Whoever claims that the priesthood of the Church is outdated because “every believer is a priest” reveals a gross ignorance of Holy Scripture, apostolic tradition, and the divine will as preserved by the Church since the days of the Apostles.
For it is true: through holy baptism, the Christian is incorporated into the royal priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices—prayer, praise, and witness. But it is false and pernicious to claim that this suffices to make the true priesthood, instituted by Christ himself, superfluous. Scripture attests to no such upheaval, but rather to a sacred order.
When the Lord gave his apostles the authority to forgive sins, he did not speak to all disciples, but to the Twelve: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.” These words were not merely a reminder of the general priesthood of the baptized, but the conferral of a priestly power that is bestowed only through divine ordination.
When at the Last Supper he said: “Do this in memory of me,” he did not place the eucharistic sacrifice into the hands of all, but entrusted it to those whom he himself had called and sent. They alone henceforth acted in his person, as Paul confesses: “So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.”
The Church understood this from the very beginning. Already Saint Ignatius of Antioch testifies: Where the bishop is, there is the community, and only the Eucharist celebrated under the bishop or someone appointed by him is valid. The sacrifice of the Eucharist, which stands at the center of the New Covenant, cannot be arbitrarily offered by any believer, as if it were a possession to be managed at will.
Whoever therefore claims that every Christian is equally a priest as the ordained minister of the Church, destroys the sacramental order instituted by Christ himself. He strikes the head who has ordered the body. He uproots what God has planted. He acts like Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who said: “The whole congregation is holy, why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” But the Lord has not called all to offer the sacrifice, but only those whom he has appointed through the laying on of hands and prayer.
Thomas Aquinas clearly distinguishes between the spiritual sacrifice offered by every believer and the sacramental sacrifice that belongs only to the ordained priest. In the Mass, the priest does not act on his own, but in persona Christi capitis. It is Christ himself who speaks through him: “This is my body.” No layperson can validly pronounce these words. Whoever nevertheless attempts it acts against the head of Christ and against the bride, the Church.
The Council of Trent affirms with apostolic authority: Whoever denies that the priesthood of the New Covenant was instituted by Christ himself, let him be excluded. The Second Vatican Council also teaches unequivocally that the common priesthood differs from the ministerial priesthood not only in degree, but in essence.
The Catholic Church teaches what has always and everywhere been believed: God is a God of order. Sacramental ordination is not a human invention, but a divine institution. Whoever denies it cuts himself off from the fullness of faith and sets himself against what the Lord himself has done.
Therefore, we reject with all clarity any teaching that flattens the priesthood, disregards the sacrament, and deprives the altar of its rights. Not everyone is a priest of Christ. Only those who have received through the laying on of hands and ordination what Christ has given to his Church may stand at the altar and perform the sacrifice that unites heaven and earth. Anything else is presumption and leads to apostasy.