Collaboration of Priests and Bishops in the Presbyterium of the Early Church

Abstract

The theological reality of the presbyterium has profound significance when we examine its origin and use from the New Testament and its theological and juridical evolution in time leading to the Second Vatican Council. Since the theme of this work relates to collaboration between bishops and their priests, we will examine the topic from a collegial and ministerial perspective. Our consideration in this paper is greatly limited by the fact that it only attempts an overview of the situation, and sec ondly, it focuses only on some selected Fathers who were specifically cited in the conciliar documents. The question before us in this regard is the nature and understanding of the subject of cooperation between the bishop and the presbyterium before the Second Vatican Council, since the Council is credited with having rediscovered the institution of the presbyterium and strengthened the cooperation between bishops and their priests. For this we attempt to look at the scriptures and early Christian communities for collaboration in the ecclesiastical ministry of the Church. Though there is difficulty in making a definitive evolution that occurred within the sacred ministry, we hope we can obtain essential elements relating to the primitive organization of the Church from the Sacred Scriptures and the ancient patristic texts.