Presbyterorum Ordinis, the Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, is one of the documents produced by the Second Vatican Council. Promulgated by Pope Paul VI on December 7, 1965, it had been earlier approved by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,390 to 4. The title means "Order of Priests" in Latin, and is taken from the first line of the decree, as is customary for such documents in the Catholic Church. (The full text in English is available from the Holy See's website.) The Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, was an Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church opened under Pope John XXIII in 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI in 1965. ... His Holiness Pope Paul VI, born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini (September 26, 1897 – August 6, 1978), reigned as Pope and as sovereign of Vatican City from 1963 to 1978. ... December 7 is the 341st day (342nd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... Ecclesiastical Latin, sometimes called Church Latin, is the Latin language as used in documents of the Roman Catholic Church. ... The Roman Catholic Church believes its founding was based on Jesus appointment of Saint Peter as the primary church leader, later Bishop of Rome. ...

Contents

1. Preface (1)
2. The Priesthood in the Ministry of the Church (2-3)
3. The Ministry of Priests (4-11)
   1. Priests' Functions (4-6)
   2. Priests' Relationships with Others (7-9)
   3. The Distribution of Priests, and Vocations to the Priesthood (10-11)
4. The Life of Priests (12-21)
   1. The Vocation of Priests to the Life of Perfection (12-14)
   2. Special Spiritual Requirements in the Life of a Priest (15-17)
   3. Aids to the Life of Priests (18-21)
5. Conclusion and Exhortation (22)

Highlights

Priests are sacraments of faith, prefigured in the person of Melchizedek, and must themselves be dispensers of a life other than earthly life; they must not seek to please men but rather must follow Christian doctrine and life and strive always for holiness and voluntary poverty. Deriving authority from Christ within the hierarchical church, priests provide the ministry by which the spiritual sacrifice of the faithful is made perfect, in union with the sacrifice of Christ. Their own spiritual sacrifice is key, including the celebration of the mystery of the Holy Eucharist — the greatest task of priests — and the recitation of the Divine office (see Breviary), the voice of the Church, together with Christ, making intercession. Prayer, example, and penance enable the church to exercise a true motherhood toward all souls who are to be led to Christ, irrespective of nationality, blood, or time. Priests must help the faithful to know and love the liturgy, and for their own part must ever strive to perfect their knowledge of divine and secular affairs. Perfect and perpetual continence is suitable for the priesthood in many ways, and prefigures the world to come, in which the children of the resurrection neither marry nor take wives. The dispenser of the mysteries of God can see himself in the man who sowed his field, of whom the Lord said: "then sleep and rise, night and day, and the seed should sprout without his knowing" (Mk 4:27). A sacrament is a Christian rite that mediates divine grace. ... This article discusses faith in a religious context. ... Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek — by Dieric Bouts the Elder, 1464–67 Melchizedek or Malki-tzédek (מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק / מַלְכִּי־צָדֶק My king is righteous, Standard Hebrew Malki-ẓédeq / Malki-ẓádeq, Tiberian Hebrew Malkî-ṣéḏeq / Malkî-ṣāḏeq), sometimes written Melchisedec, Melchisedech or Melchisedek, is a character in the Bible who appeared... Christ, from the Greek in english known as Χριστός, or Khristós, means anointed, and is equivalent to the Hebrew term Messiah. ... The Eucharist is either the celebration of the Christian sacrament commemorating Christ’s Last Supper, or the consecrated bread and wine of this sacrament. ... A breviary (from Latin brevis, short) is a liturgical book containing the public or canonical prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notations for everyday use, especially for priests, in the Divine Office (i. ... Prayer is an effort to communicate with God, or to some deity or deities, or another form of spiritual entity, or otherwise, either to offer praise, to make a request, or simply to express ones thoughts and emotions. ... From the Greek word λειτουργια, which can be transliterated as leitourgia, meaning the work of the people, a liturgy comprises a prescribed religious ceremony, according to the traditions of a particular religion; it may refer to, or include, an elaborate formal ritual (such as the Catholic Mass), a daily activity... This article is about the religious meaning of the word Resurrection. For other meanings see Resurrection (disambiguation). ... This 11th-century portrait is one of many images of Jesus in which a halo with a cross is used. ... The Gospel of Mark is the second in the familiar sequence of the New Testament Gospels, as they were established by Jerome and appear in many but not all early manuscripts of complete gospels, and as they are commonly printed. ...