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SFX
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I tried this question on the sacrament forum, maybe that was the wrong place. This forum receives a lot more traffic, so I’ll try again. Does anyone know what a papal chaplain is/does?
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Deacon_Ed
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This is simply one of the grades of Monsignor. There are no specific duties assigned to priests in this rank (now called Chaplains of His Holiness).
Deacon Ed
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** Chaplains of His Holiness
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**By Duane L.C.M. Galles
October 16, 1998, marked the twentieth anniversary of the election to the See of Peter of Pope John Paul II. If my calculations are correct, only three other popes—Saint Peter, Pius IX and Leo XIII—have had longer pontificates. 1998 also marks the thirtieth anniversary of the reform by Paul VI in 1968 of the pontifical household and the creation of the office of “Chaplain of His Holiness.”
While this papal honor is fairly new, its origins and significance go back deeply into church history. In the Middle Ages with the rise of the papacy and the expansion of the papal bureaucracy, the pope’s personal attendants acquired a multitude of tasks. At first this was on an ad hoc basis. Someone might ask the pope for a favor and the pope would refer the petition for study to one of his trusted chaplains. As petitions and staff increased, a certain specialization naturally developed and some chaplains would advise in matters of benefices or finance while others might serve as referees in matters involving canon law. This is probably the origin of the prelate clerics of the apostolic chamber and of the auditors (judges) of the Roman Rota, respectively. Few in number during most of the history of the papacy, these groups of prelates began as actual functionaries—notaries, judges, secretaries and personal attendants of the pope—who as their status grew came to be accorded the style of “monsignor.”
The rest of this article can be read at st-joseph-foundation.org/cfd17-2.htm
Fergal
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**By Duane L.C.M. Galles
October 16, 1998, marked the twentieth anniversary of the election to the See of Peter of Pope John Paul II. If my calculations are correct, only three other popes—Saint Peter, Pius IX and Leo XIII—have had longer pontificates. 1998 also marks the thirtieth anniversary of the reform by Paul VI in 1968 of the pontifical household and the creation of the office of “Chaplain of His Holiness.”
While this papal honor is fairly new, its origins and significance go back deeply into church history. In the Middle Ages with the rise of the papacy and the expansion of the papal bureaucracy, the pope’s personal attendants acquired a multitude of tasks. At first this was on an ad hoc basis. Someone might ask the pope for a favor and the pope would refer the petition for study to one of his trusted chaplains. As petitions and staff increased, a certain specialization naturally developed and some chaplains would advise in matters of benefices or finance while others might serve as referees in matters involving canon law. This is probably the origin of the prelate clerics of the apostolic chamber and of the auditors (judges) of the Roman Rota, respectively. Few in number during most of the history of the papacy, these groups of prelates began as actual functionaries—notaries, judges, secretaries and personal attendants of the pope—who as their status grew came to be accorded the style of “monsignor.”
The rest of this article can be read at st-joseph-foundation.org/cfd17-2.htm
Fergal
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