UNIVERSITY OF SAINT LOUIS

Tuguegarao City

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, ARTS and SCIENCES

Department of Philosophy and Religious Instructions
First Semester
A.Y. 2022-2023

CORRESPONDENCE LEARNING MODULE

CFED 1033- Catholic Foundation of Mission

Prepared by:

MAE IRENE BAUTISTA

NICHOLE MAE LOZADA
RAY OBISPO
SEVERO WASHINGTON

Reviewed by:

WILSON J, TEMPORAL, MARE

DPRI Department Head

Recommended by:

HERBERT CORPUZ…..
Academic Dean

Approved by:

EMMANUEL JAMES PATTAGUAN, Ph.D.

Vice President for Academics
 This Week’s Time Table: (September 19, 2022 – September 24, 2022)

For this week, the following shall be your guide for the different lessons and tasks that you need
to accomplish. Oops! Be patient, read them carefully before proceeding to the tasks expected of
you.

HAVE A FRUITFUL LEARNING EXPERIENCE 😊

Date Topics Activities or Tasks

September 19 -21 Jesus as the High Priest Read and Internalize Lessons

September 22-24 Priest and High Priest in the Old Testament Read and Internalize Lessons

September Jesus, the High Priest Read Lessons interactively

September Uploading the learning tasks Submission of learning tasks

School of Education, Arts and Sciences

Department of Philosophy and Religious Instructions
Curriculum 2021-2022

CORRESPONDENCE LEARNING MODULE

Christian Faith Education 1033 (Catholic Foundation of Mission)

Lesson 6: The Missionary Journey of the Church from Jerusalem to Rome, the Center of
the Pagan Roman Empire and Rome’s Conversion to Christianity

Topics: Hierarchical Structure of the Church

Bishops, Priests, and Deacons
Uploading the learning tasks

Learning Outcomes: At the end of this module, you are expected to:

1. Trace the evolution of the hierarchical positions in the Church;

2. Explain the need of a hierarchy in a big social institution such as the Church; and
3. Describe the role of each position in the hierarchy of the Church.

LEARNING CONTENT

Introduction:
 A social institution like the government or school or even a small unit of a government like
a barangay cannot be ruled by a single person. Even the kings of ancient nations who thought
that they are the sole rulers had their staffs whom they delegated some roles or function. This is
the same with the Church. Her growth is imminent since she needs to have a lot of “workers” to
spread the Kingdom of God. For these “workers” (evangelizers) to be properly guided and
effective in their mission, different roles have to be assigned. So, as the Church grew in big
number, her hierarchy of leaders also gradually developed.

Lesson Proper:

1. Hierarchical Structure of the Church

As we have mentioned above, the expansion of the Church throughout the whole world to
evangelize all people also needs a lot of ministers and these ministers need to be well
organized since if not, the Church might perish. We will just have a simple glimpse of this topic
since it will be thoroughly discussed in the finals under the topic Sacraments (Holy Orders).

Hierarchy in a very ordinary term means rank. So, hierarchical means they are arranged
according to ranks. A lot of people are saying that the Catholic Church is very difficult to
eradicate or “demolished” since She is well organized. This may be one factor but the main
reason why the Church would withstand all the challenges is her founder (Jesus) and her
ground (the apostles) and the very words of Jesus to Peter when He said, “and I tell you, you
are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail
against it. (Matthew 16:18). So, with Peter as the head being established by no other than
Jesus, the Church developed her hierarchical structure. In the Early Church, Peter was the
leader of the Apostles, then they had their “helpers” called elders /presbyter (James 15:14), and
they ordained the deacons to help in the breaking or distribution of the bread. (Acts 6:1-8).
Aside from these set of leaders, the early Church also had their active members assisting these
leaders (now called Laity or lay leaders). These set of leaders in the Church are now called
Bishops (equivalent to the Apostles) with Peter established by Jesus as their leader of whose
office is now called Papacy/Pope. The presbyters or elders are now called priests, and the
deacons. So, as early as the Early Church, the Church’s structure was already set up or started.
This structure was only re-affirmed because of its needs since the Church is growing into a big
community. The hierarchical structure is Pope, Bishops, Priests, Deacons (are the ordained
ones) and the Laity (not ordained “leaders” of the Church like the Catechists, Communion
ministers, etc.). Strictly speaking, hierarchy in the Church refers to the bishops, priests and
deacons.

Who is the so-called Pastor in the Catholic Church?

Pastor in the Catholic Church refers to the Bishop/s. The sign of his being a pastor is the
staff (tungkod, baka akala Ninyo na sign ng kanilang pagkamatanda yun.) That is one sign of
their being pastors as pastors (pastol) would use a stick /stuff to guide their flock/sheep.
This is why we call the letters from the bishops, pastoral letters.
Note: The Church is arranged in terms of hierarchy not for the leaders to enjoy many privileges
but to better facilitate service to the people, since Church’s leaders are servant leaders.

In a diagram, this is the community structure of the Church:

The Community Structure of the Church because of function/apostolate/”work/service”
(Although they all belong to One Community, the Church)

Pope The Hierarchy

Cardinals Pope

Bishops

Archbishops

Bishops

Bishops Priests

Priests Deacons

Deacons

Laity

Faithful / people

At the left side is the structure of the whole Church while at the right side is the hierarchy

As shown in the illustration, the Pope is still a bishop; he is just the leader of all the
bishops, the Cardinal and the Archbishop are still bishops, Cardinal is a position next in rank to
the pope, becoming a cardinal is being appointed by the pope, an archbishop is a bishop of the
highest rank, who is in charge of all the bishops and priests in a particular country or region
while the bishop is like a leader in one province. A bishop holds the fullness of
the sacrament of holy orders and is responsible for teaching doctrine. The priest is just an
extension of the bishops since the bishop is the high priest. The priest is like a leader in one
municipality like the mayors. So, strictly speaking, the hierarchy of the priesthood would just
refer to the bishops, priests and deacons. The hierarchy are being ordained while all the
members of the Church are priests by virtue of our baptism.

EVALUATION
Instruction: Identify what is being asked or described by the following statements below.

_____1. A term being used to refer to a symbol, agent or representative. Sacrament

_____2. An Old Testament’s term for an assembly called by God. Qahal
_____3. The method of recruiting members of the Church. Discipleship
_____4. The Jewish term for teacher or master. rabbi
_____5. A title of the early Church derived from one of the “functions” of Jesus. Followers of the
way
_____6. We use the pronoun “her” to refer to the Church being a ______________. Mother
_____7. The word “Church” primarily refers to ___________________ . Community / Assembly
_____8. Where is the Church heading to? Kingdom
_____9. Who is accompanying the Church in her Mission? Holy Spirit
_____10. It is a modern term to describe the Israelites. Jews/jewish

REFERENCES

Books:

Bible

Dumpayan, R. et al (2013). Growing as A Missionary Church.CICM Publishing House.

Online:

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.artnet.com%2FWebServices%2Fimages
%2Fll00192lld2e6FFgneECfDrCWvaHBOckeK%2Flambert-lombard
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fgoodnewsshared.files.wordpress.com
%2F2017%2F04%2Fascensc3a3o-de-jesus-cristo-

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fdailyverses.net%2Fimages%2Fen%2Fniv
%2Fxl%2Fmatthew-28-19-20.jpg&imgrefurl

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+20&version=NABRE

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+1&version=NRSV

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=AOaemvI-zdVgTtpHMtXjhEXqfLlnnCr5cg:1630120224467&q

https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+meaning+of+ecclesia+%28latin%29&biw=1362&bih

https://justmehomely.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/chapter-23-the-catholic-church-nature-and-mission