ministers

324. What place does the sacrament of Holy Orders have in the divine plan of salvation?
1539-1546
1590-1591
This sacrament was prefigured in the Old Covenant in the service of the Levites, in the priesthood of Aaron, and in the institution of the seventy “Elders” (Numbers 11:25). These prefigurations find their fulfillment in Christ Jesus who by the sacrifice of the cross is the “one mediator between God and man” (1 Timothy 2:5), the “High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews5:10). The one priesthood of Christ is made present in the ministerial priesthood.

“Only Christ is the true priest, the others being only his ministers.” (Saint Thomas Aquinas)