Structure of the Catholic church

[Dorothy]

Francis hasn’t done away with the title, but changed the lower age limit as a way of discouraging careerism in the priesthood. I believe no one can be Monsignor before age 65 now.

I know that now…I was already corrected a few messages ago.

 

[commenter]

A couple of mistakes on this thread…

Religious deacons and priests are under the superior of their community. These are in no way responsible to a bishop. The superior of the community is the authority for internal discipline and celebration of the sacraments, not the bishop.

-Tim-

Religious priests and deacons are under their religious superior for some things, including internal discipline, spiritual development, community life. But they are very much under the bishop of the diocese for public ministry, including celebration of the sacraments outside the community. They provide public ministry to the people of the diocese with the permission of the bishop, though the oversight is not nearly as direct as it is with diocesan clergy.

One thing missing from the posts is the role of parents. Parents are very much in the “structure” of the Church. It is a couple who marry themselves; the clergy is just a witness. It is they who are the primary educators of their children, a fact often forgotten both by public educators and by some religious educators. Understanding the canon rights and authority of parents is probably 1000 times as useful as some of the other roles and titles referred to in earlier posts (not that I’m knocking monsignors or metropolitans .

 

[tommydude2112]

• At the bottom: Lay people (normal church-goers)
• If a lay person go through seminarian school, they train to become a priest and in the process can become a deacon (this ranking goes between lay and priest)
• If the bishop of a diocese resign, one of the priests from that diocese get elected to the role of bishop (provided they meet certain criteria, such as they have to be over 35)
• If the archbishop of an archdiocese (the larger, almost county-like, region which contains loads of dioceses), resign, one of the bishops from the dioceses within the archdiocese get elected to the role of archbishop (following similar criteria)
• It is then up to the Pope to elect cardinals from archbishops (cardinals are still archbishops but it’s like an extra title)
• when the Pope dies, the cardinals (there are usually around 200 of them, 100 of which usually fit the criteria required to become Pope) get locked into a room, where they have to vote (like in elections) for a Pope [they choose from among their fellow cardinals] - the result has to be a two-thirds majority
• Pope (only 1)
• Cardinals (216)
• Archbishops (~700)
• Bishops (~5100)
• Priests (LOADS!)
• deacons (suprisingly not as many as there are priests)
• lay (just over 1 billion)

Let it be known that the pope, the cardinals and the archbishops are all just bishops but with extra titles given (e.g. the Pope is the bishop of Rome)