The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms priest refers only to presbyters and pastors (parish priests). The church's doctrine also sometimes refers to all baptised (lay) members as the "common priesthood",[1][2] which can be confused with the ministerial priesthood of the consecrated clergy.
The church has different rules for priests in the Latin Church–the largest Catholic particular church–and in the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches. Notably, priests in the Latin Church must take a vow of celibacy, whereas most Eastern Catholic Churches permit married men to be ordained.[3] Deacons are male and usually belong to the diocesan clergy, but, unlike almost all Latin Church (Western Catholic) priests and all bishops from Eastern or Western Catholicism, they may marry as laymen before their ordination as clergy.[4] Priesthood is open only to men; women are excluded. The Catholic Church teaches that when a man participates in priesthood after the Sacrament of Holy Orders, he acts in persona Christi Capitis, representing the person of Christ.[5]
Unlike usage in English, "the Latin words sacerdos and sacerdotium are used to refer in general to the ministerial priesthood shared by bishops and presbyters. The words presbyter, presbyterium and presbyteratus refer to priests in the English use of the word or presbyters."[6] According to the Annuario Pontificio 2016, as of December 31, 2014, there were 415,792 Catholic priests worldwide, including both diocesan priests and priests in the religious orders.[7] A priest of the regular clergy is commonly addressed with the title "Father" (contracted to Fr, in the Catholic and some other Christian churches).[8]
Catholics living a consecrated life or monasticism include both the ordained and unordained. Institutes of consecrated life, or monks, can be deacons, priests, bishops, or non-ordained members of a religious order. The non-ordained in these orders are not to be considered laypersons in a strict sense—they take certain vows and are not free to marry once they have made solemn profession of vows. All female religious are non-ordained; they may be sisters living to some degree of activity in a communal state, or nuns living in cloister or some other type of isolation. The male members of religious orders, whether living in monastic communities or cloistered in isolation, and who are ordained priests or deacons constitute what is called the religious or regular clergy, distinct from the diocesan or secular clergy. Those ordained priests or deacons who are not members of some sort of religious order (secular priests) most often serve as clergy to a specific church or in an office of a specific diocese or in Rome.[9]
^Lumen Gentium 10
^"Catechism of the Catholic Church – IntraText". Retrieved 2 July 2016.
^Dragani, Anthony (2016). "Eastern Catholic Churches in the United States". In Kurian, George Thomas; Lamport, Mark A. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 745–746. ISBN 978-1442244320. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
^"Code of Canon Law – IntraText". Retrieved 2 July 2016.
^"Can a Woman Be a Priest in the Catholic Church?". Archived from the original on 31 May 2016. Retrieved 2 July 2016.
^Woestman, Wm., The Sacrament of Orders and the Clerical State St Paul's University Press: Ottawa, 2006, p. 8, see also De Ordinatione
^Junno Arocho Esteves, Vatican statistics report increase in baptized Catholics worldwide, Catholic News Service (March 7, 2016).
^"Father". 4 October 2023.
^Cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 266
and 24 Related for: Priesthood in the Catholic Church information
Thepriesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of theCatholicChurch. Technically...
following categories: Left thepriesthood but remained Catholic (voluntary laicization) Left thepriesthood and theCatholicChurch altogether (voluntary laicization)...
The CatholicChurch sees thePriesthood as both a reflection of the ancient Jewish priesthoodinthe Temple, and the work of Jesus as priest. The liturgy...
Inthe years since World War II there has been a substantial reduction inthe number of priests per capita intheCatholicChurch, a phenomenon considered...
celibacy is the discipline within theCatholicChurch by which only unmarried men are ordained to the episcopate, to thepriesthoodinthe Latin Church (one...
Inthe liturgical traditions of theCatholicChurch, the term ordination refers to the means by which a person is included in one of the holy orders of...
universal priesthood precludes the ministerial priesthood (holy orders) found in some other churches, including Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. The inclusionary...
TheCatholicChurch, also known as the Roman CatholicChurch, is the largest Christian church, with 1.39 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2022...
modern term used intheCatholicChurch and Eastern CatholicChurches after the Second Vatican Council in reference to a college of priests, in active ministry...
Indians: Native Clergy inthe Presbyterian Church (University of Oklahoma Press, 2003) Marshall, Peter. TheCatholicPriesthood and the English Reformation...
Thepriesthood of Melchizedek is a role in Abrahamic religions, modelled on Melchizedek, combining the dual position of king and priest. Melchizedek is...
The Coptic CatholicChurch is an Eastern Catholic particular Churchin full communion with theCatholicChurch. Along with the Ethiopian Catholic Church...
an intention to create a priesthood different from the sacrificing priesthood of theCatholicChurch and to reduce ordination to a mere ecclesiastical...
The hierarchy of theCatholicChurch consists of its bishops, priests, and deacons. Inthe ecclesiological sense of the term, "hierarchy" strictly means...
The Eternal Priesthood is a book by Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, first published in 1883, discussing theCatholicpriesthood. The book defends a high...
their regime. Furthermore, the CatholicChurch has been criticized for not practicing ordination of women to thepriesthood, its handling of incidents of...
The Eastern CatholicChurches or Oriental CatholicChurches, also called the Eastern-Rite CatholicChurches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern...
punishment. The ban on thepriesthood affected Black members differently than it did in other churches because the LDS Church has a lay priesthoodin which...
Causation, Treatment and Prevention of the Crisis inthePriesthood by Dr. Conrad Baars, a Roman Catholic psychiatrist, and based on a study of 1500 priests...
seven sacraments of theCatholicChurch, which according to Catholic theology were instituted by Jesus Christ and entrusted to theChurch. Sacraments are...
The American National CatholicChurch (ANCC) is an Independent Catholicchurch established in 2009. The ANCC was founded with the mission of fully implementing...
The Polish National CatholicChurch (PNCC; Polish: Polski Narodowy Kościół Katolicki, PNKK) is an independent Old Catholicchurch based inthe United States...