In some religious communities, all the members, even those in priest’s or deacon’s orders, are called “brother,” but that depends on the use of the community.
What has often happened in the Western Church is that some monastic and mendicant orders were founded as lay orders, not clerical. For example, the Franciscans were founded a lay order. This is not to be confused with a secular order. They are still canonically religious.
A lay order is an order where none of the members are ordained priests or where the ordination to the diaconate or priesthood is an exception, not the rule. This was the case with the Franciscan family. When Francis founded the order it was canonically lay religious, meaning that it is an order of religious men who are not ordained, though there were priests in it from the beginning and Francis was ordained a deacon 14 years after he founded his order, but they had to forfeit their rank and title if they joined the order. They came to be known as Brother N.
When they migrated to England, the English translated the word Frater to Friar, this caught on very quickly and spread through most of western Europe, except Italy where they continued to use Fratello. When the friars or brothers first came to the Untied States the laity confused them with Clerks Regular, such as Jesuits and began to call them Father.
Secular priests or what we call diocesan priests were always called Mr, never Father. That was another confusion. Americans confused them with the Clerks Regular, clerical religious that are neither monks nor mendicants. If you remember, St. John Bosco is still called Don Bosco, which translates into English as Mr. Bosco and St. John Vianney was Misseur (sp?), so was St. Vicent de Paul.
Among Franciscans the use of the title Father is not common within the community. We use either Friar or Brother for everyone. The idea is to obscure all distinction between friars who are clerical and the non clerical, also known as the clerics and the lay brothers. If I’m correct, the Dominicans, Augustinians and Carmelites also use Friar in Europe and other places outside the USA.
The confusion comes because Friar is abbreviated Fr. as is Father. Sometimes you’ll see Fra. for Frater.
The goal of the mendicants was always to have one class of religious, not two. We all make the same vows and have the same rights and obligations. You can have a house full of ordained men governed by a non-ordained friar. Even though the friar is not ordained, he is the Major Superior and can grant faculties to his subordinates. In the new code of canon law this was abrogated beginning in 1983, but does not apply to those orders who have had the custom for hundreds of years. It only applies to new communities where at least one superior must be a priest to grant faculties. It can be either the Major Superior or his Vicar. But it is not applicable to the ancient orders. Any Major Superior can grant faculties in the ancient orders.
Translating from Friar to Father is an American thing. We do that often. We (Franciscans) always chuckle when the Holy Father’s theologian and preacher, Fra. Reinieri, is presented on EWTN, because they translate from Italian, Fratello to Father. That’s an incorrect translation. It should be Brother or Friar, because he’s a Capuchin-Franciscan Friar.
In clerical communities such as Clerks Regular: Jesuits, Salesians, Redemptorists and Passionists there were two classes of religious: Fathers and Coadjutor Brothers or simply Lay Brothers. They make the same vows, but do not have the same rights.
Benedictines usually use Brother. Again, the laity confuses it and calls them Father. Unless you belong to a community where there are many friars, you can easily get confused.
When I visited Franciscan University, I noticed that the students speak about the Friars, not the Fathers and Brothers. That’s because they are inmersed in the Franciscan culture while they’re there.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
. They did so and I am a proud alumnus of their first school in New Orleans - a member of the one hundreth and final graduation class. But fear not, they just consolidated their two high schools into one which, despite flooding during Katrina, carries on.