What makes an ‘official’ priest, is his ordination. When we are baptized, our receiving of that sacrament is called ‘baptism’. When a priest is made a priest, he receives a
special sacrament called Holy Orders. There are special prayers, special things happen [I encourage you to go and see an ordination. I invited theconfirmation kids from St. Paul’s school when I was ordained a priest in May 2012, and they came to the cathedral for that.]
There are a few other things too I will mention. First of all, only a bishop can give this sacrament. As a priest, I can’t ordain a priest or give the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
This is because the priest helps the bishop in a special way to give the sacraments to all of us. In the Roman Catholic Church, priests can only be men NOT because women are less than men, NOT because only men are special – it’s because the priesthood is something which is closely connected to Jesus and the Apostles, and as we know even though there were amazing, important and special women who were very close to Jesus [His mother, Mary Magdalene, Martha & Mary and others] for some reason unknown to us Jesus chose these 12 men to this particular role. He has chosen women and men to other particular roles – and so this is the mainreason. Ask me more questions about thisif there’s anything else I can clarify.
