Yesterday, Archbishop Nelson Pérez ordained eight men to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia at our Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul.  Our Deacon David Wang was ordained with them and will begin serving here in the Archdiocese when he starts his new appointment on 1 July.

Deacon David recently joined the St. Charles Borromeo ordination class of 2026 pictured above which includes those men who will be ordained on Saturday as well as over the next few weeks for the Dioceses of Allentown, Arlington, Bridgeport, Harrisburg and Lincoln as well as the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri.  It is an auspicious moment for the Church in these various dioceses.  This is the largest number of priests ordained for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia since I was ordained in 1978; there were 10 in my ordination class.

As we share in the joy of those being ordained to the ministerial priesthood, I would like to offer some reflections on the priesthood.

The English word “priest” derives from the Greek word “presbyteros” meaning “elder.”  In the Greek speaking Jewish world, it referred to Jewish leaders such as the members of the Sanhedrin.  The early Christian community took this term to speak of a Christian leader, elder or minister.  For them, the word was used interchangeably with “episkopos” meaning “overseer,” or “guardian,” from which we have derived the word bishop.  You will recall from the Acts of the Apostles (6:1-5) that, as the Christian community grew, there was a call for men to assist the first bishops – that is, the twelve apostles – in caring for the daily needs of the faithful community.  The apostles laying hands over them was the beginning of the service of deacons in the Church.  Despite ongoing persecution from both their fellow Jews and the Roman Empire, the Christian community continued to grow and, in the early second century, elders were taken from the faithful and the descendants of the apostles laid hands on them and anointed them to assist them in teaching and celebrating the sacraments.  As we read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, they are “co-workers of the episcopal order for the proper fulfillment of the apostolic mission that had been entrusted to it by Christ” (§ 1562).  This was the origin of the three orders of the Sacrament of Holy Orders: Bishop, priest and deacon.

The Catechism goes on to explain:

  • 1563 Because it is joined with the episcopal order, the office of priests shares in the authority by which Christ himself builds up and sanctifies and rules his Body. Hence the priesthood of priests, while presupposing the sacraments of initiation, is nevertheless conferred by its own particular sacrament. Through that sacrament priests by the anointing of the Holy Spirit are signed with a special character and so are configured to Christ the priest in such a way that they are able to act in the person of Christ the head.
  • 1564 While not having the supreme degree of the pontifical office, and notwithstanding the fact that they depend on the bishops in the exercise of their own proper power, the priests are for all that associated with them by reason of their sacerdotal dignity; and in virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, after the image of Christ, the supreme and eternal priest, they are consecrated in order to preach the Gospel and shepherd the faithful as well as to celebrate divine worship as true priests of the New Testament.
  • 1565 Through the sacrament of Holy Orders, priests share in the universal dimensions of the mission that Christ entrusted to the apostles. The spiritual gift they have received in ordination prepares them, not for a limited and restricted mission, but for the fullest, in fact the universal mission of salvation to the end of the earth, prepared in spirit to preach the Gospel everywhere.

Congratulations to Fr. Wang and all those who were or will soon be ordained to the priesthood!  May God bless all of them so that they may respond generously to this sacred call to serve God’s people wherever they are sent.