---
title: "Why does the Church have bishops and priests?"
url: "https://seekabove.com/answers/why-does-the-church-have-priests"
description: "The Church has bishops and priests because Jesus chose to keep serving his people through human beings, not around them. He commissioned the apostles to teach, forgive sins, and offer the Eucharist i…"
published: "2026-06-05"
updated: "2026-06-05"
category: "The Church"
scripture: ["John 20:21-23", "Luke 22:19", "Acts 14:23", "2 Timothy 1:6", "Hebrews 5:1"]
catechism: "CCC 874–875, 877, 880, 886, 888, 893, 896"
---

# Why does the Church have bishops and priests?

## Short answer

The Church has bishops and priests because Jesus chose to keep serving his
people through human beings, not around them. He commissioned the apostles to
teach, forgive sins, and offer the Eucharist in his name, and that commission
has been handed on through ordination ever since. A priest acts not on his own
authority but as an instrument through whom Christ himself continues to shepherd
and feed his Church.

## Full explanation

Jesus could have arranged things so that every believer dealt with God in
complete isolation, with no human go-betweens. Instead he did something more
personal and more communal: he chose particular men, lived with them, formed
them, and then sent them out with real authority — "as the Father has sent me,
so I send you." He told them to baptize, to teach everything he had commanded,
to do the Eucharist "in memory" of him, and he breathed on them the power to
forgive sins. The ordained ministry of the Church grows directly out of that
sending.

It helps to think of ordination as a commission that gets handed on, like a
flame passed from candle to candle. The apostles laid hands on successors —
Scripture shows them appointing leaders in each town — and those successors did
the same, in an unbroken line down to today's bishops. A bishop holds the
fullness of this ministry; priests share in it as his close co-workers, and
deacons assist in service. This is what "apostolic succession" means: today's
bishops are linked, through that long chain of laying-on of hands, to the very
men Jesus chose.

The key thing to grasp is that a priest is a **channel, not a source**. When he
absolves a sinner in confession or speaks the words of consecration at Mass, the
forgiveness and the gift are not his own to manufacture; Christ is the one
acting, using the priest as his hands and voice. The Church captures this by
saying the priest acts *in the person of Christ the head* — Christ shepherds his
flock through him. That is also why the validity of a sacrament doesn't hang on
the holiness of the particular minister: a weak or sinful priest can still be a
genuine conduit of Christ's grace, because the grace was never coming from him
in the first place.

This ordained ministry exists for the sake of everyone else, not above them.
Bishops and priests are given so that the whole people of God can be taught
reliably, fed at the altar, reconciled when they sin, and led as a community
rather than a crowd. Their authority is real, but it is the authority of a
servant entrusted with someone else's house — answerable to Christ, the true
shepherd and high priest.

Seen this way, the priesthood is less a privileged caste and more a guarantee:
it ensures that the things Jesus established — his teaching, his forgiveness, his
Eucharist — keep being available to ordinary people, in every generation and
every place, with a clear line back to him.

## Why this matters

Because of the ordained ministry, you don't have to wonder whether the
sacraments you receive are valid or whether the faith you're taught is the real
thing. There is a visible, traceable connection back to the apostles and to
Christ himself. It also means the Church can never shrink to a private project:
there will always be shepherds charged with feeding and guarding the flock,
precisely so that grace is offered to all and not hoarded by a few.

## Common misunderstanding

A frequent objection is that priests set themselves up as a barrier between
believers and God. In fact the priesthood exists to do the opposite — to make
Christ's forgiveness and his Eucharist physically available to people, rather
than leaving them out of reach. The priest is not a wall between you and God but
a doorway Christ chose to open; the grace passing through him is entirely God's.

## Scripture connections

- **John 20:21-23** — the risen Jesus sends the apostles as the Father sent him
  and gives them authority to forgive sins.
- **Luke 22:19** — at the Last Supper, Jesus commands "do this in memory of me,"
  entrusting the Eucharist to the apostles.
- **Acts 14:23** — Paul and Barnabas appoint leaders (presbyters) in each church,
  showing ministry being handed on.
- **2 Timothy 1:6** — Paul speaks of a gift given through the laying on of hands,
  language echoed in ordination.
- **Hebrews 5:1** — every high priest is taken from among the people to act on
  their behalf in the things of God.

## Church teaching references

- CCC 874, 875, 877, 880, 886, 888, 893, 896
- The Second Vatican Council's *Lumen Gentium* (1964) sets out the role of bishops
  as successors of the apostles and the priesthood that serves God's people.
- The Council of Trent's *Decree on the Sacrament of Order* affirms holy orders
  as instituted by Christ.

## Reflection question

When you receive a sacrament from a priest, can you look past the man to the
Christ who is acting through him — and how might that change the way you approach
confession or the Eucharist?