Celebrity priest punished after being caught with woman

[JReducation]

Okay one more (and I know this is off topic so move it if need be): Are all religious brothers priests? Or are there men who take religious vows but do not receive holy orders?

No. It is up to the religious community whether a man can be ordained or not. The community decides if a man has a vocation to the priesthood. Even if he is ordained, he remains a brother.

If the community decides that a brother does not have a second vocation, the vocation to the priesthood, the man remains a member of the community until death.

Some communities do not allow any of their members to be ordained. Some communities expect all of their members to be ordained. These are called clerical orders. Other communities select who is ordained.

The tendency among religious communities is to ordain less men to preserve the spirit of the founders and return to a more intense community life as they had at the beginning.

The laity often complains when religious staff parishes. There are several common complaints.

1. We don’t like the idea of having a lay brother as the superior over the priests.
2. The lay brothers can’t say mass or hear confessions.
3. The brothers (cleric and lay) are not always available.
4. Why do our priests have to leave the confessional while there is still a line, just because they have to go to community recreation or community meals?
5. Why is there a lay brothers as an associate in the parish and a priest as the school principal?

What people don’t understand is that religious have different gifts and are trained according to those gifts. A lay brother who is an associate in a parish is trained in theology, ministry, spiritual direction, pastoral care, administration and other skills related to running a parish. A brother-priest in a school is trained to be a teacher and a school administrator and has a basic theology degree, not an advanced degree as the lay-brother who is a theologian. The priest in the high school will be available on Saturday for confessions and Sunday for masses. He’s just not available during the week.

People also do not understand that the religious has a primary obligation to his community, then to the parish. Religious were not founded to run parishes. They do this to help out the bishops, because there are not enough secular/diocesan priests. Nonetheless, if there is an emergency, the religious superior will never be opposed to having one of his brother-priests attend to it. It’s the stuff that can wait that superiors insist that the religious put on hold until tomorrow or let the lay minister or the secular deacon handle it.

Many religious have become disenchanted with parish life, because the laity does not always understand religious life. You can’t explain it every week or every time a new person registers in the parish. We had one lay brother who was told by a lay person that he did not want to speak with him about his spiritual problems because he was “just a brother”. This brother is a PhD in Spiritual Theology. So the brother went to get a brother-priest who has a degree in basic theology and the lay person was happy.

We live in interesting times.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[bookgirl32]

No. It is up to the religious community whether a man can be ordained or not. The community decides if a man has a vocation to the priesthood. Even if he is ordained, he remains a brother.

If the community decides that a brother does not have a second vocation, the vocation to the priesthood, the man remains a member of the community until death.

Some communities do not allow any of their members to be ordained. Some communities expect all of their members to be ordained. These are called clerical orders. Other communities select who is ordained.

The tendency among religious communities is to ordain less men to preserve the spirit of the founders and return to a more intense community life as they had at the beginning.

The laity often complains when religious staff parishes. There are several common complaints.

1. We don’t like the idea of having a lay brother as the superior over the priests.
2. The lay brothers can’t say mass or hear confessions.
3. The brothers (cleric and lay) are not always available.
4. Why do our priests have to leave the confessional while there is still a line, just because they have to go to community recreation or community meals?
5. Why is there a lay brothers as an associate in the parish and a priest as the school principal?

What people don’t understand is that religious have different gifts and are trained according to those gifts. A lay brother who is an associate in a parish is trained in theology, ministry, spiritual direction, pastoral care, administration and other skills related to running a parish. A brother-priest in a school is trained to be a teacher and a school administrator and has a basic theology degree, not an advanced degree as the lay-brother who is a theologian. The priest in the high school will be available on Saturday for confessions and Sunday for masses. He’s just not available during the week.

People also do not understand that the religious has a primary obligation to his community, then to the parish. Religious were not founded to run parishes. They do this to help out the bishops, because there are not enough secular/diocesan priests. Nonetheless, if there is an emergency, the religious superior will never be opposed to having one of his brother-priests attend to it. It’s the stuff that can wait that superiors insist that the religious put on hold until tomorrow or let the lay minister or the secular deacon handle it.

Many religious have become disenchanted with parish life, because the laity does not always understand religious life. You can’t explain it every week or every time a new person registers in the parish. We had one lay brother who was told by a lay person that he did not want to speak with him about his spiritual problems because he was “just a brother”. This brother is a PhD in Spiritual Theology. So the brother went to get a brother-priest who has a degree in basic theology and the lay person was happy.

We live in interesting times.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

Thanks for answering the questions, I really didn’t know all of this. My diocese has many female religious orders and I don’t think any male religious orders – or my city at least.

 

[JReducation]

Thanks for answering the questions, I really didn’t know all of this. My diocese has many female religious orders and I don’t think any male religious orders – or my city at least.

Many of the male religious communities are moving out of urban parish ministry. You will find many in poorer urban areas where the parishes can’t afford to pay the salaries of diocesan/secular priests.

What often happens is that religious will negotiate with the local bishop for the salary of one or two priests and assign several religious to the parish. They all live from that, plus send part of their income to the motherhouse for the other needs of the community.

Many male religious are also moving into non parish ministries that are more in line with the mission and spirit of their founders.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF