holy orders

The Sacrament of Holy Orders continues Jesus Christ’s priesthood, which He entrusted to His Apostles. The Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to the Sacrament of Holy Orders as “the sacrament of apostolic ministry.” From St. Peter and St. Paul through the ages, every ordination in the Catholic Church finds its origin in the 12 Apostles who Christ sent forth to administer the sacraments to the world. Ordination comes from the Latin word ordinem, which means to incorporate into an order. In the Sacrament of Holy Orders, a man is incorporated into the priesthood of Christ, at one of three levels: the episcopacy for a bishop, the presbytery for a priest, or the diaconate for a deacon.