The Sacrament of Holy Orders enables the priest to speak in the name of the whole community. He is ordained to say prayers to which we can all respond "Amen." Because of Holy Orders the priest "possesses the authority to act in the power and place of the person of Christ Himself." 

The Second Vatican Council, in Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church teach that the first task of the priest is "to preach the gospel." Preaching the gospel has assumed an importance in the life and self-identity of a priest that it did not have in the years before Vatican II.