Monsignor is an ecclesiastical title of honor conferred upon certain prelates by the Pope.

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from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

Priest. An authorized mediator who offers a true sacrifice in acknowledgment of God's supreme dominion over human beings and in expiation for their sins. A priest's mediation is the reverse of that of a prophet, who communicates from God to the people. A priest mediates from the people to God.

Christ, who is God and man, is the first, last, and greatest priest of the New Law. He is the eternal high priest who offered Himself once and for all on the Cross, a victim of infinite value, and he continually renews that sacrifice on the altar through the ministry of the Church.

Within the Church are men who are specifically ordained as priest to consecrate and offer the body and blood of Christ in the Mass. The Apostles were the first ordained priests, when on Holy Thursday night Christ told them to do in his memory what he had just done at the Last Supper. All priests and bishops trace their ordination to the Apostles. Their second essential priestly power, to forgive sins, was conferred by Christ on Easter Sunday, when he told the Apostles, "For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained: (John 20-22, 23). All the Christian faithful, however, also share in the priesthood by their baptismal character. They are enabled to offer themselves in sacrifice with Christ through the Eucharistic liturgy. They offer the Mass in the sense that they internally unite themselves with the outward offering made by the ordained priest alone.

New France (French: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America during a period extending from the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River, by Jacques Cartier in 1534, to the cession of New France to Spain and Britain in 1763.

Four Jesuit priests came to Quebec in 1625. Although it was intended that others should follow at once, their number was not substantially increased until seven years later, when the troubles with England were brought to an end and the colony was once more securely in the hands of the French. Then the Jesuits came steadily, a few arriving with almost every ship, and either singly or together they were sent off to the Indian settlements.

More missionaries kept coming, however; the work steadily broadened; and the posts of service were multiplied. In due time the footprints of the Jesuits were everywhere, from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, from the tributaries of the Hudson to the regions north of the Ottawa. Priests such as: Le Jeune, Masse, Brebeuf, Lalemant, Ragueneau, Le Dablon, Jogues, Gamier, Raymbault, Peron, Moyne, Allouez, Druilletes, Chaumonot, Menard, Bressani, Daniel, Chabanel, and a hundred others were active around 1625.

The outposts in the Indian country were the chief scene of Jesuit labors from 1615 to about 1700, when the emphasis shifted to the St. Lawrence valley.

There were many different types of priest and priestess in ancient Egypt, with a strict system of ranks and responsibilities.

Unlike Christian priests, their job was not to preach or to influence the minds of ordinary people - they simply existed to serve the gods in different ways. In effect, the priests gave offerings to the gods on behalf of Pharaoh, who could not cope alone with the sheer number of offerings required.

The basic requirement for a novice priest was circumcision. The entire body must then be shaved and kept permanently free of all hair, including having the eyebrows and lashes removed regularly. Priests were forbidden certain foods, including beef, pork, mutton, pigeon, fish, beans, garlic and all green stuff. The point of all of this was for a priest to be completely "clean" in a religious sense - the general term for a low-ranking priest was wb, meaning purified.

Clothing had to be made from clean, fine linen and cut according to ancient patterns; on their feet they always wore white sandals. Higher ranks of priest wore special items such as a ribbon across the chest, a leopard-skin, a special necklace or a long fake plait attached to the bald head. Lector-priests wore two large feathers attached to their heads.

Some priestesses served as temple musicians, singers and dancers.