What is ‘ministry’?

The topics of ministry and the sacraments are frequently viewed as but subsections of the broader topic of the Church. I certainly regard them as such. However, it is useful to deal with each separately. This chapter will deal with ministry and the one that follows with the sacraments.

The word ‘ministry’ comes from the Latin word ministerium, which means ‘service’. A ministry is therefore a service performed for Christ and his Church. Similarly, a ‘minister’ is ‘one who serves’, a ‘servant’, someone who serves Christ and the needs of his Church.

Many Christians still associate the words ‘minister’ and ‘ministry’ exclusively with the clergy. However, it is important to remember that ‘ministry’ is a service to Christ and his Church that can be exercised by a wide variety of people in a wide variety of ways. Thus, for example, in apostolic times not only apostles, episkopoi (‘bishops’), presbuteroi (‘presbyters’) and diakonoi (‘deacons’), but also prophets, teachers and healers (1 Corinthians 12:28) were exercising true ‘ministries’. And in our own day Catechists exercise the ministry of teaching. In fact, all Christians not only can but also should perform some sort of ministry within the Church. In other words, all Christians should serve Christ and his people in some way or other – at least by the example of their lives. As we saw, all are ‘priests’, ‘prophets’ and ‘kings’, all share in those qualities of Christ (cf for example 1 Peter 2:5).

However, while all are called to serve in one or other way, the Church has traditionally made a distinction between the broad variety of ministries that all can exercise and the specialised ministry that a few are called and authorised to perform. This latter type of ministry is normally called the ‘ordained’ (sometimes the ‘special’) ministry. The other types of ministry are called either ‘non-ordained’ (a term I dislike since it seems to make the ordained ministries the example of true ministry) or‘lay’ ministries. Unfortunately, we cannot examine the theme of ministry in all its variety and richness. But we can and must take a closer, albeit brief, look at the ordained ministry in particular and then at an aspect of it that is unique to Catholicism – the Petrine ministry, the one exercised by the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.