Topic summary
Catholic priests
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Priesthood in the Catholic Church.
Theology of the priesthood
Catholic priests are ordained by bishops through the sacrament of holy orders. Catholic bishops are ordained in an unbroken line of apostolic succession back to the Twelve Apostles depicted in the Catholic Bible. The ceremony of Eucharist, which can only be confected by priests, in particular derives from the story of the Last Supper, when JesusChrist distributed bread and wine in the presence of the Twelve Apostles, in some versions of the Gospel of Luke commanding them to "do this in memory of me".