Catholic Priests

Catholic Priests

The ministerial orders of the Roman Catholic Church are those of bishop, presbyter (more commonly called priest in English), and deacon. The ordained priesthood and the common priesthood (or priesthood of all the baptized) are different in function and essence.

Unlike usage in English, "the Latin words sacerdos and sacerdotium are used to refer in general to the ministerial priesthood shared by bishops and presbyters. The words presbyter, presbyterium and presbyteratus refer to priests in the English use of the word or presbyters".

In late 2008, there were 409,166 Catholic priests (presbyters) of the Latin Church and the eastern Catholic Churches worldwide.

The state of consecrated life or monasticism is neither clerical, and members of institutes of consecrated life, or monks, can be either clergy or laity (all nuns are lay). Those monastics who are clerics constitute what is called the religious or regular clergy, distinct from the diocesan or secular clergy, those ordained who are not members of an institute of consecrated life, and most often serve as priests to a specific church or in a specific diocese.

Women are not able to become priests (see Catholic Church doctrine on the ordination of women).