Can we trace any priest back to Jesus historically?

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Love_Divine said:
I thought we had 2000 years of apostolic succession???:confused:
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Yes, we do. But:
  1. That does not mean we have 2000 years of documentation of apostolic succession; and
  2. Apostolic succession has nothing to do with the succession of popes, or with appointment by a pope.
 
Remember that in early centuries bishops were “declared” by the populace. Also, kings and emperors were in the habit of appointing their own bishops. As Mark has been (patiently) trying to explain, succession isn’t about one bishop or pope following another, but the route he took to get where he ended up.
 
Jesus didn’t have any brothers nor sisters, so I don’t understand how we could trace anyone back to him?
 
AndrewJMason said:
Jesus didn’t have any brothers nor sisters, so I don’t understand how we could trace anyone back to him?
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The question is not about genetics, but about the validity of a priest’s sacramental Holy Orders.

The way it works is this: a priest’s Holy Orders are valid only if he was ordained by a valid bishop. And a bishop is valid only if he was consecrated by another valid bishop. While on earth, Jesus made the twelve Apostles bishops. So the original poster is asking, for any priest today, can we prove (1) that he was ordained by a bishop?, and (2), in order to show that that bishop was valid, can we prove an unbroken series of episcopal consecrations back to one of the original Apostles (this is what is meant by the phrase “apostolic succession”)?

In other words, can we prove that one of the Apostles consecrated some bishop, who consecrated some bishop, who consecrated some bishop, … etc. etc. for twenty centuries …, who consecrated the bishop that ordained this particular priest? Unfortunately, we do not have the records to allow us to do this. However, we believe it did happen – that every bishop today was consecrated by somebody, who was consecrated by somebody, who … etc. etc., who was consecrated by one of the Apostles.

Why do we believe it without documentary proof? For two main reasons: (1) the evidence we do have shows that people have always taken the issue of apostolic succession very seriously, so there is no reason to think that they just gave up caring about it for a few of the centuries from which we don’t have records; and (2) because we believe that the Church is divinely instituted and guided by the Holy Spirit (and “the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it”), we believe that God would not have allowed all our bishops and priests to have fallen into invalidity at some point in the distant past.
 
Sir_Knight said:
The ordination of every modern day Catholic Priest & Bishop (including ) is traceable back to . Go to the bottom of the LEFT column in the link provided. You will find no Catholic Priest or Bishop that does not originate with in the 16th century.
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That is not correct, however, the vast majority can be traced back to Cardinal Rebiba at this time.

Charles Bransom’s website has some excellent information on the lineages as well as examples of the various lines currently surviving.
 
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