Are priests Jesus?

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Jules4664

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A friend has told me that a priest is Christ. I said he is Christ’s representative. Could you clarify this?
 
The priest is not Christ, he represents Him. However, this is a bit more than our usual use of the term represent. In common language to represent someone meas that you are acting on the behalf of someone who is not present. That is not true in the case of Christ because He is always present in His Church. While the priest is not Christ, Christ **is **acting through the priest.

Pope Benedict XVI General Audience Wednesday, 14 April 2010:
Therefore the priest, who acts in persona Christi Capitis and representing the Lord, never acts in the name of someone who is absent but, rather, in the very Person of the Risen Christ, who makes himself present with his truly effective action. He really acts today and brings about what the priest would be incapable of: the consecration of the wine and the bread so that they may really be the Lord’s presence, the absolution of sins. The Lord makes his own action present in the person who carries out these gestures.
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