Priesthood

There is a sense that the parish priest, as a limb of the bishop, is called to represent Christ in a more holistic way than a non-ordained consecrated person. Where the religious brother or sister re-presents particular aspects of Jesus’s life and ministry, the parish priest when acting in Christ’s person re-presents the whole Christ, and this wholeness spills out into his entire ministry. A parish priest must, as St Paul puts it, be all things to all men and women in order to win some of them for Christ (see 1 Co 9:22). The parish priest has the responsibility to care for his flock, whoever they may be and, to a certain extent, whatever they may throw at him. His task is to preach, sanctify and govern under the authority of the bishop in whose ministry he participates.