of priests took place following the request of devout women, "widows who wished to benefit from a daily participation in the Eucharist, celebrated in their own language.

The "characteristics" of priesthood

The priestly ministry is a service, but it is not a service like all others. He who is committed to this service does so because he is consecrated. Christ’s priesthood means consecration and mission; in the priesthood of each priest there is always also consecration and mission, experienced in participation with the consecration and mission of Christ.

The personal consecration of a priest is emphasised by the doctrine of the "characteristics". This doctrine has been defined as a doctrine of faith at the Council of Trent. This Council states that in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and the Holy Orders "a certain characteristic is impressed upon the souls, meaning a certain spiritual and indelible mark, and for this reason cannot be repeated" (see DS 1609). For the Holy Orders the impression of this characteristic is more specifically emphasised (see DS 1767:1774).

This mark means that the entire person is consecrated in a definite manner and that the priest can never again become lay. With the Holy Orders, Christ has appropriated Himself of the entire being of the priest. He has made this human being his property so as to orientate all his activity towards the development of His Kingdom, through an eternal bond of reciprocal love.

A number of theologians during the Middle Ages recognised not only the mark of consecration in the sacramental characteristics, implying a more intimate belonging to Christ, but also a mark of configuration, that impresses the figure of Christ in the deepest realms of the soul. The human being is moulded according to a divine model; more exactly the priest is depicted as Christ the shepherd. The image of the Good Shepherd is impressed upon the soul of he who is ordained, as the beginning and the fundamental project of the ministry he is to perform.

If the priest is called with the particular title of "another Christ", it is not in virtue of a simple juridical law, but rather because of the figure of Christ the priest and the shepherd, impressed upon his soul, a figure destined to illuminate all priestly activities.

' The status of the priest

The priestly character, a mark of consecration and of the configuration to Christ, requires the priest to follow a certain particular life-style. This way of living was inaugurated by Jesus Himself during His priestly existence on earth; a life-style He wished to share with His disciples.

Among the requirements for a life belonging entirely to Christ and dedicated to the development of His kingdom, some are very important and have been the object of numerous controversies: renouncing a family and marriage, renouncing a career or a secular profession, abstaining from any active political commitment.

In recent controversies, exercising a secular profession, being actively committed politically or choosing to marry have been presented as man’s inalienable rights that priesthood cannot abolish. But a right is not a need: man has the right to be committed to a profession or an activity that exclude others; he has the right to renounce political or trade-union activities; he has the right to choose celibacy rather than marriage. He who commits himself to the priestly ministry exercises rights that are only his and is not deprived at all of his dignity or his responsibility for his own destiny.

The call to a consecrated life, dedicated to Christ and His kingdom, respects the freedom of those who are called. The episode in the Gospels of the rich man personally invited to give up all his worldly possessions to follow Christ is evidence of this freedom. Jesus looked upon him with deep love (Mark 10,21) and offered him the chance of living close to Him and sharing His mission, albeit preserving his freedom to the extent that the invitation, although seductive, was sadly turned down. When faced with the man’s hesitations when answering the call, Jesus did not back away so as to more easily obtain his consent; he did not change his conditions, proving that only the requirement of the highest forms of love can inspire a call.

In contrast with a man who is too attached to his riches, Peter appears as a model for those who have totally accepted all the conditions of the call. He asked Jesus: "And what of us who have forsaken all and we have followed you; what is left for us?" The Teacher answered adopting the authority that would be entrusted to the apostles for the new people of God and emphasising the greatness of renunciation: "And every man that has forsaken home or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive his reward a hundredfold and obtain everlasting life" ( Matt 19,27-29).

This text must be complete by Luke’s (18,29,-14,26), who quotes renouncing wives. Renouncing mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, runs parallel to renouncing a wife and children confirmed by his eulogy of voluntary celibacy (Matt 19,12).

In the words of Jesus we discover a triple fundamental renunciation: renouncing a family and marriage, renouncing worldly goods, renouncing a career. These renunciations touch upon the fundamental dimensions of human existence: the relational existence of man who, through a family and marriage, becomes part of society; the ‘having’ of man who through the ownership of possessions extends his power in the world and assures his material future; man’s activity through a profession provides for his existence and helps the development of social well-being. Hence with His call, Christ claims possession of the person with all his faculties.

Leaving everything so as to follow Christ: the formula used by Peter shows that he has understood the need for

universal renunciation inherent to the call and has fully accepted this. The vast horizon of renunciation helps to understand the meaning of celibacy, that is not only the renunciation of the flesh but the desire to establish a deeper adherence to Christ, recognising Him as the absolute reason for human life and the ever present friend who provides a superior value to each moment of one’s existence. The "abandoning of everything’ cannot be separated from "following Christ"; this must be deeply experienced so that the union with Christ, essential for all priestly activities in preaching, in the cult, as a living witness and in pastoral care, may produce its fruits.

10 The Apostles’ status in life

Many different opinions have been expressed concerning the Apostles’ status in life. The opinions are often based on what is said in the Apocrypha books. An accurate analysis actually proves that as far as all the apostles are concerned the only reliable information available in what we read in the Gospels.

In the Gospels, wives or children of apostles are never mentioned. The need to "leave" wives or children does not mean abandoning a wife or children but rather renouncing marriage and children. Jesus, who declared marriage indissoluble would never have separated a man from his wife. In view of the fact that He requested the will to leave everything so as to follow Him, He only called unmarried men and committed them to His life of celibacy. All the disciples, and among them also the Apostles, were therefore celibate.

Jesus lived in celibacy and wished to share this state with His disciples: He was among those who chose to be eunuchs for the love of the Kingdom (Matt 19,12). He encouraged this commitment, but He never laid down the law in this field; he promoted an ideal that was destined to grow with the development of the Church.

In the beginning, this ideal was experienced by the apostles, as witnessed by Paul, who claimed his right as an apostle to "travel about with a woman who is a sister, as the other apostles do, and as the Lord’s brethren do and Cephas" ( 1 Cor 9,5). Living in celibacy, the apostles benefited from the domestic services of a woman who accompanied them as a sister. Cephas, meaning Peter, therefore lived in celibacy.

The expression "woman sister" has often been interpreted incorrectly and translated as "woman believer". In fact, the apostles had applied the solution suggested by Jesus for the problem of domestic service for those living in celibacy: the presence of women (see Luke 8,2-3) who ministered these services maintaining their distance as "sisters".

During the first seven centuries many priest were still married, following the Jewish tradition of priesthood: but in the end the ideal of celibacy was accepted as a rule by the western Church.

- Peter’s status in life

Peter’s case deserves more attention, not only because he was the first head of the Church and exercised the highest level of the priestly ministry, but because he has been considered a married man, according to a tale in the Gospels that provided him with a "mother in-law".

But if he had been a married man, why is there no mention of a wife or of children? And how could he have most sincerely stated that: "We left everything and we followed You"? He was aware that he had made a great sacrifice, renouncing marriage and children. He could not have been married. Jesus would never have torn a man from his wife, and it is difficult to imagine Peter as a widower. He was not obliged to renounce; it was he who abandoned everything after making a personal decision. We are obliged to admit that Peter was unmarried and then lived voluntarily in celibacy.

If Peter had been married, one cannot understand why his house is indicated as "Simon and Andrew’s home", a home in which he was supposed to live with his brothers and his in-laws. In addition to this, the absence of a wife in the service is considerable. These difficulties disappear if we admit that Simon is in the home with his parents and we attribute to the word "penthera" (Mark 1,30), usually translated as "mother in-law", another meaning.

In essence the word "pentheros" describes a person who enters a family through an alliance, through marriage: a father in-law, a brother in-law, a son in-law. In the feminine it can describe a mother in-law but also a father’s second wife. One must assume that Simon’s father, following the death of his first wife, had remarried.

In the Gospels, all becomes clear if one admits that the "penthera" is Simon’s father’s second wife, the woman who welcomes and serves the guests.

It is Simon and Andrew’s home, their family’s home; neither was married.