J
JReducation
Guest
I posted this response to an article in the Catholic News section, but I believe it merits to be in Catholic tradition.
Male religious life is very much a part of the life of the Church. I have said this here many times, long before Cardinal Bergoglio was elected pope. Over the centuries, two things happened. First, many secular priests left the secular world and joined religious orders. Many became monks or friars. After the Middle Ages many congregations of Clerks Regular came into existence, such as the Passionists, Jesuits, or Redemptorists and so forth. These congregations came to be called “clerks regular” from the Latin meaning “clerics who live according to a rule of life”. This was not normal in the Church. It was a novelty. The Church did not know how to respond to this. Prior to this, any clergyman who wanted to live according to a rule of life, became a brother in a monastic or a mendicant community. He lost all privileges that came with being a clergyman, to the point that he could only celebrate the sacraments under obedience to his religious superior.
These priests were not out and about running parishes, baptizing babies, witnessing weddings and celebrating three Sunday masses. They rarely celebrated the sacraments. More often than not, they heard confessions more than anything else. They certainly were not attached to parishes or to dioceses.
Over the centuries, the number of priests among monks and friars grew. The number of congregations of Clerks Regular also grew. The numbers of secular priests serving in dioceses shrank. Many secular priests joined societies of apostolic life, the most famous being the Vincentians and Maryknoll. Bishops asked religious superiors to lend them priests to fill in the gaps left by the decrease in the number of secular priests. That’s how Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Salesians and others came into parish work. Today, the tide has finally turned, as it should. Sixty percent of priests are secular Catholic men, not consecrated men. They do not belong to religious communities.
However, until our generation dies off and those born after 1980 take over, Catholics will continue to hold on to the image of the religious as a priest, even though most Catholics know that there are priests who are consecrated religious and consecrated male religious who are not priests. But most Catholics do not know the difference between priesthood and religious life, nor that they are two vocations. It is this lack of knowledge about such an essential tradition (the consecrated life) that has many Catholics stunned concerning Pope Francis.
Liberals think that he’s one of them. WRONG! He’s a faithful religious who does what any faithful religious would do, live according to the mind of his spiritual father.
Traditionalists think that he’s thrown the papacy out the window. WRONG AGAIN! He’s a faithful Jesuit who lives and speaks as his father Ignatius did and who he still very much committed to Jesuit life and the Jesuit order, as it should be. If one were to look at the videos of his mass at the Jesuit motherhouse for the Solemnity (yes it’s a solemnity for Jesuits) of St. Ignatius, he presided over the liturgy, but did not wear a pallium. He was ministering to his brothers as one of their own, not as the Bishop of Rome.
A religious who is unfaithful to his founder and to his community is a sad sight. Our current pope is a religious. Let us be glad that he’s an exemplary religious. There are many religious out there who need a reminder.
POST 49
Male religious life is very much a part of the life of the Church. I have said this here many times, long before Cardinal Bergoglio was elected pope. Over the centuries, two things happened. First, many secular priests left the secular world and joined religious orders. Many became monks or friars. After the Middle Ages many congregations of Clerks Regular came into existence, such as the Passionists, Jesuits, or Redemptorists and so forth. These congregations came to be called “clerks regular” from the Latin meaning “clerics who live according to a rule of life”. This was not normal in the Church. It was a novelty. The Church did not know how to respond to this. Prior to this, any clergyman who wanted to live according to a rule of life, became a brother in a monastic or a mendicant community. He lost all privileges that came with being a clergyman, to the point that he could only celebrate the sacraments under obedience to his religious superior.
These priests were not out and about running parishes, baptizing babies, witnessing weddings and celebrating three Sunday masses. They rarely celebrated the sacraments. More often than not, they heard confessions more than anything else. They certainly were not attached to parishes or to dioceses.
Over the centuries, the number of priests among monks and friars grew. The number of congregations of Clerks Regular also grew. The numbers of secular priests serving in dioceses shrank. Many secular priests joined societies of apostolic life, the most famous being the Vincentians and Maryknoll. Bishops asked religious superiors to lend them priests to fill in the gaps left by the decrease in the number of secular priests. That’s how Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Salesians and others came into parish work. Today, the tide has finally turned, as it should. Sixty percent of priests are secular Catholic men, not consecrated men. They do not belong to religious communities.
However, until our generation dies off and those born after 1980 take over, Catholics will continue to hold on to the image of the religious as a priest, even though most Catholics know that there are priests who are consecrated religious and consecrated male religious who are not priests. But most Catholics do not know the difference between priesthood and religious life, nor that they are two vocations. It is this lack of knowledge about such an essential tradition (the consecrated life) that has many Catholics stunned concerning Pope Francis.
Liberals think that he’s one of them. WRONG! He’s a faithful religious who does what any faithful religious would do, live according to the mind of his spiritual father.
Traditionalists think that he’s thrown the papacy out the window. WRONG AGAIN! He’s a faithful Jesuit who lives and speaks as his father Ignatius did and who he still very much committed to Jesuit life and the Jesuit order, as it should be. If one were to look at the videos of his mass at the Jesuit motherhouse for the Solemnity (yes it’s a solemnity for Jesuits) of St. Ignatius, he presided over the liturgy, but did not wear a pallium. He was ministering to his brothers as one of their own, not as the Bishop of Rome.
A religious who is unfaithful to his founder and to his community is a sad sight. Our current pope is a religious. Let us be glad that he’s an exemplary religious. There are many religious out there who need a reminder.
