Definition of the Priest

A priest is a man called by God and empowered by the Holy Ghost to act in the person of Christ as co-worker of the Episcopal order in serving the needs of God’s people through the ministry of word, sacrament and pastoral leadership. In carrying out this task the priest is to be a living sacrament of Christ the Shepherd, to whom he is configured through the sacrament of Holy Orders.

Priests, as co-workers with their bishops, have as their primary duty the proclamation of the gospel to all. In this way they carry out the Lord’s command, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature”…Priests owe it to everybody to share with them the truth of the Gospel. Therefore whether they proclaim the mystery of Christ to unbelievers, or teach the Christian faith, or explain the Church’s teaching, or treat contemporary problems in light of Christ’s teaching—in every case their role is to teach not their own wisdom, but the Word of God, and to summon all people urgently to conversion and to holiness.

Priests partake in the function of Christ the sole Mediator and thus announce the divine word to all. They exercise this sacred function most of all at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass where they act in the person of Christ and proclaim His mystery. Priests join the offering of the faithful to the sacrifice of the Head and in a movement of ascending mediation they lead the people in prayer to God. The priest does not exercise a role of mediation different from that of Christ, who is mankind’s one and all sufficient mediator. Rather, he is the instrument through whom Christ continues to exercise His mediation in the world.

Because it is joined with the Episcopal order, the office of priests shares in the authority by which Christ Himself builds up and sanctifies and rules His Body. To the degree of their authority and in the name of their bishop, priests exercise the office of Christ the Head and the Shepherd. Thus they gather God’s family together as a brotherhood of living unity, and lead it through Christ and in the Holy Ghost to God the Father. For the exercise of this ministry, as for other priestly duties, spiritual power is conferred upon them for the up building of the Church.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching