JR, I see you left out permanent deacons and that is understandable to some extent. However, I feel (and actually see) that more and more traditionalists are accepting them and appreciating the various roles they can play within their parish community. Or am I wrong?
I left out permanent deacons, becasue deacons are clerics just like priests and bishops.
Deacons, priests and bishops are not always religious. Sometimes they are secular or if they belong to a diocese they are called diocesan.
Very few religious orders allow permanent deacons. Because if you allow your religious to be permanent deacons, that does the same to the order as allowing too many to be priests. It turns it into an order of priests.
These are called clerical orders or religious orders of priests.
Some religious orders regulate the number of men who can be priests to make sure that there are always more brothers and priests.
Capuchins, Marianists, Missionaries of Charity, Missionaries of the Poor, some Benedictines, some Trappists, Christian Brothers, Marists and others.
In some communities they allow no clerics. In other communities only as many clerics as the community needs to serve its internal needs, not the needs of the laity. Their focus is on religious life.
The Capuchins had an open policy that any brother who wanted to be ordained and met the criteria could be ordained. They have slowed down on this by taking out the term priest from their voction literature and not allowing the younger priests to call themselves Father. The older guys do, because it would be mean to change a habit that has been around for a long time. All of their younger friars are called Brother or Friar. Sometimes you’ll see Fra. in front of their name. This means Friar. The friar may or may not be a priest.
justabrother.blogspot.com/
Here is a link to what is going on in orders where there were once many priests and are now cutting back on ordinations. This link gives you some insight into what they see as their priority within the Church and in their lives.
I hope you enjoy it. The writer is a member of the General Council of Capuchin-Franciscan Friars. He is the superior of the English speaking Capuchin-Franciscans around the world. He is not a priest.
It is a return to what founders of many religious orders wanted originally and was lost when the bishops began to ask religious orders to give them priests.
Now, bishops are much more in tune with the charism of religious life for men and have stopped asking them for priests. Of course they welcome any they can borrow or rent for a short period or a few years.
JR
