I share a number of these difficulties, but would say that in general, the biggest issue is how the Magesterium is defined. By the doctrine of the Communion of Saints, we are in historical and spiritual continuity with our ancestors in faith and with the Church Suffering and Church Triumphant. That means that “novelty” is impossible.
However, we need to use the tools of modern historiography to understand what earlier generations of Christians actually believed. To Traditional Catholics, that may make me a modernist, but I would say that even in the documents they cite, the historical context matters a great deal in interpreting the content.
I am very resistant to the notion put forward by Traditionalists that we must simply accept the Tridentine version of everything as more “valid,” and rely on all the writings of pre-Vatican II popes to show how far from our true tradition we have fallen.
- Clericalism, particularly as expressed in the teaching that only men can be priests. (This is an expression of clericalism because it rests on the idea that the ministerial priesthood is something qualitatively other than the baptismal priesthood–otherwise no baptized person would be an “invalid subject” for ordination.)
The early church had at least two different groupings of clerics:
- Bishops and Deacons (Philippians 1; Acts 11:30 shows “presbyters” in the care of Paul and Barnabas – suggesting early hierarchy).
- Apostles, prophets, and teachers (Acts 11:27 and 21:10; 1 Cor 12:28 expresses that hierarchy, followed by various charisms).
In Romans 12:6-8, Paul writes to a church where “
gifts differ according to the grace given to us”: prophecy, ministry, teacher, exhortation, generosity, and being “over others” – the latter could mean in a hierachicial or patronal (like Phoebe in Romans 16:1-2) position.
In the pastorals, we see an elevation of the presbyter-bishop. 1 Timothy 5:17 says “
Presbyters who preside well deserve double honor, especially those who toil in preaching and teaching.” That suggests that presbyters themselves were becoming segregated into higher and lower statuses by the time 1 Timothy was written.
Titus 1:5-9 is odd, for it talks about “appointing presbyters in every town” and says that they must be blameless, “
for a bishop must be blameless, For a bishop as God’s steward must be blameless, not arrogant, not irritable, not a drunkard, not aggressive, not greedy for sordid gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, temperate, just, holy, and self-controlled, holding fast to the true message as taught so that he will be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to refute opponents..” Titus 1:10-14 goes on to criticize “
Jewish Christians” who have a “
prophet of their own.”
To me, it’s obvious that there were apostles and prophets in the Jewish Christians – from Acts and from the reference in Titus 1:12. There were bishops and deacons in Philippi. There were “appointed by God” in Corinth, first apostles, second, prophets, third teachers.
We know that “prophet” was a major clerical title in the first century, from the Didache 10, which says, “suffer the prophets to eucharistize (eukaristein) whenever they want.” Didache 15 tells us that prophets were replaced by bishops and deacons ("
Appoint, therefore, for yourselves, bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, men meek, and not lovers of money, and truthful and proved; for they also render to you the service of prophets and teachers. Therefore do not despise them, for they are your honored ones, together with the prophets and teachers. ")
We know from 1 Clement that when the Corinthians got presbyters, that they deposed them. Looks like they had to give up their apostles and prophets like the Cretans in Titus did. By the time Ignatius of Antioch wrote (~105-115 AD), he wrote to the Smyrnaeans, “Let that be a valid eucharist which is celebrated by the bishop or his appointees.” So all this happened in the first century.
There were other disputes as well. The author of 3 John, who describes himself as “the Presbyter” complains about Diotrephes, who appears to be a bishop that is excommunicating the Presbyter’s friends. Diotrephes appears to be a new type of figure in the Johannine community.
So I look on the modern priesthood as one that developed over time, and not without dispute. Prophets, mentioned in Acts, 1 Corinthians, Titus, and the Didache, were common in Jewish Christianity and Corinth. However, they were replaced with bishops and deacons (in the Didache), or opposed by presbyter-bishops (in Titus).
