Any priest who is a member of a religious community (this is the proper way of saying it), who was consecrated a bishop after 1983 remains a member of his religous institute. Since the pope is a bishop, he too remains a member of his religious institute.
The canon that released religious from their institutes was the canon of 1917. Prior to that, bishops who were religious always remained part of their religious institutes. The canons of 1917 experimented with the idea of secularizing religious who were consecrated as bishops. The law proved to be impractical. That’s why it was abrogated in 1983.
Does the pope have to wear the Dominican style cassock? No. He can choose any form of dress. Up to Pope Pius V, religious men elected popes wore the habit of their community. The difference in dress was only for liturgy. Pius V was a much beloved pope. He successors continued to wear the Dominican habit, which was slowly modified to the unbleached white cassock worn today.
If you observe closely, many bishops who are religious wear the habit of their community and they continue to use the initials of their community after their name, as well as keeping their religious name, because they are not secular priests. There is no more secularization of bishops in the Western Church.
In the Eastern Church most bishops come from monasteries. They are monks. The reason they choose monks as bishops is because the bishop must be celibate. Secular pirests are usually married in the Eastern Churches, there are very few celibate secular priests. The Eastern Churches never secularized their bishops.
While religious who are consecrated as bishops obey the Holy Father, this does not mean that they no longer obey the rule or statutes of their religious institute. The way that the canon is applied is that the bishop must sometimes make choices when there is a conflict of interest between his institute and his obligations as a bishop. In the unlikely event that he has to choose over his institute, he is not culpable of mortal sin.
Nonetheless, he continues bound to the spirit of his institute and his founder. The same would apply if that bishop became pope. The Church received the vows of the religious, but the covenant is between the religious and God. The Church does not cancel the covenant. This is the part that proved to be impractical with the code of 1917. The covenant between the religoius and the Lord could not be undone by the Church, but the law said that the religious had to be secularized to be consecrated bishop. Therefore, the religious often chose to decline the Church’s call to the espicopal state. The Church failed to attract many good men to the episcopal state, because one cannot be dispensed from vows against one’s will. One must willingly accept the dispensation. For many men, this was a conflict. They wanted to respond to the Church’s call to the episcopal state, but they loved their communities and wanted to remain within them. With the old code abrogated, this is no longer an issue.
Even a pope can remain a Dominican, Salesian, Franciscan, Benedictine etc. Popes can remain members of either religious or secular orders. Like many other bishops, they can wear the clothing of their choice for the appropriate occasion.
If you check
www.cardinalseansblog.org you will observe that most of the time he wears the habit of a Capuchin Brother. Occasionally, wears the red cassock. Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap. chooses to wear a Roman collar instead of the black cassock of a bishop. This way he dresses the same as the Capuchin Brothers and still looks like a bishop, because the formal dress of a Capuchin Brother (priest or lay) and that of a bishop is a Roman collar.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
