Congregation (catholic)
Encyclopedia
The term "congregation" has three usages specific to the Roman Catholic Church
. One concerns the Roman Curia
, the other two concern religious institute
s.
In origin, the Congregations were selected groups of cardinals, not the whole College of Cardinals
, commissioned to take care of some field of activity that concerned the Holy See
. Today, as a result of a decision of the Second Vatican Council
, the membership includes diocesan bishop
s from diverse parts of the world who are not cardinals
. Each Congregation also has a permanent staff to assist it in dealing with the business that comes before it.
For detailed information on these Congregations, see Congregation (Roman Curia)
and the links that it provides to the individual Congregations.
s is to denote a grouping of monasteries
or of chapters
of canons regular, where all these "congregations" (each presided over by an superior with a title such as abbot general, archabbot, abbot president, president, abbot ordinary, provost general or superior general) come under an abbot primate.
The Annuario Pontificio
lists the following as the congregations of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine (the abbot primate lives in Rome):
The same yearbook of the Holy See gives the following list of the congregations of the Benedictine Confederation
(the abbot primate lives in Rome).
The Annuario Pontificio lists the following congregations of Cistercians (their abbot primate is called instead abbot general).
(1235–1303).
The situation changed in the 16th century. In 1521, the Fourth Lateran Council forbade the establishment of new religious institutes, but two years later Pope Leo X
appointed a rule with simple vows for those tertiaries
attached to existing institutes who undertook to live in a community. In 1566 and 1568, Pope Pius V
rejected this class of institute, but they continued to exist and even increased in number. After at first being merely tolerated, they afterwards obtained approval. Their lives were oriented not to the ancient monastic way of life, but more to social service and to evangelization
, both in Europe
and in mission areas. Their number increased further in the upheavals brought by the French Revolution
and subsequent Napoleonic invasions of other Catholic countries, depriving thousands of monks and nuns of the income that their communities held because of inheritances and forcing them to find a new way of living their religious life. Only on almost the last day of the 19th century were they officially reckoned as religious, when Pope Leo XIII
recognized as religious all men and women who took simple vows in such congregations.
The 1917 Code of Canon Law reserved the name "religious order" for institutes in which the vows were solemn, and used the term "religious congregation" or simply "congregation" for those with simple vows. The members of a religious order for men were called "regulars", those belonging to a religious congregation were simply "religious", a term that applied also to regulars. For women, those with simple vows were simply "sisters", with the term "nun
" reserved in canon law for those who belonged to an institute of solemn vows, even if in some localities they were allowed to take simple vows instead.
However, it abolished the distinction according to which solemn vows, unlike simple vows, were indissoluble. It recognized no totally indispensable religious vows and thereby abrogated spiritually, though not altogether juridically, Latin-Rite religious orders. Solemn vows were originally considered indissoluble. Not even the Pope could dispense from them. If for a just cause a solemnly professed religious was expelled, the vow of chastity remained unchanged and so rendered invalid any attempt at marriage, the vow of obedience obliged in relation, generally, to the bishop rather than to the religious superior, and the vow of poverty was modified to meet the new situation, but the expelled religious "could not, for example, will any goods to another; and goods which came to him reverted at his death to his institute or to the Holy See".
After publication of the 1917 Code, many institutes with simple vows appealed to the Holy See for permission to make solemn vows. The Apostolic Constitution Sponsa Christi of 21 November 1950 made access to that permission easier for nuns (in the strict sense), though not for religious institutes dedicated to apostolic activity. Many of these institutes of women then petitioned for the solemn vow of poverty alone. Towards the end of the Second Vatican Council
, superiors general of clerical institutes and abbots president of monastic congregations were authorized to permit, for a just cause, their subjects of simple vows who made a reasonable request to renounce their property except for what would be required for their sustenance if they were to depart, thus assimilating their position to that of religious with solemn vows. These changes resulted in a blurring of the previously clear distinction between "orders" and "congregations", since institutes that were founded as "congregations" began to have some members who had all three solemn vows or had members that took a solemn vow of poverty and simple vows of chastity and obedience.
The current Code of Canon Law, which came into force in 1983, maintains the distinction between solemn and simple vows, but no longer makes any distinction between their juridical effects, including the distinction between "orders" and "congregations". It has accordingly dropped the language of the 1917 code and uses the single term "religious institute" (which appears nowhere in the 1917 Code) to designate all such institutes of consecrated life alike.
In the current Code of Canon Law, the word "congregation" is never used of a class of religious institutes, but only of the congregations of the Roman Curia or of monastic congregations. In the English translation of the Canon Law Society of America, the word "congregation" is used also in canon 767 §§2-3 of the people at Mass, where the Latin text has "populi concursus", not "congregatio"
The Annuario Pontificio
lists for both men and women the institutes of consecrated life and the like that are "of pontifical right" (those that the Holy See has erected or approved by formal decree). For the men, it gives what it calls the Historical-Juridical List of Precedence. In this list it maintains to a large extent the historical distinction between "orders" and "congregations", giving information on 88 "clerical religious congregations" and 33 "lay religious congregations", but it does not distinguish, even for men, between "orders" and "congregations" of Eastern Catholic Churches, nor does it distinguish between these two pre-1983 classes when listing the pontifical-right religious institutes of women. These are much more numerous than those for men. The Annuario Pontificio devotes 216 pages to listing them, with 6 or 7 of them (mostly 7) on each page.
For a selection of religious institutes arranged as a dynamic table, see Religious institute#List of some religious institutes.
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. One concerns the Roman Curia
Roman Curia
The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Catholic Church, together with the Pope...
, the other two concern religious institute
Religious institute
In the Roman Catholic Church, a religious institute is "a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, and lead a life of brothers or sisters in common".-Distinctions...
s.
Roman Curia
The highest-ranking departments of the Roman Curia are called Congregations. Lower-ranking are the Pontifical Councils and Pontifical Commissions. Others are Tribunals and Offices.In origin, the Congregations were selected groups of cardinals, not the whole College of Cardinals
College of Cardinals
The College of Cardinals is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church.A function of the college is to advise the pope about church matters when he summons them to an ordinary consistory. It also convenes on the death or abdication of a pope as a papal conclave to elect a successor...
, commissioned to take care of some field of activity that concerned the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
. Today, as a result of a decision of the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
, the membership includes diocesan bishop
Diocesan bishop
A diocesan bishop — in general — is a bishop in charge of a diocese. These are to be distinguished from suffragan bishops, assistant bishops, coadjutor bishops, auxiliary bishops, metropolitans, and primates....
s from diverse parts of the world who are not cardinals
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
. Each Congregation also has a permanent staff to assist it in dealing with the business that comes before it.
For detailed information on these Congregations, see Congregation (Roman Curia)
Congregation (Roman Curia)
A congregation is a type of dicastery of the Roman Curia, the central administrative organism of the Catholic Church....
and the links that it provides to the individual Congregations.
Augustinian, Benedictine and Cistercian congregations
A still current use of the term "congregation" in relation to religious instituteReligious institute
In the Roman Catholic Church, a religious institute is "a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, and lead a life of brothers or sisters in common".-Distinctions...
s is to denote a grouping of monasteries
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
or of chapters
Chapter (religion)
Chapter designates certain corporate ecclesiastical bodies in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches....
of canons regular, where all these "congregations" (each presided over by an superior with a title such as abbot general, archabbot, abbot president, president, abbot ordinary, provost general or superior general) come under an abbot primate.
The Annuario Pontificio
Annuario Pontificio
The Annuario Pontificio is the annual directory of the Holy See. It lists all the popes to date and all officials of the Holy See's departments...
lists the following as the congregations of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine (the abbot primate lives in Rome):
- Canons Regular of the Congregation of the Most Holy Saviour of the Lateran (abbot general in Rome)
- Canons Regular of the Austrian Lateran Congregation (1907 – abbot general in Klosterneuburg, Austria)
- Canons Regular of the Hospitalary Congregation of Great Saint Bernard (11th century – provost gerneral in Martigny, Switzerland)
- Canons Regular of the Swiss Congregation of Saint-Maurice of Agaune (1128 – abbot ordinary in Saint-Maurice, Switzerland)
- Canons Regular of Saint Augustine of the Congregation of Windesheim (1386 – provost general in Paring, Germany)
- Canons Regular of the Congregation of Saint Victor (1968 – abbot general in Champagne-sur-Rhône, France)
- Canons Regular of the Immaculate Conception (1866 – superior general in Rome)
- Canons Regular of the Congregation of the Brothers of Common Life (14th century – superior general in Weilheim, Germany)
The same yearbook of the Holy See gives the following list of the congregations of the Benedictine Confederation
Benedictine Confederation
The Benedictine Confederation of the Order of Saint Benedict is the international governing body of the Order of Saint Benedict.-Origin:...
(the abbot primate lives in Rome).
- Cassinese Benedictine Congregation (1408 – president in Rome)
- English Benedictine CongregationEnglish Benedictine CongregationThe English Benedictine Congregation comprises autonomous Roman Catholic Benedictine communities of monks and nuns and is technically the oldest of the 21 congregations that are affiliated in the Benedictine Confederation....
(1336 – president in Radstock, England) - Hungarian Benedictine Congregation]] (1514 – archabbot in Pannonhalma, Hungary)
- Swiss Benedictine CongregationSwiss CongregationThe Swiss Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation is a grouping of Benedictine monasteries in Switzerland or with significant historical Swiss connections.-Foundation:...
(1602- president in Bolzano, Italy) - Austrian Benedictine CongregationAustrian CongregationThe Austrian Congregation is a congregation of Benedictine monasteries situated in Austria, within the Benedictine Confederation.-History:The Congregation was founded on 3 August 1625 by Pope Urban VIII, and consisted of eleven Benedictine monasteries in Austria:*Altenburg Abbey*Garsten...
(1625 – president in Stift Göttweig, Austria) - Bavarian Benedictine CongregationBavarian CongregationThe Bavarian Congregation is a congregation of the Benedictine Confederation consisting of monasteries in Bavaria, Germany.It was founded on 26 August 1684 by the Blessed Pope Innocent XI .-First Congregation:...
(1684 – president in Kloster Schäftlarn, Germany) - Brazilian Benedictine Congregation (1827 – president in Salvador, Brazil)
- Solesmes Benedictine CongregationSolesmes CongregationThe Solesmes Congregation of the Benedictine Confederation was founded in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI as the French Benedictine Congregation, with the newly reopened monastery of Solesmes Abbey under Dom Prosper Guéranger at its head. The Congregation's first nunnery was St...
(1837 – president in Sablé-sur-Sarthe, France) - American Cassinese Benedictine CongregationAmerican-Cassinese CongregationFounded 1855, the American-Cassinese Congregation is a Catholic association of Benedictine monasteries in the Benedictine ConfederationThe Congregation consists of 20 independent monasteries with houses or dependencies in 16 of the United States, Puerto Rico, and in six other countries on three...
(1855 –president in Collegeville, United States) - Subiaco Benedictine CongregationSubiaco CongregationThe Subiaco Congregation is an international union of Benedictine houses within the Benedictine Confederation. It was formed in 1867 through the initiative of Dom Pietro Franceso Casaretto, O.S.B., and received final approval by the Holy See in 1872.- History :Casaretto from the age of seventeen...
(1872 – the president lives in Rome) - Beuron Benedictine CongregationBeuronese CongregationThe Beuronese Congregation, or Beuron Congregation, is a union of mostly German or German-speaking religious houses of both monks and nuns within the Benedictine Confederation...
(1873 – the president lives in Maria Laach, Germany) - Swiss-American Benedictine Congregation] (1881 – the president lives in St. Benedict, United States)
- St. Ottilien Benedictine CongregationOttilien CongregationThe Ottilien Congregation, often also known as the St. Ottilien Congregation and as the Missionary Benedictines, is a congregation of religious houses within the Benedictine Confederation, the aim of which is to combine the Benedictine way of life with activity in the mission field.-History:The...
(1884 – archabbot president in St. Ottilien, Germany) - Annunciation Benedictine Congregation (1920 – president in Trier, Germany
- Slav Benedictine Congregation]] (1945 – prior administrator in Prague, Czech Republic)
- Olivetan Benedictine Congregation (1319 – abbot general in Chiusure, Italy)
- Vallombrosan Benedictine Congregation (1036 – abbot general in Vallombrosa, Italy)
- Camaldolese Congregation of the Order of Saint Benedict (980 – prior general in Camaldoli, Italy)
- Sylvestrine Benedictine Congregation (1231 – abbot general in Rome)
- Benedictine Congregation of the Holy Cross of the Southern Cone (1976 – president in Los Toldos, Argentina)
The Annuario Pontificio lists the following congregations of Cistercians (their abbot primate is called instead abbot general).
- Castilian Cistercian Congregation (1425 – the abbot general acts as pro-president)
- Cistercian Congregation of St Bernard in Italy (1497 – abbot president in San Severino Marche, Italy)
- Cistercian Congregation of the Crown of Aragon (1616 – abbot president in Poblet, Spain)
- Mehrerau Cistercian Congregation (1624 – abbot president in Bregenz, Austria)
- Cistercian Congregation of Mary Mediatrix (1846 – abbot president in Nieuwkuijk, Netherlands)
- Austrian Cistercian Congregation (1859 – abbot president in Heiligenkreuz, Austria)
- Cistercian Congregation of the Immaculate Conception (1867 – abbot president in Ile Saint Honorat, France)
- Zirc Cistercian Congregation (1923 – abbot president in Zirc, Hungary)
- Cistercian Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (1923 – abbot president in Rome)
- Casamari Cistercian Congregation (1929 – abbot president in Casamari, Italy)
- Cistercian Congregation of Mary Queen of the World (1953 – abbot president in Kraków, Poland)
- Brazilian Cistercian Congregation (1961 – abbot president in Itaporanga, Brazil)
- Cistercian Congregation of the Holy Family (1964 – abbot president inThành-Phô Ho Chí Minh, Vietnam)
Congregations as a historical category of religious institutes
Originally, the vows taken by profession in any of the religious institutes approved by the Holy See were classified as solemn. This was declared by Pope Boniface VIIIPope Boniface VIII
Pope Boniface VIII , born Benedetto Gaetani, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 1294 to 1303. Today, Boniface VIII is probably best remembered for his feuds with Dante, who placed him in the Eighth circle of Hell in his Divina Commedia, among the Simonists.- Biography :Gaetani was born in 1235 in...
(1235–1303).
The situation changed in the 16th century. In 1521, the Fourth Lateran Council forbade the establishment of new religious institutes, but two years later Pope Leo X
Pope Leo X
Pope Leo X , born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, was the Pope from 1513 to his death in 1521. He was the last non-priest to be elected Pope. He is known for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peter's Basilica and his challenging of Martin Luther's 95 Theses...
appointed a rule with simple vows for those tertiaries
Third order
The term Third Order designates persons who live according to the Third Rule of a Roman Catholic religious order, an Anglican religious order, or a Lutheran religious order. Their members, known as Tertiaries, are generally lay members of religious orders, i.e...
attached to existing institutes who undertook to live in a community. In 1566 and 1568, Pope Pius V
Pope Pius V
Pope Saint Pius V , born Antonio Ghislieri , was Pope from 1566 to 1572 and is a saint of the Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardization of the Roman liturgy within the Latin Church...
rejected this class of institute, but they continued to exist and even increased in number. After at first being merely tolerated, they afterwards obtained approval. Their lives were oriented not to the ancient monastic way of life, but more to social service and to evangelization
Evangelization
Evangelization is that process in the Christian religion which seeks to spread the Gospel and the knowledge of the Gospel throughout the world. It can be defined as so:-The birth of Christian evangelization:...
, both in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and in mission areas. Their number increased further in the upheavals brought by the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and subsequent Napoleonic invasions of other Catholic countries, depriving thousands of monks and nuns of the income that their communities held because of inheritances and forcing them to find a new way of living their religious life. Only on almost the last day of the 19th century were they officially reckoned as religious, when Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
recognized as religious all men and women who took simple vows in such congregations.
The 1917 Code of Canon Law reserved the name "religious order" for institutes in which the vows were solemn, and used the term "religious congregation" or simply "congregation" for those with simple vows. The members of a religious order for men were called "regulars", those belonging to a religious congregation were simply "religious", a term that applied also to regulars. For women, those with simple vows were simply "sisters", with the term "nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
" reserved in canon law for those who belonged to an institute of solemn vows, even if in some localities they were allowed to take simple vows instead.
However, it abolished the distinction according to which solemn vows, unlike simple vows, were indissoluble. It recognized no totally indispensable religious vows and thereby abrogated spiritually, though not altogether juridically, Latin-Rite religious orders. Solemn vows were originally considered indissoluble. Not even the Pope could dispense from them. If for a just cause a solemnly professed religious was expelled, the vow of chastity remained unchanged and so rendered invalid any attempt at marriage, the vow of obedience obliged in relation, generally, to the bishop rather than to the religious superior, and the vow of poverty was modified to meet the new situation, but the expelled religious "could not, for example, will any goods to another; and goods which came to him reverted at his death to his institute or to the Holy See".
After publication of the 1917 Code, many institutes with simple vows appealed to the Holy See for permission to make solemn vows. The Apostolic Constitution Sponsa Christi of 21 November 1950 made access to that permission easier for nuns (in the strict sense), though not for religious institutes dedicated to apostolic activity. Many of these institutes of women then petitioned for the solemn vow of poverty alone. Towards the end of the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
, superiors general of clerical institutes and abbots president of monastic congregations were authorized to permit, for a just cause, their subjects of simple vows who made a reasonable request to renounce their property except for what would be required for their sustenance if they were to depart, thus assimilating their position to that of religious with solemn vows. These changes resulted in a blurring of the previously clear distinction between "orders" and "congregations", since institutes that were founded as "congregations" began to have some members who had all three solemn vows or had members that took a solemn vow of poverty and simple vows of chastity and obedience.
The current Code of Canon Law, which came into force in 1983, maintains the distinction between solemn and simple vows, but no longer makes any distinction between their juridical effects, including the distinction between "orders" and "congregations". It has accordingly dropped the language of the 1917 code and uses the single term "religious institute" (which appears nowhere in the 1917 Code) to designate all such institutes of consecrated life alike.
In the current Code of Canon Law, the word "congregation" is never used of a class of religious institutes, but only of the congregations of the Roman Curia or of monastic congregations. In the English translation of the Canon Law Society of America, the word "congregation" is used also in canon 767 §§2-3 of the people at Mass, where the Latin text has "populi concursus", not "congregatio"
The Annuario Pontificio
Annuario Pontificio
The Annuario Pontificio is the annual directory of the Holy See. It lists all the popes to date and all officials of the Holy See's departments...
lists for both men and women the institutes of consecrated life and the like that are "of pontifical right" (those that the Holy See has erected or approved by formal decree). For the men, it gives what it calls the Historical-Juridical List of Precedence. In this list it maintains to a large extent the historical distinction between "orders" and "congregations", giving information on 88 "clerical religious congregations" and 33 "lay religious congregations", but it does not distinguish, even for men, between "orders" and "congregations" of Eastern Catholic Churches, nor does it distinguish between these two pre-1983 classes when listing the pontifical-right religious institutes of women. These are much more numerous than those for men. The Annuario Pontificio devotes 216 pages to listing them, with 6 or 7 of them (mostly 7) on each page.
For a selection of religious institutes arranged as a dynamic table, see Religious institute#List of some religious institutes.
See also
- Consecrated life (Catholic Church)Consecrated life (Catholic Church)In the Roman Catholic Church, the term "consecrated life" denotes a stable form of Christian living by those faithful who feel called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way recognized by the Church...
- Institute of consecrated lifeInstitute of Consecrated LifeInstitutes of consecrated life are canonically erected institutes in the Roman Catholic Church whose members profess the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience by vows or other sacred bonds...
- Religious instituteReligious instituteIn the Roman Catholic Church, a religious institute is "a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, and lead a life of brothers or sisters in common".-Distinctions...
- Catholic religious order
- Secular instituteSecular instituteIn the Roman Catholic Church, a secular institute is an organization of individuals who are consecrated persons – professing the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience – while living in the world, unlike members of a religious order who live in community. It is one of the...
- Society of apostolic lifeSociety of Apostolic LifeA society of apostolic life is a group of men or women within the Catholic Church who have come together for a specific purpose. Unlike members of an institute of consecrated life , members of apostolic societies do not make religious vows...