THE CANONICAL PRINCIPLE OF APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION AND ECCLESIASTICAL POWER
THE CANONICAL PRINCIPLE OF APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION AND ECCLESIASTICAL POWER

Summary/Abstract: Within the Church there is a power that is meant to help the whole Christian community achieve its ultimate religious purpose— salvation, employing all necessary and appropriate means (religious, moral and material) and removing any obstacles that could prevent its realization. This power, instituted by Jesus Christ himself on the day of Pentecost, has passed from the apostles to the bishops, through ordination, a fact which is evidenced by the Apostle Paul, when he addresses the bishops he had appointed: „Take care and be on guard for yourselves and for the whole flock over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God”[1] The present study aims to make an analysis of the origin and type of power the church holds and how it has been perpetuated, from generation to generation, to this day and will continue until the end of the ages, according to the canonical principle of uninterrupted apostolic succession.

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