Bishops and the Apostolic Succession

So the Apostles, acting as Our Lord’s personal representatives, appointed others to take their place as Apostles of the Catholic Church.  And Our Lord, through the Apostles, gave to them also the Apostolic Commission so that they too, like the Apostles themselves, now had the right and power to act on his behalf.  These men were put, by the Apostles, in charge of the Church in the chief cities and towns.

Some of them were travelling missionaries known as Apostolic men, others had been presbyters.  In those very early days the presbyters or elders were also known as bishops or overseers.  But from now on they began to be known only as presbyters and the name of bishop came to be given to those who had taken the Apostles’ place.

So each Christian congregation had its own bishop and the Church was able to go on after all the Apostles had died.  It was the bishops now who, as new Apostles, admitted people to full membership of the Church by the Sacrament of Confirmation, and ordained to the Ministry by the Sacrament of Holy Order.  And the bishops in their turn, acting as Our Lord’s personal representatives, appointed other bishops to take their place, and so it has continued through the years and into the 21st century.  The unbroken line of bishops, from the time of the Apostles, is called the Apostolic Succession.

You can see, therefore, why there must always be bishops.  If there were no bishops, there would be no Confirmation, there would be no priests, and therefore there would be no Eucharist and no Blessed Sacrament.  In fact, there would be no Church at all.

The Apostolic Succession, that unbroken line going back to the Apostles, provides assurance that we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, the gift of Our Lord himself in Holy Communion, and the gift of forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Penance).

It is also by means of this line of bishops, with each bishop taking over from the previous one, that the Catholic Faith has been handed down from one generation to another.  The first bishops learnt it from the Apostles and they passed it on to those whom they appointed, and so on through hundreds of years.  That is why one of the great duties of a bishop is to safeguard the Faith and see that it is handed on in its fullness to the next generation.  So, in the Common Worship Service for the Ordination and Consecration of a Bishop, the Archbishop begins by summarising the duties of bishops, and includes these words:

“Bishops are ordained to be shepherds of Christ's flock and guardians of the faith of the apostles…” (1)