The Chain That Has Never Been Broken
When a Catholic bishop ordains a priest or consecrates another bishop, he lays his hands on the candidate’s head and prays. This gesture — the laying on of hands — is the oldest ordination rite in Christianity. It appears in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 6:6, 13:3, 14:23) and in Paul’s letters (1 Timothy 4:14, 2 Timothy 1:6). It was the way the Apostles transmitted their authority to the next generation.
The Catholic Church claims that this chain of laying on of hands has never been broken — that every bishop alive today can trace his ordination back, through a line of bishops ordaining bishops, to one of the twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus Christ.
This is called apostolic succession, and it is one of the most important — and most distinctive — claims the Catholic Church makes. If it is true, the Catholic bishops possess an authority that no other Christian leaders can claim: the authority of the Apostles themselves, transmitted through an unbroken historical chain.
How It Works
Apostolic succession is not a theory. It is a practice — a physical, historical, verifiable transmission of authority through the act of ordination.
Jesus chose twelve Apostles and gave them authority: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (John 20:21). He gave them the power to teach, to govern, to sanctify, to forgive sins, and to celebrate the Eucharist. This authority was not personal — it did not die with them. It was an office — meant to be passed on.
The Apostles ordained successors. Paul ordained Timothy (2 Timothy 1:6). The Apostles ordained elders (presbyters) and overseers (bishops) in every community they established (Acts 14:23, Titus 1:5). These successors received, through the laying on of hands, the same authority the Apostles had received from Christ.
Those successors ordained their own successors. And so on — generation after generation, century after century, in an unbroken chain from the first century to the twenty-first.
The chain is not symbolic. It is genealogical — each bishop can, in principle, identify the bishop who ordained him, and that bishop can identify the one who ordained him, and so on back to the Apostles. The Vatican maintains records of episcopal lineages. The lines are traceable. The chain is real.
Why It Matters
Apostolic succession matters because it is the mechanism by which the faith is transmitted authentically across time. Without it, the Church would be a collection of independent communities, each interpreting Scripture according to its own lights, with no authoritative voice to settle disputes or guard the deposit of faith.
It guarantees the validity of the sacraments. In Catholic theology, certain sacraments require an ordained minister who stands in the apostolic succession. The Eucharist, Confession, Confirmation, and Holy Orders can only be validly celebrated by a bishop or priest who has been ordained in the apostolic line. A minister who lacks apostolic succession — however sincere, however learned, however holy — cannot validly consecrate the Eucharist or absolve sins. The power comes through the chain, not from the individual.
This is why the Catholic Church recognises the sacraments of the Eastern Orthodox churches (which have apostolic succession) as valid, while not recognising the ordinations of most Protestant communities (which broke the chain at the Reformation).
It guarantees the authority of teaching. The Apostles received the faith directly from Christ. They passed it on — not only in writing (the New Testament) but orally, through teaching and through the authority they transmitted to their successors. The bishops who succeeded the Apostles inherited the responsibility to guard this deposit and to teach it faithfully.
This is the basis of the Magisterium — the teaching authority of the Pope and the bishops in communion with him. It is not a claim to personal infallibility or personal holiness. It is a claim that the office of bishop carries an authority that derives from Christ, through the Apostles, and that this authority is assisted by the Holy Spirit in matters of faith and morals.
It guarantees the unity of the Church. Apostolic succession creates a visible structure of communion — every bishop is in communion with the other bishops who share the same apostolic line, and all are in communion with the Bishop of Rome, the successor of Peter. This is what makes the Catholic Church one Church rather than a federation of independent congregations.
The Early Evidence
The claim of apostolic succession is not a later invention. It is documented from the very earliest period of Church history.
St Clement of Rome (c. 96 AD) — the fourth bishop of Rome — wrote to the Corinthians about the orderly transmission of authority: “Our Apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the title of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry.”
St Ignatius of Antioch (c. 107 AD) wrote repeatedly about the authority of the bishop as the centre of unity for each local church: “Let no one do anything pertaining to the Church without the bishop… Where the bishop is, there let the people be, just as where Christ Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church.”
St Irenaeus of Lyon (c. 180 AD) argued against the Gnostic heretics by appealing to apostolic succession as the guarantee of true doctrine: “We can enumerate those who were appointed bishops by the Apostles and their successors down to our own day… But since it would be too long to enumerate the successions in all the Churches, we confound all those who in any way… gather together in unauthorised assemblies, by pointing out the tradition and the faith, coming down to us from the Apostles, of the greatest, most ancient, and universally known Church, founded and established by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, at Rome.”
Irenaeus then lists the bishops of Rome from Peter to his own day — an unbroken chain. He does this not to make a historical point but a theological one: the true faith is found where apostolic succession is found. Break the chain, and you lose the guarantee.
What Protestants Lost
The Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century broke with the bishops who were in apostolic succession. In some cases, the break was deliberate — the Reformers rejected the authority of the bishops and established new forms of church governance. In other cases, it was a consequence of circumstances — the bishops who remained loyal to Rome could not ordain ministers for communities that had separated from Rome.
The result is that most Protestant churches do not have apostolic succession. Their ministers are ordained, but not within the apostolic line. Their worship may be sincere and their preaching may be sound, but — from the Catholic perspective — their sacraments lack the validity that apostolic succession guarantees.
This is one of the principal reasons the Catholic Church does not practise open communion with Protestant communities. It is not a judgement on the sincerity of Protestant believers. It is a recognition that the Eucharist, to be valid, requires a priest ordained in the apostolic succession — and most Protestant ministers, however devout, do not possess this.
The Anglican Communion is a special case. The Catholic Church declared Anglican orders invalid in 1896 (in the papal bull Apostolicae Curae), on the grounds that the Anglican ordination rite had been altered in ways that broke the chain. This remains a point of significant ecumenical discussion.
The Living Chain
Apostolic succession is not a museum exhibit. It is alive — present in every ordination, every Eucharist, every act of episcopal teaching and governance happening in the Catholic Church right now.
When your parish priest stands at the altar and says the words of consecration, he is exercising an authority that was given to the Apostles by Christ, transmitted through the bishops, and conferred on him at his ordination. The chain connecting your Sunday Mass to the Last Supper is not a metaphor. It is a series of hands laid on heads — century after century, bishop after bishop, from Jerusalem to Rome to your parish.
That chain is the reason the Catholic Church claims to be the Church Christ founded. Other churches may have the Scriptures. Other churches may have sincere believers. But the apostolic succession — the unbroken transmission of authority from Christ through the Apostles to the bishops of today — is something only the Catholic Church (and the Eastern Orthodox churches) can claim.
And it matters, because the authority to teach, to sanctify, and to govern in Christ’s name is not something a community can give itself. It must be received — from the One who has it to give. And He gave it to the Apostles. And the Apostles gave it to their successors. And the chain has never been broken.