Holy orders in the Catholic Church
This distinguishes men bound for priesthood from those who have entered the "permanent diaconate" and do not intend to seek ordination as a priest.
Priests are able to preach, perform baptisms, witness marriages, hear confessions and give absolutions, anoint the sick, and celebrate the Eucharist or the Mass.
In the Latin Church, usually only bishops may licitly administer the sacrament of confirmation, but if an ordinary priest administers that sacrament illicitly, without an indult (reserved to the Holy See prior to Vatican II, and reserved to the local Ordinary after the New Code of Canon Law was promulgated), it is nonetheless considered valid.
In Eastern Catholic Churches, confirmation is done by parish priests via the rite of chrismation, and is usually administered to both babies and adults immediately after their baptism.
Each promises to diligently perform the duties of the priesthood and to respect and obey his ordinary (bishop or religious superior).
The essential part of the rite is when the bishop silently lays his hands upon each candidate (followed by all priests present), before offering the consecratory prayer, addressed to God the Father, invoking the power of the Holy Spirit upon those being ordained.
After the consecratory prayer, the newly ordained is vested with the stole and chasuble of those belonging to the Ministerial Priesthood and then the bishop anoints his hands with chrism before presenting him with the chalice and paten which he will use when presiding at the Eucharist.
The laying of hands of the priesthood is found in 1 Timothy 4:14: The following is the full text of the Rite during the Mass (after the Gospel), taken from a program for an ordination of priests for the Diocese of Peoria in 2015: The Mass then proceeds as normal with the Liturgy of the Eucharist, with the newly ordained priests to the immediate right of the bishop and the other celebrants.
The ministry of the deacon in the Roman Catholic Church is described as one of service in three areas: the Word, the Liturgy and Charity.
The minor orders and the subdiaconate were not considered sacraments, and for simplicity were suppressed under Pope Paul VI in 1972.
A controversy in the Catholic Church over the question of whether Anglican holy orders are valid was settled by Pope Leo XIII in 1896, who wrote in Apostolicae curae that Anglican orders lack validity because the rite by which priests were ordained was not correctly performed from 1547 to 1553 and from 1558 to the 19th century, thus causing a break of continuity in apostolic succession and a break with the sacramental intention of the Church.
[3] Some Changes in the Anglican Ordinal since King Edward VI, and a fuller appreciation of the pre-Reformation ordinals suggest, according to some private theologians, that the correctness of the dismissal of Anglican orders may be questioned; however Apostolicae curae remains the definitive teaching of the Catholic Church and was reinforced by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI.
Catholics are, according to Ad Tuendam Fidem and Cardinal Ratzinger, obliged to hold the position that Anglican orders are invalid.
The Lutheran Churches of Sweden and Finland from some point of view possibly possess valid apostolic succession.
