Lay prison chaplains?

[Kepha15]

I recently heard that Catholic lay people can be chaplains in hospitals and prisons, which thoroughly confused me. I thought a chaplain had to be an ordained priest in order to celebrate Mass and the sacraments (which is what I assume the purpose of a chaplain is). Are there lay chaplains, and if so, what is their role?

 

[TheMc]

what is their role?

I’ve still been trying to figure that out myself since I saw the term 5 years ago.

 

[Phemie]

Canon 564 says that a Chaplain is a priest, but I’m well aware that the Canadian military uses ‘lay Catholic chaplain’, some are women. I’ve never understood that either.

 

[FrDavid96]

I recently heard that Catholic lay people can be chaplains in hospitals and prisons, which thoroughly confused me. I thought a chaplain had to be an ordained priest in order to celebrate Mass and the sacraments (which is what I assume the purpose of a chaplain is). Are there lay chaplains, and if so, what is their role?

In Catholic vocabulary, a chaplain must be a priest. There’s no getting around that one.

The difficulty is that other religions use the word more freely. So, in practical terms, a hospital or prison might want to hire (or seek a volunteer) to help with the spiritual needs of patients or inmates. When they seek such people, they call the office “chaplain” and the word simply sticks.

Even though they might have a title of “chaplain” from the perspective of the institution, they are not “chaplains” according to the Catholic definition of the word.

 

[YoungTradCath]

Canon 564 says that a Chaplain is a priest, but I’m well aware that the Canadian military uses ‘lay Catholic chaplain’, some are women. I’ve never understood that either.

US military definitely doesn’t do that, lol. Catholic chaplains’ assistants can be women, but definitely not chaplains. Canadian military is different, I see.

 

[Phemie]

US military definitely doesn’t do that, lol. Catholic chaplains’ assistants can be women, but definitely not chaplains. Canadian military is different, I see.

In all my years of being a military dependent/spouse I had never run into a non-priest chaplain. Then I went to take some liturgy courses and met such a person. I’m not sure if she was a regular or Reserve member.

The requirement to be a regular force chaplain is that they have been a Catholic Pastoral Associate in a civilian setting for at least two years and have a Masters of Divinity degree. Reserve force still requires them to have been a Pastoral Associate but might not require a Masters Degree. I doubt that the Pastoral Associate we had for 2 years in our parish had a Masters of Divinity.

 

[puzzleannie]

the institution who hires or certifies the chaplain uses the term as they interpret it. For instance, here the local hospitals hire the chaplains, of any denomination, so some of the women have that title, but that does not change the Church’s meaning for the term, which is restricted to a priest for the reasons OP cites.