text: With all due respect to John Henry Newman, for whom I have the greatest admiration, he is certainly mistaken on this point.
  
  The offices of diakonos/deacon, presbuteros/priest and episkopos/bishop were already established during what we call the 1st century Eyewitness Period that encompassed the lives of the Apostles, as can be seen by their presence in the New Testament, particularly in the Acts of the Apostles.
  
  My mentor, the late Fr. John Hardon who was one of the greatest catechists of the 20th century pointed out in his lectures that by the time of the death of John the Apostle, circa A.D. 95, there were already some 100 Catholic dioceses around the Mediterranean rim, each one overseen by a bishop.
  
  By that time we specifically know about the first five Bishops of Rome - Peter, Linus, Anacletus, Clement and Evaristus.
  
  In fact without the fullness of the priesthood found only in the bishops, we would not have had any priests at all since they can only be ordained by a bishop.