I happened to run across this on another website call
catholicanswers.org. I don’t know if I have ever heard this before, but it said that Diocesan Priest do not take the vow of poverty, chastity, or obedience and are only allowed to give the sacrament in the parish they are assigned to.
This sounds strange to me. Is this true
Just to give a little more detail to what has already been presented…
As stated by others, religious take Holy Vows which usually entail celibacy, poverty and obedience. Certain religious orders may express these in different ways, but let us focus on the diocesan priests, as per the topic of your thread.
A diocesan priest does not take Holy Vows, but instead Sacred Promises. The distinction is that such a priest makes his promises to God through the context of his service to his bishop (and his bishop’s successors). Religious, on the other hand, are not in the direct service of bishops, and therefore express their vows directly to God.
But, practically speaking, there is not a lot of difference between the nature of a Holy Vow and a Sacred Promise, so most diocesan priests will refer to their promises as “vows” (simply for the sake of ease of conversation).
A diocesan priest actually makes his Sacred Promises when he is ordained as a transitional deacon. Specifically, the Sacred Promises entail celibacy, obedience to his bishop (and his bishop’s successors) and the obligation to pray the Divine Office daily (this latter one was missing from previous posts in this thread).
Hence, a diocesan priest (as others have pointed out) does not make a Sacred Promise of poverty. He receives a salary (which is very modest, especially considering that his education is at a master’s degree level) and has to pay taxes on it. He is allowed to own his own property, and can designate the dispersal of his property in his Last Will & Testimony any way he desires. If a diocesan priest wins the lottery, he can keep the money.
Having said all this, the Church
encourages diocesan priests to live modestly, and (if memory serves) Pope John Paul II highly stressed this at some point. Obviously, priests are supposed to set an example for their parishes, and that should include avoiding the appearance of being materialistic. Nevertheless, there is no actual
command under Sacred Promises or Canon Law for a priest to live modestly.
A diocesan priest is permitted to be a minister of the sacraments in any place where he has received proper delegation. Naturally, this is the norm in the parish where he is assigned. If he visits another parish (in his own diocese), he cannot presume to celebrate the Mass or walk into the confessional to hear confessions without the permission of that parish’s pastor. Also, if he visits another diocese he needs to also get permission from the local bishop (or the bishop’s chosen representative, such as the chancellor) in order to minister the sacraments to the public in a parish of that diocese. So when he visits a parish in another diocese, he needs the permission of a bishop and that parish’s pastor.
In the case of an emergency, a priest can presume permission wherever he is and provide the appropriate sacraments.
