Women religious

[latin_rite]

I don’tknow if this belongs here or not. But…
I was reading a article the other day on how “women religious” in the U.S Weren’t filling in a questionaire sent to them from the vatican. At first i was wondering who are women religious? Is that what they call "ordinary (no offence) women in america who go to Church? And why wouldn’t they answer a questionaire or why should they answer a questionaire? Anyway turns out these women religious are Nuns…Do you not call Nuns, Nuns in the U.S? If not when did this start and why?

 

[FCEGM]

I don’tknow if this belongs here or not. But…
I was reading a article the other day on how “women religious” in the U.S Weren’t filling in a questionaire sent to them from the vatican. At first i was wondering who are women religious? Is that what they call "ordinary (no offence) women in america who go to Church? And why wouldn’t they answer a questionaire or why should they answer a questionaire? Anyway turns out these women religious are Nuns…Do you not call Nuns, Nuns in the U.S? If not when did this start and why?

Briefly, “nun” is a particular title for those women who live a monastic life; “religious sister” is the term used for those women who have a more out-in-the-world charism within the Church, such as religious sisters who are teachers or are nurses, etc… All nuns are sisters, but not all sisters are nuns. We have both in the U.S…

 

[redrosetea]

Briefly, “nun” is a particular title for those women who live a monastic life; “religious sister” is the term used for those women who have a more out-in-the-world charism within the Church, such as religious sisters who are teachers or are nurses, etc… All nuns are sisters, but not all sisters are nuns. We have both in the U.S…

It sort of reminds me of the saying all crystal is glass, but all glass isn’t crystal

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

A religious is a person, male or female, who makes the Evangelical Counsels, the Vows of Obedience, Poverty, and Chastity.

I am a religious.

An “ordinary” person is call a lay person they make up the laity within the Church.

 

[blackrobe]

In the Latin Rite at least, religious are lay persons according to Canon Law. C. 207 recognizes two states: Clerics [sacred ministers] and laity [everyone else.]

AMDG
jsa

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

In the Latin Rite at least, religious are lay persons according to Canon Law. C. 207 recognizes two states: Clerics [sacred ministers] and laity [everyone else.]

AMDG
jsa

Yes, according to Canon Law this is true but it does not change the fact that when the Church speaks of religious they are speaking of a very small subset of lay people who are living the consecrated life.

 

[jimcintosh]

There are two distinctions: cleric (ordained) vs. lay (non-ordained), and religious (in religious vows) vs. secular (not in vows).

• A priest who is a member of a religious order or congregation is both “clerical” and “religious”.
• A diocesan priest is both “clerical” and “secular”.
• Non-ordained members of religious orders and congregations are both “lay” and “religious”.
• Everyone else is both “lay” and “secular”.

Isn’t it confusing?

A brother is a lay religious. A sister is a lay religious. A nun is a lay religious. An ordained man in vows is a clerical religious.

A diocesan priest is a secular cleric. Everyone else is a secular lay person.

By the way, by saying someone is religious in this sense we not mean that they are more religious (in the popular understanding of the word) than everyone else. The word comes from the original meaning of “religion”, that is doing things in a distinctive way. It is for this reason that the founder of my Order, St. Francis of Assisi, writes in the second chapter of our Rule, “And according to the command of the Lord Pope in no way shall it be allowed them to go out of this religion, because, according to the holy Gospel: ‘No man putting his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.’”

One of the independent witnesses to the early Franciscans, Jacques de Vitry, wrote in 1216, “The men of this Religion with great fruit assemble every year at a determined place, that they may rejoice in the Lord and take their meals, and by the counsel of good men they make and promulgate holy statutes, which are confirmed by the Pope.”.

It is from this meaning of the word “religion” that we get the term “religious”.

 

[peary]

I don’tknow if this belongs here or not. But…
I was reading a article the other day on how “women religious” in the U.S Weren’t filling in a questionaire sent to them from the vatican. At first i was wondering who are women religious? Is that what they call "ordinary (no offence) women in america who go to Church? And why wouldn’t they answer a questionaire or why should they answer a questionaire? Anyway turns out these women religious are Nuns…Do you not call Nuns, Nuns in the U.S? If not when did this start and why?

A ‘nun’ is a woman who professes the *perpetual solemn vows *of poverty, chastity, and obedience. A religious sister is a woman who professes *perpetual simple vows *of poverty, chastity, and obedience. *The New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law *explains the distinction this way:

“The older religious orders (monastic, canon regulars, mendicants, Jesuits) have perpetual solemn vows, and the more recent apostolic congregations have perpetual simple vows. The chief juridical difference between the two is that religious who profess a solemn vow of poverty renounce ownership of all their temporal goods, whereas religious who profess a simple vow of poverty have a right to retain ownership of their patrimony but must give up its use and any revenue.” (New Commentary on the Code of Canon Law, New York/Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2000).

monastic: a nun (or monk) who lives in a monastery; the lifestyle is characterized by ascetic simplicity and seclusion

canon regular: a member of one of several Roman Catholic religious institutes of regular priests living in community under a rule (most commonly the Augustinian rule)

mendicant: derived from the Latin word “beggar”; a member of a religious order such as the Franciscans or Dominicans combining monastic life and outside religious activity and owning neither personal nor community property

patrimony: an estate, endowment or anything inherited from one’s parents or ancestors

In ordinary conversation (that is, when one is not determining the juridical status of one’s patrimony), the terms “nun” and “sister” are used interchangeably. Both nuns and sisters are addressed as “Sister.”

• compliments of “A Nun’s Life”

anunslife.org/2006/11/12/whats-the-difference-between-a-nun-and-a-sister/