Is everything in the Twelve Apostles intransmissible?

What authority do bishops have?

The Council of Trent teaches that “the bishops, who have succeeded the apostles, principally constitute the hierarchical order and have been placed by the Holy Spirit to govern the Church of God”; Dz 960. The First Vatican Council declared: “Therefore, just as Jesus sent the apostles whom he had chosen from the world, as he himself had been sent by the Father (Jn 20:21), in the same way he willed that in his Church there should be pastors and teachers until the consummation of the ages”; Dz 1821. Such pastors and teachers are the bishops, successors of the apostles; Dz 1828: “episcopi, qui positi a Spiritu Sancto in Apostolorum locum successerunt” (“the bishops, established by the Holy Spirit, succeeded to the place of the apostles”).

The perpetuation of hierarchical powers is a necessary consequence of the indefectibility of the Church, willed and guaranteed by Christ. The promise Christ made to his apostles that he would assist them until the end of the world (Mt 28:20) presupposes that the ministry of the apostles would be perpetuated in the successors of the apostles.

In accordance with Christ’s command, they communicated their powers to other persons; for example, Saint Paul to Timothy and Titus. Cf. 2 Tim 4:2-5; Tit 2:1 (power to teach); 1 Tim 5:19-21; Tit 2:15 (power to govern); 1 Tim 5:22; Tit 1:5 (power to sanctify). In these two disciples of the Apostle the monarchical episcopate that exercises the apostolic ministry appears for the first time with complete clarity. The “angels” of the seven communities of Asia Minor (Rev 2-3), according to the traditional interpretation (which has not lacked opponents), are precisely the bishops of those communities.

The disciple of the apostles SAINT CLEMENT OF ROME tells us the following concerning the transmission of hierarchical powers by the apostles: “They preached in the provinces and cities, and, after testing the spirit of their firstfruits, they appointed them as bishops and deacons of those who were to believe in the future” (Letter to the Corinthians 42, 4); “Our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that disputes would arise over the episcopal office. For this reason, having perfect foreknowledge, they appointed the persons mentioned above and afterwards gave them the instruction that, when they died, other approved men should succeed them in their ministry” (ibid. 44, 1-2). SAINT IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH bears witness, at the beginning of the second century, that at the head of the communities of Asia Minor and even “in the most remote countries” (Letter to the Ephesians 3, 2) there was a single bishop in whose hands lay the whole religious and disciplinary government of the community. “Let no one do anything concerning the Church without the bishop. Let that Eucharist alone be considered valid which is celebrated by the bishop or by someone delegated by him. Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be, just as wherever Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not permitted to baptize without the bishop, nor to celebrate the agape; but whatever he approves is pleasing to God, so that everything done may be secure and legitimate… Whoever honors the bishop is honored by God; whoever does anything without the bishop is serving the devil” (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 8, 1-2; 9, 1). In every community there exist, besides the bishop and under him, other ministers: presbyters and deacons.

According to SAINT JUSTIN MARTYR, “the one who presides over the brethren” (that is, the bishop) is the one who celebrates the liturgy (Apol. 1, 65 and 67). SAINT IRENAEUS considers the uninterrupted succession of bishops from the apostles to be the surest guarantee of the integral tradition of Catholic doctrine: “We can enumerate the bishops instituted by the apostles and all those who have succeeded them down to our own time” (Adv. haer. III 3, 1). But, since it would be very lengthy to enumerate the apostolic succession of all the Churches, the saint limits himself to pointing out that of the Church “which is the greatest and most ancient and known to all, founded and established at Rome by the two most glorious apostles Peter and Paul”. He gives us the oldest list of the bishops of the Roman Church, beginning with the “blessed apostles” and reaching Eleutherius, the twelfth successor of the apostles (ibid. III, 3, 3). Of Saint Polycarp, SAINT IRENAEUS tells us (ibid. III, 3, 4) that he was appointed bishop of Smyrna “by the apostles” —according to TERTULLIAN (De praescr. 32), by the apostle Saint John—. TERTULLIAN, like Saint Irenaeus, grounds the truth of Catholic doctrine in the apostolic succession of the bishops (De praescr. 32).

Author: Ludwig Ott

Source: Manual of Dogmatic Theology, Editorial Herder, Barcelona, 1986, pp. 422-424