Prie•t-Experl 223
tion. But it does indicate that the priest-expert is effective as a priest not only because of his orders but al~o (and quite suLor· dinately) because of his expert knowledge. It also indicates that he is most effective within his particular mission. C. PRIEST-EXPERT AS APOLOGETIC SYMBOL Because the priest-expert exercises a more scientific pastoral· theological orientation, because he is the instrumental cause of more abundant grace for this people, because his priesthood works through the expert knowledge characteristic of his com· munity, the priest-expert would seem to be the full apologetic symbol of the Church for his community. For the priest-expert's symbolic witnessing is a blending of his priestly powers with his expert knowledge into the unity of his vocation to a particular scientific-cultural community. And the more expert his knowledge, the more striking will be his priestly witness, his symbolization of the Church. Consequently there is no need here for ex· tensive explanation of the priest-expert as apologetic symbol; the previous pages have already detailed it. One item, however, should be added here. Though the Catholic lay expert of this same community, through the common priesthood of the faithful, is also the apologetic symbol of the Church, he is not so to the same degree as the priest-expert. This does not mean that any priest is more saintly than any layman. It simply means that, no matter how superior the sanctity of a layman, he is not specifically ordained through sacred orders to symbolize officially the presence of more abundant grace and of more scientific pastoral-theological orientation. Yet the layman's more incamational witness not only complements the priest· expert's more eschatological symbolization but also is a neces· sary condition for the latter's existence--much as the incarna· tionallife of Christ complements and conditions his resurrected life. Together, the lay and priest-expert form a single more adequate witness, namely, their indispensable cooperation noted throughout these pages. CoNCLUSION
From this whole discussion there is only one conclusion to be drawn: the priest-expert is an expert precisely because he is a