Catholic religious order

Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the mendicant Order of FriarsMinor, as painted by El Greco.

Catholic religious orders are, historically, a category ofCatholic religious institutes.Subcategories are canons regular (canons and canonessesregular who recite the divine oce and serve a church andperhaps a parish); monastics (monks or nuns living andworking in a monastery and reciting the divine oce);mendicants (friars or religious sisters who live from alms,recite the divine oce, and, in the case of the men, par-ticipate in apostolic activities); and clerks regular (priestswho take religious vows and have a very active apostoliclife).In the past, what distinguished religious orders from otherinstitutes was the classication of the vows that the mem-bers took in religious profession as solemn vows. Accord-ing to this criterion, the last religious order founded wasthat of the Bethlehem Brothers in 1673.[1] Nevertheless,in the course of the 20th century some religious insti-tutes outside the category of orders obtained permissionto make solemn vows, at least of poverty, thus blurringthe distinction.

1 Essential distinguishing markSolemn vows were originally considered indissoluble. Asnoted below, dispensations began to be granted in latertimes, but originally not even the Pope could dispensefrom them.[2] If for a just cause a religious was expelled,the vow of chastity remained unchanged and so renderedinvalid any attempt at marriage, the vow of obedienceobliged in relation, generally, to the bishop rather than tothe religious superior, and the vow of poverty was mod-ied to meet the new situation but the expelled religiouscould not, for example, will any goods to another; andgoods which came to him reverted at his death to his in-stitute or to the Holy See.[3]

2 Weakening in 1917The 1917 Code of Canon Law reserved the name reli-gious order" for institutes in which the vows were solemn,and used the term religious congregation" or simplycongregation for institutes with simple vows. Themembers of a religious order for men were called reg-ulars, those belonging to a religious congregation weresimply "religious", a term that applied also to regulars.For women, those with simple vows were called sis-ters, with the term "nun" reserved in canon law for thosewho belonged to an institute of solemn vows, even if insome localities they were allowed to take simple vowsinstead.[4]

However, it abolished the distinction according to whichsolemn vows, unlike simple vows, were indissoluble. Itrecognized no totally indispensable religious vows andthereby abrogated for the Latin Church the special conse-cration that distinguished orders from congregations,while keeping some juridical distinctions.[3]

In practice, even before 1917 dispensations from solemnreligious vows were being obtained by grant of the Popehimself, while departments of the Holy See and superi-ors specially delegated by it could dispense from simplereligious vows.[5]

The 1917 Code maintained a juridical distinction bydeclaring invalid any marriage attempted by solemnlyprofessed religious or by those with simple vows to whichthe Holy See had attached the eect of invalidatingmarriage,[6] while stating that no simple vow rendered amarriage invalid, except in the cases in which the HolySee directed otherwise.[7] Thus members of orders

1

2 4 AUTHORITY STRUCTURE

The Hieronymite monks.

were barred absolutely from marriage, and any marriagethey attemptedwas invalid. Those whomade simple vowswere obliged not to marry, but if they did break their vow,the marriage was considered valid.Another dierence was that a professed religious ofsolemn vows lost the right to own property and the capac-ity to acquire temporal goods for himself or herself, buta professed religious of simple vows, while being prohib-ited by the vow of poverty from using and administeringproperty, kept ownership and the right to acquire more,unless the constitutions of the religious institute explicitlystated the contrary.[8]

After publication of the 1917 Code, many institutes withsimple vows appealed to the Holy See for permission tomake solemn vows. The Apostolic Constitution SponsaChristi of 21 November 1950 made access to that per-mission easier for nuns (in the strict sense), though not forreligious institutes dedicated to apostolic activity. Manyof these latter institutes of women then petitioned forthe solemn vow of poverty alone. Towards the end ofthe Second Vatican Council, superiors general of cleri-cal institutes and abbots president of monastic congre-gations were authorized to permit, for a just cause, theirsubjects of simple vows who made a reasonable requestto renounce their property except for what would be re-quired for their sustenance if they were to depart.[9] Thesechanges resulted in a further blurring of the previouslyclear distinction between orders and congregations,since institutes that were founded as congregations be-

gan to have somemembers who had all three solemn vowsor had members that took a solemn vow of poverty andsimple vows of chastity and obedience.

3 Further changes in 1983The current Code of Canon Law, which came into forcein 1983, maintains the distinction between solemn andsimple vows,[10] but no longer makes any distinction be-tween their juridical eects, including the distinction be-tween orders and congregations. It has accordinglydropped the language of the 1917 code and uses the sin-gle term religious institute (which appears nowhere inthe 1917 Code)[11] to designate all such institutes of con-secrated life alike.[12]

Thus the Church no longer draws the historical distinc-tion between religious orders and congregations. Itapplies to all such institutes the single name religious in-stitute and the same rules of canon law.[13] While solemnvows once meant those taken in what was called a re-ligious order, today, in order to know when a vow issolemn it will be necessary to refer to the proper law ofthe institutes of consecrated life.[14]

Religious order and religious institute tend indeed tobe used now as synonyms, and canon lawyer Nicholas Ca-fardi, commenting on the fact that the canonical term isreligious institute, can write that religious order is acolloquialism.[15]

4 Authority structureA religious order is characterized by an authority struc-ture where a superior general has jurisdiction over theorders dependent communities. An exception is theOrder of St Benedict which is not a religious order inthis technical sense, because it has a system of indepen-dent houses, meaning that each abbey is autonomous.However, the Constitutions governing the orders globalindependent houses and its distinct congregations (ofwhich there are twenty) were approved by the pope. Like-wise, according to rank and authority, the abbot primate'sposition with regard to the other abbots [throughout theworld] is to be understood rather from the analogy of aprimate in a hierarchy than from that of the general of anorder like the Dominicans and Jesuits. [16]

The Canons Regular of Saint Augustine are in a situa-tion similar to that of the Benedictines. They are orga-nized in eight congregations, each headed by an abbotgeneral, but also have an Abbot Primate of the Con-federated Canons Regular of Saint Augustine. And theCistercians are in thirteen congregations, each headedby an abbot general or an abbot president, but do notuse the title of abbot primate.

3Thomas Schoen 1903, OCist.

5 List of institutes of consecratedlife in the Annuario Ponticio

TheAnnuario Ponticio lists for both men and women theinstitutes of consecrated life and the like that are of pon-tical right (those that the Holy See has erected or ap-proved by formal decree).[17] For the men, it gives what itnow calls the Historical-Juridical List of Precedence.[18]The arrangement in this list dates back many decades.It is found, for instance, in the 1964 edition of the An-nuario Ponticio, pp. 807870, where the heading isStates of Perfection (of pontical right for men)". Inthe 1969 edition the heading has become Religious andSecular Institutes of Pontical Right for Men, a form itkept until 1975 inclusive. Since 1976, when work was al-ready advanced on revising the Code of Canon Law, thelist has been qualied as historical-juridical and still in-cludes as orders the following institutes for men of theLatin Church, while not distinguishing between ordersand congregations in the case of the Eastern CatholicChurches and Latin Church women.Within that long list, a relatively small section is devotedto Latin-Rite orders for men:The 2012 Annuario Ponticio, which devotes 19 pages tothis information on Latin-Rite orders for men, gives 35pages to Latin-Rite "congregations" for men, 7 to Easternorders, religious congregations and societies of apostoliclife for men, and 198 pages to more concise informationon religious institutes for women.

6 See also

7 References[1] lvarez Gmez, Jess, C.M.F., Historia de la vida re-

ligiosa, Volume III, Publicaciones Claretianas, Madrid,1996.

[2] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 88, a.11

[3] Paul M. Quay, Renewal of Religious Orders, or Destruc-tion?", in Commentarium pro Religiosis et Missionariis,vol. 65 (1984), pp. 77-86

[4] 1917 Code of Canon Law, canon 488

[5] William Edward Addis, Thomas Arnold, A Catholic Dic-tionary Containing Some Account of the Doctrine, Disci-pline, Rites, Ceremonies, Councils and Religious Ordersof the Catholic Church, Part Two, p. 858 (reprinted byKessinger Publishing 2004)

[6] 1917 Code of Canon Law, canon 1073

[7] 1917 Code of Canon Law, canon 1058

[8] 1917 Code of Canon Law, canons 580-582

[9] Yji Sugawara, Religious Poverty: from Vatican CouncilII to the 1994 Synod of Bishops (Loyola Press 1997 ISBN978-88-7652-698-5), pp. 127-128

[10] Code of Canon Law, canon 1192 2

[11] IntraText concordance to the 1917 Code

[12] Robert T. Kennedy, Study related to a pre-1983 book byJohn J. McGrath Jurist, 1990, pp. 351-401

[13] Code of Canon Law, canons 607-709

[14] E. Caparros, M. Thriault, J. Thorne (editors), Code ofCanon Law Annotated (Wilson & Laeur, Montral 1993ISBN 2-89127-232-3), p. 745

[15] Article published in Theological Exploration, vol. 2. no. 1of Duquesne University and in Law Review of Universityof Toledo, vol 33

[16] See The Benedictine Order in New Advent, CatholicEncyclopedia

[17] Code of Canon Law, canon 589

[18] Annuario Ponticio 2008 (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2012ISBN 978-88-209-8722-0), pp. 1411-1468

4 8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

8 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses8.1 Text

Catholic religious order Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_religious_order?oldid=656758424 Contributors: GTBacchus,Ahoerstemeier, JASpencer, Choster, Gentgeen, EdwinHJ, Roscoe x, Lysy, Dominick, Tom harrison, Samuel J. Howard, Karnan, Williamb,Xandar, Icairns, Neutrality, D6, O'Dea, Pmadrid, Rich Farmbrough, MCBastos, Naive cynic, Cjrs 79, El C, Julius.kusuma, Jonathunder,Patsw, Anthony Appleyard, Mark Dingemanse, Arthena, JohnAlbertRigali, Ynhockey, InShaneee, Malo, JerH, Blahedo, RJFJR, Lerd-suwa, Strongbow, Halcatalyst, BD2412, Kbdank71, Miq, Dpr, Eoghanacht, Dominicotoole, Olessi, SchuminWeb, Emmanuel83, Heycam,Musical Linguist, Gurch, Windharp, Aloysius, Psantora, Portress, Borgx, NTBot~enwiki, Briaboru, DanMS, Scott5834, Gaius Cornelius,Kimchi.sg, Searley, Royalbroil, Tony1, Kiddo54, Bruce Hall, Mamathomas, Arundhati bakshi, Fastifex, Ant ie, SmackBot, Marcusscotus1,Mister X, Hmains, Chris the speller, Bistropha, Banderas, RFD, Kraftbj, Dkusic~enwiki, BrownHairedGirl, Mathiasrex, Thegreatbrandoni,JHunterJ, Mego'brien, Mikesds, Levineps, ILovePlankton, Edsdet, MJO, Ravenwarrior, Coeezombie, Benfranklinlover, Americasroof,Mbtz, Krushsister, JohnCD, Drinibot, Raz1el, ShelfSkewed, Ghfj007, Tmac4434, Manjaly, Vaquero100, Faylei, Marek69, SGGH, Su-sanrosecsjp, Freddiem, Amycsj, Smith2006, Edokter, Billertl, Vlnangel, Deep Submerge, SiobhanHansa, Alekjds, Martynas Patasius, GunPowder Ma, WeaselADAPT, Dan arndt, Rrostrom, Augustinian11, Tikiwont, Pjtuohy, Ans-mo, El cid1010, Ameriscot, Slug87, Nwbeeson,Student7, Juliancolton, Firstorm, EastmeetsWest, Bsroiaadn, User2006, Barkeric14, Qaree, Franco56, Joseph A. Spadaro, Cmcnicoll, Van-ishedUserABC, NHRHS2010, Brenont, Ptolemy Caesarion, NihilNominis, Vanished user ewsn2348tui2f8n2o2utjfeoi210r39jf, Bpeps,ClueBot, The Thing That Should Not Be, Rodhullandemu, Rprpr, Pointillist, Staugusto, Yorkshirian, Peter.C, Riccardo Riccioni, Eliz-ium23, Tnavarro61, Versus22, Editor2020, Ambrosius007, Fidesocculata, Thanar, Fr.roger, Bazj, Addbot, Prattlement, Purple PuddleJumper, Tide rolls, Goyoguy1, Tigmic, Drpickem, Yobot, Fedem, AnomieBOT, Piano non troppo, Spiretas, DustFormsWords, Drew-park628, Alexander.Meier, Thehelpfulbot, Kallme, Josinj, Wwhimpenny, Johnwander, Eagle4000, Gdje je nestala dua svijeta, Edderso,Buddhaamaatya, SpaceFlight89, Rumiawee, Willikers32, Rednevog, Coquidragon, Sweet kate, Lucobrat, Beyond My Ken, Caritas1, Es-oglou, The Mysterious El Willstro, Lenyjanuar, Werieth, Midas02, Cobaltcigs, Josephtt1, Sistermaryhelen, ClueBot NG, Wallybigballs,Helpful Pixie Bot, Handyhuy, MPSchneiderLC, Cdenic, J R Gainey, 8110charlie, CsDix, Anjo-sozinho, Johnmaroun, JoeHebda, DaiPritchard and Anonymous: 178

8.2 Images File:046CupolaSPietro.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/046CupolaSPietro.jpg License: CC BY-SA

3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: MarkusMark File:Abbatia_CIST_Sbernadiensis_27a.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Abbatia_CIST_

Sbernadiensis_27a.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Carolus and ^painted by Jean-BaptisteAnthony (18541930)

File:Coat_of_arms_of_the_Holy_See.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Coat_of_arms_Holy_See.svgLicense: Public domain Contributors:

Bruno Bernhard Heim, Heraldry in the Catholic Church: Its Origin, Customs and Laws (Van Duren 1978 ISBN 9780391008731), p. 54;Original artist: F l a n k e r

File:Emblem_of_the_Holy_See_usual.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Emblem_of_the_Holy_See_usual.svg License: CC0 Contributors:

Keys: File:Sede_vacante.svg Original artist: Gambo7 File:Emblem_of_the_Papacy_SE.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Emblem_of_the_Papacy_SE.svg

License: Public domain Contributors: File:Coat of arms Holy See.svg Original artist: Cronholm144 created this image using a le by User:Hautala - File:Emblem of Vatican City

State.svg, who had created his le using PD art from Open Clip Art Library and uploaded on 13 July 2006. User talk:F l a n k e r uploadedthis version on 19 January 2007.

File:Francisbyelgreco.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Francisbyelgreco.jpg License: Public domainContributors:Original artist: El Greco

File:Francisco_de_Zurbarn_070.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Francisco_de_Zurbar%C3%A1n_070.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Original artist: Francisco de Zurbarn

File:Thomas_Aquinas_in_Stained_Glass.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Thomas_Aquinas_in_Stained_Glass.jpg License: CC BY-SA 2.0 Contributors: Flickr Original artist: e3000

8.3 Content license Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Essential distinguishing mark Weakening in 1917 Further changes in 1983 Authority structure List of institutes of consecrated life in the Annuario Pontificio See alsoReferences Text and image sources, contributors, and licensesTextImagesContent license