In Persona Christi Capitis

This Latin phrase means, “In the Person of Christ, the Head,” and expresses Roman Catholic doctrine about the role of a bishop or priest.

In Persona Christi Capitis has two basic meanings. One is to distinguish the cleric, acting in the capacity of the Head of the Church, from the layperson, who acts only as a “member” of the church. The other meaning is that Christ is present to the Church precisely in and through the clergy.

This way of thinking divides the Church into two castes: the clergy and the laity; and of these, only the clergy would (were all else equal) be "Church" in any Orthodox sense of the word. On second thought, neither would, if the priests were acting in Christ's place.

Obviously we Orthodox, too, have both clergy and laity, and make a distinction between them. But none of us, clergy or laity, would dare to think we were acting in the capacity of the Head of the Church.

Furthermore, Christ is present in all of us, every baptized and chrismated one of us. Is He equally present in all of us? No, but the degree of fullness is not determined by our status as ordained or lay. Instead, it is in direct proportion to our purity of heart. The priest may have made less room in his heart than the six-year-old fidgeting beside me in church. We Orthodox highly respect the office of the priest, but he has to earn our respect for his person. We have no two-tiered Christianity with the clergy as mediators between God and man. Neither is the priesthood a spiritual status. Rather, it is a spiritual service.

We also object to phrases such as acting “in the Person of Christ,” or “in the stead of Christ” as downright blasphemous. We do of course realize that, “in the Person of Christ,” is a mistranslation of 2 Corinthians 2:10, which ought to read, “in the Presence of Christ” (prosopo).

But nobody, nobody at all, can stand in Christ’s place or stead or act in His Person (although we can indeed act as His members). The simple reason is, He acts in His own person. He stands in His own place. His place is not vacant. It isn’t as though He had departed and bequeathed His place to someone else. It isn’t as though Christ were replaceable.

We can say of our clergy that the bishop is supposed to be for us the living icon of Christ and that the priests, as the bishop’s delegates, share in that function. But they never occupy the place of Christ, which is already occupied! They do not minister in Christ’s stead, but alongside Him. They perform the visible counterparts of what Christ Himself is doing invisibly. The priest prays (all of us joining his prayer), but Christ sends His Holy Spirit to consecrate the bread and wine and to effect the change in them. The priest immerses a person, but Christ baptizes him, grafting him into Himself, into His own life. The priest prays the prayer of absolution, or in some cases even pronounces the absolution, but Christ forgives.

It’s not that we deny Christ works through people, including priests. (John 20:22-23) Our objection is to the idea that He acts exclusively through priests and not others and not also directly, in accordance with Orthodox experience.

In Persona Christi Capitis, I note, is an example of what I have called a “papal doctrine” or a doctrine, the effect of which is to bolster papal authority, power, and prestige. That's its effect; its intent, one may only surmise.

P.S.) Too bad this error wasn't always caught and corrected during the Reformation.

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