Catholic Church Law, Structure, and Governance

Last night somebody asked the following question:

“How do we know the origin of ordination of our priests and that it links back to the apostles?”

The answer I gave was the following (edited for brevity):

“Priests are ordained by bishops. For each bishop we have a complete lineage that dates back to the original apostles.”

This answer, I double checked, is correct. In fact, I learned from one of my classmate-priests that the archives in the Vatican have complete apostolic succession documentation for all bishops in the world. Nevertheless, I could not answer the follow-on question which was:

“When did the Church begin documenting these lines of succession?”

I once again followed up with one of my classmates, who knows much more about these matters than I do, and the answer I got was: “Very early. Already by the time of St. Iraneus (ca. 120 AD) the practice was well established. The importance of succession and of the laying of hands was clear to the earliest fathers as early as we can trace".

I hope this is helpful.

Welcome to this blog.

My hope is that this will serve as a forum for folks attending the lectures Fr. Pollard organized to ask questions, share ideas, or generally interact with each other.

I will create new topics from time to time (or, if you would like a topic started for discussion, send me an email) and allow the entire membership to contribute.

I’ve made this blog only accessible to people I invite and approve on an individual basis, so you should not feel concerned about the public viewing your ideas and thoughts.

As a start-off question, can anybody identify the image (I know it’s very small) I’ve attached to this note?