YOUR Favorite Priestly Society/Order?

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JReducation said:
Just a quick clarification. . . .

Franciscans are not a priestly order. We are a family of over 100 branches that we call obediences, because each branch has its own government.

The common threads are several:
  1. We all follow the same rule.
  2. We are not orders of priests. We are orders of brothers.
  3. Some brothers are priests, but they remain brothers, unlike other orders where one is either a priest or a brother. Franciscans do not make this distinction. If you join one of the many branches of the Franciscan family, you join because you hear Christ’s call to be a brother and a son of St. Francis of Assisi.
    just wondered if it’s the same for Fr Groeschel’s Franciscans of the Renewal. Thanks
  4. If you are called to be a priest, it is a vocation within a vocation. Unlike Dominicans, Jesuits, Salesians and others, there are no such creatures as “Franciscan priests or Franciscan Fathers.” There are Franciscan Friars. The term “friar” is a distortion of the Latin word, Frater.
  5. The Franciscans do not distinguish between the ordained and the non-ordained or as we say, the clerics and the non-clerics. Many people have mistakenly used the term priest and lay-brother to refer to the Franciscans. This is a term that comes from other religious families. St. Francis simply called all of his sons, brothers and he referred to the brothers who are priests. That’s why you will notice we wear the same habit, make the same vows, have the same rights and the same obligations. What distinguishes one friar from another friar is his ministry.
  6. The ordained Franciscan is a brother who serves his brothers as a priest. The term brother, among Franciscans is not used as it would be among Dominicans. They use the term to mean that they are all sons of St. Dominic, part of the great Domnican family. Among Franciscans, the term “brother” is a state in life. You are a consecrated brother by virute of the vows and by virtue of the way of life as a brother. It’s a very unique charism. Today there are two other religious families that have adopted the same principle: Mother Teresa’s Missionary Brothers of Charity and the Missionaries of the Poor. Among the Missionaries of Charity they are not allowed to use the title Father. Everyone is Brother. Among Franciscans, this will vary from one house to another. In some places you will hear everyone called Brother, Friar or Father and Brother. It’s very fluid, because it’s not important to the Franciscans whether you are a priest or not. What is important to us is to be a son of St. Francis, who was a layman until 1209 when the order was formally recongnized and the first brothers made vows.
Originally, the priests came ordained. Anthony was a former Augustinian. Elias was a Diocesan Priest. Like them, there have been many others who were priests before they became brothers. They joined the brotherhood because they were called to a life of obedience, prayer, poverty and brotherhood.

We’re definitely not a priestly society or priestly order. We have many priests and we love them dearly, not because they’re priests, but because they’re our brothers. A brother-priest can be a confessor, a teacher, a janitor, a cook, or you can find him in a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, in street ministry, at a university, or at a parish. A non clerical brother can also be a cook, janitor, teacher, parish administrator, theologian, physician, or you can find him in a soup kitchen, homeless shelter or living the life of a hermit.

What makes each branch of the family every unique is our ministry, our culture, and accidentals that are not found in the Rule of St. Francis. The Rule of St. Francis is absolute to all of us. It cannot be changed. However, throughout history, situations have arisen that were not addressed in the rule. Each community and each region responded to those situations according to their resources and their insight.

Because the family is so huge, it was impossible to govern from one central office, as was the case during the life of St. Francis. Gradually, the Church allowed each group to congregate and gave them their own Minister General and their governing council. Each group wrote its own constitutions to fit the culture, needs of the Church and circumstances in which they lived without touching the rule.

I hope this helps.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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JR: Is it the same for the Franciscans of the Renewal?

(Sorry about that oops on your post.)😊
 
pollycarp said:
JR: Is it the same for the Franciscans of the Renewal?

(Sorry about that oops on your post.)😊
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LOL, I love the “oops”

We all follow the same rule, if that’s what you’re asking.

Are they an order of priests? No. They are congregation of friars, like every congregation in the Franciscan Order.

What people have to understand is that the priesthood is not essential to the religious life. The religious life is complete without the priesthood. One way that I use to explain it is this. The priesthood is as essential to the religious life as it is to the marriage state. We need priests for our sacramental needs. Other than that, religious life can exist without them.

There were communities, such as the Dominicans, Jesuits, Redeptorists, Salesians, Legionaires, Claretians and several others that were founded for priests who wanted to live the consecrated life. and who were called to a particular ministry. For example, the Dominicans were founded to preach, the Salesians to teach, the Jesuits to preach and to teach and so forth.

Then you have other religious communities that were founded for a non ministerial purpose. For example, the Franciscans were founded to live a life of obedience, poverty, prayer and brotherhood.

What makes the Franciscans of the Renewal different from other Franciscans is their ministry. They minister only to the poor. They do not minister to the middle classs or higher, no matter what the need may be. Their policy is to leave as soon as the economic circumstance improve. They do not run parishes either. Therefore, they have very little need for priests.

All that being said, one must understand that in the Franciscan tradition, priests have always been an integral part of the tradition. We have priests before the order was ever approved. The order was approved in 1209. By that time, there were 11 friars and two of them were priests who has left their priestly posts to become brothers. They still celebrated the sacraments when called to do so, but their vocation was to imitate Francis.

Unlike the Christian Brothers, who have never had any brother-priests, Franciscans have always had brother-priests. We simply have not had them in every house or every branch of the order, nor have they been given any special place in the order. I lived in a house where the handy-man was a brother-priest and I was his superior and theology professor. I lived in another house where the brother-priest was a high school principal and another was the gardner and a third was the pastor, while there were three non-ordained brothers who were pastoral assistants. In my current house, we have a non-ordained brother who is a hermit. He cooks, cleans and prays. He never leaves the house.

The Franciscans of the Eternal Word also have a few priests. But if you observe, they say mass for the EWTN staff, serve as confessors to the visitors at the Shrine and are very involved in mas media communicaiton, which is does not require that you be a priest to do. CBS is not run by priests. I believe that it’s Father Joseph Mary who is the CPA for EWTN and hen he’s not doing that, he write small works in spirituality or puts together short spiritual programs for the faithful. The work is not what you would expect from priest.

In the CFR, Fr. Benedict has never been a parish priest. He has always been a teacher, a writer and a retreat master. Fr. Stan Fortuno is a traveling minstrel. There are friars who walk the streets. That’s their ministry Others feed the hungry and the homeless and several of them do youth ministry. Some are contemplatives who never leave the house. The work with their hands. They can be ordained or not.

The only requirement that the Church has of the Franciscan family is that in those places where you have priests, one of the two major superiors must be a priest. You always have a Minister and a Vicar. One of them must be a priest. That’s because only a priest can grant or take away faculties. In religious life, it is a superior who grants and recants faculties, not the bishop. The bishop gives and takes away faculties for deacons, priests and bishops who are not consecrated religious.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
The_Curt_Jester said:
I’d have to say ICKSP (Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest). I am truly impressed by them every single time I attend one of their Masses - the music, the sermons, everything!
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They are actually ICRSS (Institutum Christi Regis Summi Sacerdotis). No need to anglicize the name of their order. 😉
 
ProVobis said:
They are actually ICRSS (Institutum Christi Regis Summi Sacerdotis). No need to anglicize the name of their order. 😉
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Don’t call them an order. They would not like that. They are very “proud” (in the good sense) that they are secular men. They are not consecrated religious. That’s why they are called the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. They do not make vows. They are oratorians or secular canons.

institute-christ-king.org/institute/questions/

They’re a wonderful group, but not an order nor a congregation. Order and congregations are for religous. Societies can be either religious or secular canons. The Jesuits are religious canons, also known as Clerks Regular. The ICRSS is a secular Society of Apostolic Life. It is a good option for a man who feels called to live in community while maintaiing his right to property, his freedom, because he does not make a vow of obedience, and his independence, because he does not make a vow of chastity. At the same time, he has the support of his brothers in his ministry without their intervention in his personal spiritual and social life.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
I studied under Carmalites (Pope John Paul II HS, Boca Raton Fla), Franciscans (Franciscan Univ of Steubenville) and now work for Jesuits. All are wonderful orders, but as with any org, it is the people (men) that make it what it is.
 
I attended Fordham for my bachelors in fine arts, and am now attending Canisius College for a degree in a different field. So my post secondary education has been Jesuit. I have nothing but the highest respect for them, as holy men who inspire me to really think critically and use the intellect that God gave me. I frequently attend Mass at the college, and am always impressed by the intellectual and spiritual quality of the homilies; at Reconciliation I have always been given penances and advice that inspires me to grow beyond a particular sin. The ones I encounter aren’t what would commonly be called liberal.

A long time ago I had read a couple of works of St. Teresa of Avila, where she stressed the importance of having learned men as spiritual advisors and confessors. I look to a priest for superior knowledge of matters of faith, as I have neither the time nor the talent to research all of that myself.
 
Let’s not forget and let’s hear it for our run-of-the-mill, ordinary diocesan secular priests.
 
Let’s hear it for the SJs! I wouldn’t be where I am today if it hasn’t been for them, so they’ll always get mad, mad props from me.:dancing:
 
Interesting thread.

At this time, I would have to say that there are three orders in particular that appeal to me. I have been looking into orders a good deal lately as I have been discerning a possible call to lay religious life.

The first one is the Society of Jesus (The Jesuits). I enjoy the spirituality of St. Ignatius and I admire their dedication in teaching through their call to ‘build men for others’. I don’t know a great deal about the Charism of the order but I have been impressed with what little I have seen from them. It is my understanding that the Jesuits do not have lay orders and have no plans to implement them so I sort of stopped exploring them once I found that out.

The second order would have to be the Order of Preachers (The Dominicans). Their Charism appeals to me strongly as I am a teacher, I love research and study, and enjoy the divine office. The only potential hang up for me there is the praying of a daily rosary. I’m more of a chaplet of St. Michael guy myself. 😉 I am still learning more about their spirituality so I cannot comment on that a great deal.

The third one is the Congregation of Saint Michael the Archangel (The Michaelites). I am particularly interested in their devotion to the Archangel, and the idea that they are focused on helping us understand the spiritual battle that is being fought. There seem quite pragmatic about discussing this situation and it is something that appeals to me. I have no idea if they have lay orders or not but I am looking into it. Father Mitch Pacwa had two Michaelite Fathers on EWTN Live a while back talking about the CSMA, and the episode can be found on Youtube.

There are so many wonderful religious societies and orders out there that I think, particularly with the new groups emerging, someone looking for that sort of life is almost spoiled for choice in discerning a vocation, providing their charism and spirituality is appealing. While I am happy to see that, I am also hopeful that many many holy young men will find vocations to diocesan priestly life as well. I don’t want to take away anything from our various orders, but parishes are so understaffed with priests all over the country that we desperately need as many vocations there as we can get.
 
  • Franciscans.
  • Dominicans.
  • Salesians.
  • The Companion’s of the Cross.
 
TrueLight said:
🍿

By the way, you do know you can get a “popcorn” emoticon by clicking on “more” right?"

Or you can type

** :emoticon:**

Substituting “emoticon” with the word “popcorn”
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Yea, but overhead protection helps around here when the SSPX is mentioned 😛
 
Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, (F.S.S.P)

Perhaps when the SSPX returns to perfect communion with Rome, I might consider them.
 
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