Reason 15

15. Because the insertion of the Lutheran “Prayer of the Faithful” in the New Mass follows and puts forth the Protestant Error that all the people are priests.


This objections is problematic in several ways. The first and greatest is the declaration that it is a “Protestant Error” that all people are priest when, just two reasons earlier, this same pamphlet mentioned the “priesthood of the people.” Either there is a common priesthood of the people, or there is not, but it cannot be approved and denied as is supportive to the arguments here.

In the Book of First Peter the Apostle twice mentions the “royal priesthood,” that is, the common priesthood of all believers. By virtue of our baptism all Christians partake in Christ’s priesthood to varying degrees. Those who are confirmed share more fully in this priesthood, with Priests and then Bishops partaking most fully. Thus all people are, to some degree, priests.

The idea that the Prayer of the Faithful is entirely Lutheran is also incorrect. St. Justin Martyr discusses in his First Apology that the entire assembly would “stand up together and pray.” This is the intended origin of the Prayers of the Faithful, prayers which have no relation to the Eucharistic Sacrifice itself other than being part of the Mass. They can be omitted without causing any deficit in the Eucharist and those play no role in the priestly elements of the liturgy. This objection is, in the end, both misguided and illogical.