J
JReducation
Guest
I have wanted to create this thread for a while. Every time I’m about to do so, something else draws my attention away from it. There seems to be lack of knowledge about the Franciscan tradition, which negatively affects our Secular Order. On a few posts, I have read the same wording. “They’re just lay people,” or “They’re just a third order.”
There is a problem with this perception. It diminishes, if not completely ignores the place and need for secular orders in Catholic tradition. I can speak best about the Secular Franciscan Order, since two of our founding members came from that order. They have taught me well. I believe that much of what I say about the OFS is true about the other secular orders in the mendican tradition.
The third order of the Franciscan family was founded to accommodate secular men and women, not laymen and women. There were always laymen and women in the third order, but there were also laymen and women in the first and second orders. We had lay brothers, who should not be confused with religious brothers. We also had lay sisters, which should not be confused with nuns and religious sisters. We no longer have lay brothers or lay sisters. These have died out. But that’s a thread for another day.
The third order was born from a penitential movement of the day. Many people who followed this movement ended up in heresy. When the Dominicans and the Franciscans come on the scene, many people took refuge under their spiritual guidance, including secular clergy such as Pope Gregory IX.
Among them were some who asked Francis of Assisi to accept them as friars and nuns. However, they had obligations in the world. They were married, were secular priests tied to parishes or had other family obligations. Francis of Assisi took the Rule of the Friars Minor and edited it so that it could be lived in a loosely bound community, rather than a friary or a cloistered monastery. However, he preserved the penitential idealism of the day. Hence he called his third order, the Brothers of Penance. By 1228, just two years after St. Francis’ death, the Brothers of Penance has grown into two groups, seculars and regulars (religious), hence the term Third Order Regular Franciscans (TOR).
The order was always a cohesive body of secular and consecrated men and women with its own vision, mission and canonical place in the Church. It was never an arm of the friars or the nuns. Nor are the friars or the nuns their superiors. The Dominicans also adopted a group of penitents. The difference is that in the Dominican family, the Master General of the friars is the Master General of the family. This is not the case in the Franciscan family. Every community of friars (brothers) has its own superior general. Every monastery of Poor Clares is autonomous and answers directly to the pope. There is no general superior of the Poor Clares. And each branch of the Third Order has its own superior general called a General Minister.
The Secular Franciscan Order (OFS) is the largest branch of the Franciscan family and is a branch of the Third Order. It follows the Rule and Life of the Third Order as to the sisters and friars who are in the Third Order. The Constitutions are different. The constitutions address points and situations that Francis never foresaw.
Some people try to place the Secular Franciscan Order (OFS) under the same umbrella as other third orders, because Canon Law only mentions third orders once. The problem with this is that the associations to which Canon Law refers are not actual orders. They are public associations of the faithful as is the Secular Franciscan Order. However, there are many kinds of public associations. The Friars at EWTN are a public association. My own community is a public association. This can be a permanent status or a rung on the ladder to becoming an institute of Pontifical Right.
There is a problem with this perception. It diminishes, if not completely ignores the place and need for secular orders in Catholic tradition. I can speak best about the Secular Franciscan Order, since two of our founding members came from that order. They have taught me well. I believe that much of what I say about the OFS is true about the other secular orders in the mendican tradition.
The third order of the Franciscan family was founded to accommodate secular men and women, not laymen and women. There were always laymen and women in the third order, but there were also laymen and women in the first and second orders. We had lay brothers, who should not be confused with religious brothers. We also had lay sisters, which should not be confused with nuns and religious sisters. We no longer have lay brothers or lay sisters. These have died out. But that’s a thread for another day.
The third order was born from a penitential movement of the day. Many people who followed this movement ended up in heresy. When the Dominicans and the Franciscans come on the scene, many people took refuge under their spiritual guidance, including secular clergy such as Pope Gregory IX.
Among them were some who asked Francis of Assisi to accept them as friars and nuns. However, they had obligations in the world. They were married, were secular priests tied to parishes or had other family obligations. Francis of Assisi took the Rule of the Friars Minor and edited it so that it could be lived in a loosely bound community, rather than a friary or a cloistered monastery. However, he preserved the penitential idealism of the day. Hence he called his third order, the Brothers of Penance. By 1228, just two years after St. Francis’ death, the Brothers of Penance has grown into two groups, seculars and regulars (religious), hence the term Third Order Regular Franciscans (TOR).
The order was always a cohesive body of secular and consecrated men and women with its own vision, mission and canonical place in the Church. It was never an arm of the friars or the nuns. Nor are the friars or the nuns their superiors. The Dominicans also adopted a group of penitents. The difference is that in the Dominican family, the Master General of the friars is the Master General of the family. This is not the case in the Franciscan family. Every community of friars (brothers) has its own superior general. Every monastery of Poor Clares is autonomous and answers directly to the pope. There is no general superior of the Poor Clares. And each branch of the Third Order has its own superior general called a General Minister.
The Secular Franciscan Order (OFS) is the largest branch of the Franciscan family and is a branch of the Third Order. It follows the Rule and Life of the Third Order as to the sisters and friars who are in the Third Order. The Constitutions are different. The constitutions address points and situations that Francis never foresaw.
Some people try to place the Secular Franciscan Order (OFS) under the same umbrella as other third orders, because Canon Law only mentions third orders once. The problem with this is that the associations to which Canon Law refers are not actual orders. They are public associations of the faithful as is the Secular Franciscan Order. However, there are many kinds of public associations. The Friars at EWTN are a public association. My own community is a public association. This can be a permanent status or a rung on the ladder to becoming an institute of Pontifical Right.
