Roman Catholic religious order - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Catholic religious orders are, historically, a category of Catholic 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.

Subcategories are canons regular

Canons Regular

Canons Regular are members of certain bodies of Canons living in community under the Augustinian Rule , and sharing their property in common...

(canons and canonesses regular who recite the divine office

Divine Office

Divine Office may refer to:* Liturgy of the Hours, the recitation of certain Christian prayers at fixed hours according to the discipline of the Roman Catholic Church* Canonical hours, the recitation of such prayers in Christianity more generally...

and serve a church and perhaps a parish); monastics (monk

Monk

A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

s or 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...

s living and working in a monastery

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...

and reciting the divine office

Divine Office

); mendicants

Mendicant Orders

The mendicant orders are religious orders which depend directly on the charity of the people for their livelihood. In principle, they do not own property, either individually or collectively , believing that this was the most pure way of life to copy followed by Jesus Christ, in order that all...

(friars or religious sisters who live from alms, recite the divine office

Divine Office

, and, in the case of the men, participate in apostolic activities); and clerks regular

Clerks Regular

The term Clerks Regular designates a number of Catholic priests who are members of a religious order of priests, but in the strictest sense of the word are not Canons Regular.-Canonical Status:...

(priests who take religious vows and have a very active apostolic life).

In the past, what distinguished religious orders from other institutes was the classification of the vow

Vow

A vow is a promise or oath.-Marriage vows:Marriage vows are binding promises each partner in a couple makes to the other during a wedding ceremony. Marriage customs have developed over history and keep changing as human society develops...

s that the members took in religious profession as solemn vow

Solemn vow

In Roman Catholic canon law, a solemn vow is a vow that the Church has recognized as such....

s, but in the course of the 20th century some religious institutes outside the category of orders obtained permission to make solemn vows, at least of poverty, thus blurring the distinction.

Essential distinguishing mark

Solemn vows were originally considered indissoluble. Not even the Pope could dispense from them. If for a just cause a 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".

Weakening in 1917

The 1917 Code of Canon Law reserved the name "religious order" for institutes in which the vows were solemn

Solemn vow

In Roman Catholic canon law, a solemn vow is a vow that the Church has recognized as such....

, and used the term "religious congregation" or simply "congregation" for institutes 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 called "sisters", with the term "nun

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 for the Latin Church

Latin Church

The Latin Church is the largest particular church within the Catholic Church. It is a particular church not on the level of the local particular churches known as dioceses or eparchies, but on the level of autonomous ritual churches, of which there are 23, the remaining 22 of which are Eastern...

the special consecration that distinguished "orders" from "congregations", while keeping some juridical distinctions.

A juridical distinction that the 1917 Code maintained was its declaring invalid any marriage attempted by solemnly professed religious or by those with simple vows to which the Holy See had attached the effect of invalidating marriage, while stating that no simple vow rendered a marriage invalid, except in the cases in which 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...

directed otherwise. Thus members of "orders" were barred absolutely from marriage, and any marriage they attempted was invalid. Those who made simple vows were obliged not to marry, but if they did break their vow, the marriage was considered valid.

Another difference was that a professed religious of solemn vows lost the right to own property and the capacity to acquire temporal goods for himself or herself, but a professed religious of simple vows, while being prohibited by the vow of poverty from using and administering property, kept ownership and the right to acquire more, unless the constitutions of the religious institute explicitly stated the contrary.

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 latter 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. These changes resulted in a further 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.

Further changes in 1983

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.

Thus the Church no longer draws the historical distinction between religious "orders" and "congregations". It applies to all such institutes the single name "religious institute" and the same rules of canon law. While solemn vows once meant those taken in what was called a religious order, "today, in order to know when a vow is solemn it will be necessary to refer to the proper law of the institutes of consecrated life

Institute of Consecrated Life

Institutes 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 order" and "religious institute" tend indeed to be used now as synonyms, and canon lawyer Nicholas Cafardi, commenting on the fact that the canonical

Canon law (Catholic Church)

The canon law of the Catholic Church, is a fully developed legal system, with all the necessary elements: courts, lawyers, judges, a fully articulated legal code and principles of legal interpretation. It lacks the necessary binding force present in most modern day legal systems. The academic...

term is "religious institute", can write that "religious order" is a colloquialism.

Authority structure

A religious order is characterized by an authority structure where a superior general

Superior general

A Superior General, or General Superior, is the Superior at the head of a whole religious order or congregation.The term is mainly used as a generic term, while many orders and congregations use other specific titles, notably:* Abbot general...

has jurisdiction over the order's dependent communities. An exception is the Order of St Benedict which is not a religious order in this technical sense, because it has a system of "independent houses", meaning that each abbey is autonomous. However, the Constitutions governing the order's global "independent houses" and its distinct "congregations" (of which there are twenty) were approved by the pope. Likewise, according to rank and authority, the abbot primate's "position with regard to the other abbots [throughout the world] is to be understood rather from the analogy of a primate in a hierarchy than from that of the general of an order like the Dominicans and Jesuits."

The Canons Regular of Saint Augustine are in a situation similar to that of the Benedictines. They are organized in eight "congregations", each headed by an "abbot general", but also have an "Abbot Primate of the Confederated Canons Regular of Saint Augustine". And the Cistercians are in thirteen "congregations", each headed by an "abbot general" or an "abbot president", but do not use the title of "abbot primate".

List of institutes of consecrated life in the Annuario Pontificio

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 now calls the Historical-Juridical List of Precedence. The arrangement in this list dates back many decades. It is found, for instance, in the 1964 edition of the Annuario Pontificio, pp. 807-870, where the heading is "States of Perfection (of pontifical right for men)". In the 1969 edition the heading has become "Religious and Secular Institutes of Pontifical Right for Men", a form it kept until 1975 inclusive. Since 1976, when work was already advanced on revising the Code of Canon Law, the list has been qualified as "historical-juridical" and still includes as "orders" the following institutes for men of Latin Rite, while not distinguishing between "orders" and "congregations" in the case of the Eastern Catholic Churches and Latin-Rite women.

Canons Regular
Official Name	Acronym	Common Name
Sacer et Apostolicus Ordo Canonicorum Regularium S. Augustini	C.R.S.A.	Canon Regulars, Augustinian Canons
Congregatio Ssmi Salvatoris Lateranensis	C.R.L.	(7 congregations Congregation (catholic) The term "congregation" has three usages specific to the Roman Catholic Church. One concerns the Roman Curia, the other two concern religious institutes.- Roman Curia :... )
Candidus et Canonicus Ordo Praemonstratensis	O. Praem.	Norbertines or Premonstratensians
Ordo Canonicorum Regularium Sanctae Crucis	O.R.C.	Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra
Ordo Fratrum Domus Hospitalis Sanctae Mariae Teutonicorum in Jerusalem	O.T.	(formerly Teutonic Knights)
Canonici Regulares Ordinis S. Crucis Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross The Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross, commonly called Crosiers, are a Roman Catholic religious order.-History:According to their own tradition, the Crosiers were founded by five men attached to the household of the prince-bishop of Liege, Radulf von Zähringen, who accompanied the...	O.S.C.	Crosier Fathers and Brothers
Canonici Regulares Santissimae Crucis a stella rubea		Knights of the Cross with the Red Star
Monastic Orders
Official Name	Acronym	Common Name
Ordo Sancti Benedicti Order of Saint Benedict The Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...	O.S.B.	Benedictines (20 congregations Congregation (catholic) The term "congregation" has three usages specific to the Roman Catholic Church. One concerns the Roman Curia, the other two concern religious institutes.- Roman Curia :... )
Congregatio Eremitarum Camaldulensium Montis Coronae Camaldolese The Camaldolese monks and nuns are part of the Benedictine family of monastic communities which follow the way of life outlined in the Rule of St. Benedict, written in the 6th century...	E.C.M.C.	Camaldolese
Ordo Cisterciensis	O. Cist.	Cistercians (13 congregations Congregation (catholic) The term "congregation" has three usages specific to the Roman Catholic Church. One concerns the Roman Curia, the other two concern religious institutes.- Roman Curia :... )
Ordo Cisterciensis Strictioris Observantiae Trappists The Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance , or Trappists, is a Roman Catholic religious order of cloistered contemplative monks who follow the Rule of St. Benedict...	O.C.S.O.	Trappists
Ordo Cartusiensis Carthusian The Carthusian Order, also called the Order of St. Bruno, is a Roman Catholic religious order of enclosed monastics. The order was founded by Saint Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns...	Cart.	Carthusians
Ordo Fratrum S. Pauli Primi Eremitae	O.S.P.P.E.	Pauline Fathers
Ordo Sancti Hieronymi Hieronymites Hieronymites, or the Order of St. Jerome , is a common name for several congregations of hermits living according to the Rule of St. Augustine, with supplementary regulations taken from the writings of the 5th-century monk and scholar, St Jerome. The principal group with this name was founded in...	O.S.H.	Hieronymites
Mendicant orders
Official Name	Acronym	Common Name
Ordo Fratrum Praedicatorum	O.P.	Dominicans
Ordo Fratrum Minorum Franciscan Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....	O.F.M.	Franciscans
Ordo Fratrum Minorum Conventualium Conventual Franciscans The Order of Friars Minor Conventual , commonly known as the Conventual Franciscans, is a branch of the order of Catholic Friars founded by Francis of Assisi in 1209.-History:...	O.F.M. Conv.	Conventual Franciscans
Ordo Fratrum Minorum Capuccinorum Order of Friars Minor Capuchin The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is an Order of friars in the Catholic Church, among the chief offshoots of the Franciscans. The worldwide head of the Order, called the Minister General, is currently Father Mauro Jöhri.-Origins :...	O.F.M. Cap.	Capuchin Franciscans
Tertius Ordo Regularis S. Francisci Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Penance The Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Penance is a mendicant order rooted in the Third Order of St. Francis which was founded in 1447.-Foundations:...	T.O.R.	Brothers of Penance
Ordo Fratrum Sancti Augustini Augustinians The term Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo , applies to two separate and unrelated types of Catholic religious orders:...	O.S.A.	Augustinian Friars
Ordo Augustinianorum Recollectorum	O.A.R.	Augustinians Recollects
Ordo Augustiniensium Discalceatorum Discalced Augustinians The reform movement of Roman Catholic religious orders, which occurred as part of the Counterreformation developing in Catholic Europe, also found sympathy among the friars of the Augustinian Order...	O.A.D.	Discalced Augustinians
Ordo Fratrum Beatissimae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo Carmelites The Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel or Carmelites is a Catholic religious order perhaps founded in the 12th century on Mount Carmel, hence its name. However, historical records about its origin remain uncertain...	O. Carm.	Carmelites
Ordo Fratrum Discalceatorum B. Mariae V. de Monte Carmelo Discalced Carmelites The Discalced Carmelites, or Barefoot Carmelites, is a Catholic mendicant order with roots in the eremitic tradition of the Desert Fathers and Mothers...	O.C.D.	Discalced Carmelites
Ordo Ssmae Trinitatis	O.SS.T.	Trinitarians
Ordo B. Mariae Virginis de Mercede	O. de M.	Mercedarians
Ordo PP. Excalceatorum B.M.V. De Mercede	O.M.D.	Discalced Mercedarians
Ordo Servorum Mariae Servite Order The Servite Order is one of the five original Catholic mendicant orders. Its objects are the sanctification of its members, preaching the Gospel, and the propagation of devotion to the Mother of God, with special reference to her sorrows. The members of the Order use O.S.M. as their post-nominal...	O.S.M.	Servites
Ordo Minimorum Minim (religious order) The Minims are members of a Roman Catholic religious order of friars founded by Saint Francis of Paola in fifteenth-century Italy...	O.M.	Minims
Ordo Hospitalarius S. Ioannis de Deo Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God The Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God are a Roman Catholic order founded in 1572. They are also known commonly as the Fatebenefratelli, meaning "Do-Good Brothers" in Italian.-History:...	O.H.	St John of God Order
Ordo Fratrum Bethlemitarum		Belemites
Clerics Regular
Official Name	Acronym	Common Name
Ordo Clericorum Regularium vulgo Theatinorum Theatines The Theatines or the Congregation of Clerks Regular of the Divine Providence are a male religious order of the Catholic Church, with the post-nominal initials "C.R."-Foundation:...	C.R.	Theatines
Congregatio Clericorum Regularium S. Pauli, Barnabitarum Barnabites The Barnabites, or Clerics Regular of Saint Paul is a Roman Catholic order.-Establishment of the Order :It was founded in 1530 by three Italian noblemen: St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria The Barnabites, or Clerics Regular of Saint Paul (Latin: Clerici Regulares Sancti Pauli, abbr. B.) is a Roman Catholic...	B.	Barnabites
Societas Iesu	S.J.	Jesuits
Ordo Clericorum Regularium a Somascha	C.R.S.	Somascans
Ordo Clericorum Regularium Ministrantium Infirmis	M.I.	Camilians
Ordo Clericorum Regularium Minorum Clerics Regular Minor The Clerics Regular Minor are a Roman Catholic religious order founded by Saint Francis Caracciolo, Augustine Adorno, and Fabrizio Caracciolo in 1563 in Villa Santa Maria. Their motto is : Ad Maiorem Dei Resurgentis Gloriam, "For the Greater Glory of the Risen God"...	C.R.M.	Clerics Regular Minor
Ordo Clericorum Regularium Matris Dei	O. M. D.
Ordo Clericorum Regularium Pauperum Matris Dei Scholarum Piarum Piarists The Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools or, in short, Piarists , is the name of the oldest Catholic educational order also known as the Scolopi, Escolapios or Poor Clerics of the Mother of God...	Sch. P.	Piarists

Essential distinguishing mark

Weakening in 1917

Further changes in 1983

Authority structure

List of institutes of consecrated life in the Annuario Pontificio

See also