Can anyone confirm

[faithfulservant]

that our Holy Father is also a third order Benedictine…

i have only learned this through hearsay and have seen nothing official… anyone know anything about the validity of the statement?

 

[space_ghost]

ratzingerfanclub.com/Biography.html

start here:thumbsup:

 

[faithfulservant]

thanks for the link…knew it existed but had never gone there until today… so i guess we can safely say, based on the biogrphical info, that it does not appear that he belongs to the 3rd order Benedictines… or at least it’s not reported officially

 

[Amadeus]

Dear faithfulservant:

The so-called “Third Order” of religious Orders like those of the Benedictines and the Carmelites refer to the laity who seek to follow the rules of the Order they are attached to and emulate the life of those professed in the First Order (male religious or monks) and the Second Order (female religious or nuns).

Since Pope Benedict XVI was ordained a priest, he was not “eligible” to become a member of a Third Order.

At any rate, he was ordained as a diocesan priest (without any affiliation to a particular religious order) but, instead of becoming a parish priest, he continued his studies two years after his ordination and became a renowned university professor of theology.

 

[faithfulservant]

thanks amado:tiphat: i was aware that thrid order membership was for the laity…was just thinking he had taken the plunge before his ordination… looks like it ain’t gonna be a happenin’ thing though