I fear for most of today's bishops and priests. The accounting they'll have to make upon their deaths will be unbearable. It would cause me to shake.  

Ezechiel 3:17-21:


Son of man [both Ezechiel and Catholic priests], I have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel [the Church]: and thou shalt hear the word out of my mouth, and shalt tell it them from me. [18] If, when I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die: thou declare it not to him, nor speak to him, that he may be converted from his wicked way, and live: the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at thy hand. [19] But if thou give warning to the wicked, and he be not converted from his wickedness, and from his evil way: he indeed shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul. [20] Moreover if the just man shall turn away from his justice, and shall commit iniquity: I will lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die, because thou hast not given him warning: he shall die in his sin, and his justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered: but I will require his blood at thy hand. [21] But if thou warn the just man, that the just may not sin, and he doth not sin: living he shall live, because thou hast warned him, and thou hast delivered thy soul.

Further, Ezechiel 22:26-27:

[26] Her priests have despised my law, and have defiled my sanctuaries: they have put no difference between holy and profane: nor have distinguished between the polluted and the clean: and they have turned away their eyes from my sabbaths, and I was profaned in the midst of them. [27] Her princes in the midst of her, are like wolves ravening the prey to shed blood, and to destroy souls, and to run after gains through covetousness.

Now link with Ezechiel 34: http://drbo.org/chapter/31034.htm

Further, recalling that a priest/bishop is to be an alter Christus, link with the very words of Our Lord, Who certainly had the previous passages in mind, at John 10:11-14:

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. [12] But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and flieth: and the wolf catcheth, and scattereth the sheep: [13] And the hireling flieth, because he is a hireling: and he hath no care for the sheep. [14] I am the good shepherd; and I know mine, and mine know me. [15] As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father: and I lay down my life for my sheep.

Sadly, most of them today lay down their lives for the world.

Now the words of St. Paul, Acts 20:29-30:

I know that, after my departure, ravening wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock. And of your own selves shall arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

How did he know this would happen? Jesus at Matthew 7:15-16:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them.

Finally, 2 Timothy 4:3-4:

For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: [4] And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables.



Miserere nobis,

J

"The life of man upon earth is a warfare."
 
-Job 7:1

 

presbyter

How about instead of presbyter, then "President of the assembly" or "Minister of the Banquet"? Or from the Latin dictionary:

sacerdos, sacerdotis  N  C     3 1  C   [XEXAX]  
priest, priestess;

clericus, clerici  N  M     2 1  M   [DEXAS]  
clergyman, priest, cleric, clerk; scholar, student, scribe, secretary (Bee);

presbyter, presbyteri  N  M     2 3  M   [DEXAS]  
elder/presbyter (in Christian Church); priest;

  Even the Latin dictionary is cencored.