Are we ALL priests’

[guanophore]

I don’t know what you mean by ministerial priest.

The word “priest” in the Latin Rite is a contraction of the Greek word Presbyteros. It is one of the ordained offices of the Church. Their duty is to minister to the faithful.

“…he gave gifts to his people.” …The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.”

The ministerial priesthood is focused on ministering the sacraments, as avenues of grace, and to build up the Body.

Even our priests today do not offer atonement for sin in the ministerial sense that I suspect you mean.

No, since Jesus was offered once for all, there is no new "atonement"offered. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is a re-enactment of the once for all sacrifice of Christ. It is, like the Passover, a ritual re-enactment that makes us present at the foot of the cross.

Only the deacon knows for sure.

Maybe he dodged because He did not know how to explain it in detail?

 

[GospelOfMatthew]

We are all priestly people.

you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." - Exodus 19:6

 

[otjm]

Perhaps, to give the deacon the benefit of the doubt, he may have suspected that you were playing a cat-and-mouse with him. He may not have explained it well, and I would probably have explained it differently.

Going back to the Old Testament, what did priests do? They offered sacrifice.

Go back to Cain and Able; Able was offering sacrifice (os a priestly duty) as was Cain; but Cain did not offer the best sacrifice. What did Arbram do? He offered sacrifice (his son, Isaac, and the the ram). And you can go through the OT picking out the various sacrifices offered to God; until Moses, there was no priesthood as such; then came the Levitical priesthood (by lineage). Christ is the ultimate priest; and he instituted a new priesthood through the Apostles However, we all offer with and through the priest the sacrifice of Christ to the Father in each Mass; and we can offer other sacrifices (daily) in a non-ministerial priesthood.