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Superior General (Christianity)
A superior general or general superior is the leader or head of an 'order' of religious persons (nuns, priests, friars, etc) or, in other words, of a 'religious institute' in the Catholic Church, and in some other Christian denominations. The superior general usually holds supreme 'executive' authority in the religious community, subject only to the Pope in the case of Catholic orders, while the general chapter has 'legislative' authority. Many Catholic superiors general are elected (directly or indirectly) by their order's membership, and are based in Rome, and thus facilitate their order's engagement with other elements of church leadership (the Pope; the Roman Curia; other orders' leadership). History The figure of superior general first emerged in the thirteenth century with the development of the centralized government of the Mendicant Orders. The Friars Minor (Franciscans) organized their members under a Minister General (Franciscan), Minister General, and the Order of Preac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Religious Institute
In the Catholic Church, a religious institute is "a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public religious vows, vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, and lead a life of brothers or sisters in common." A religious institute is one of the two types of institutes of consecrated life; the other is the secular institute, where its members are "living in the world". Religious institutes come under the jurisdiction of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Description A member of a religious institute lives in community with other members of the institute and observes the three evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience, which they bind themselves to observe by public vows. Classification Since every religious institute has its own unique charism#Religious meaning, charism, it adheres to a particular way of religious living whethe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Missionaries Of Charity
The Missionaries of Charity () is a Catholic centralised religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women established in 1950 by Mother Teresa, now known in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta. , it consisted of 5,750 members of religious sisters. Members of the order designate their affiliation using the order's initials, "M.C." A member of the congregation must adhere to the religious vows, vows of chastity, poverty, obedience, and the fourth vow, to give "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor". Today, the order consists of both contemplative and active branches in several countries. Missionaries care for those who include refugees, former prostitution, prostitutes, the mentally ill, sick children, abandoned children, lepers, people with AIDS, the aged, and convalescent. They have schools that are run by volunteers to teach abandoned street children and run soup kitchens as well as other services according to the community needs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organisation Of Catholic Religious Orders
An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is an entity—such as a company, or corporation or an institution (formal organization), or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. Organizations may also operate secretly or illegally in the case of secret societies, criminal organizations, and resistance movements. And in some cases may have obstacles from other organizations (e.g.: MLK's organization). What makes an organization recognized by the government is either filling out incorporation or recognition in the form of either societal pressure (e.g.: Advocacy group), causing concerns (e.g.: Resistance movement) or being considered the spokesperson of a group of people subject to negotiation (e.g.: the Polisario Front being recognized as the sole representative of the Sahrawi people and forming a partially recognized state.) Compare the concept of social groups, which may include non-organiza ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Definitor-general
{{Catholic Church hierarchy sidebar, Administrative and pastoral titles In the Catholic Church, a definitor (Latin for 'one who defines') is a title with different specific uses. There are secular definitors, who have a limited amount of oversight over a part of a diocese, and also definitors in religious orders who generally provide counsel and assistance to the superiors general and provincial superiors of their order. Secular definitors In a deanery or vicarate forane, which is a grouping of several neighboring parishes within a diocese, a definitor is either the second (and unique) highest office, immediately below the dean or vicar forane and his deputy, or is the priest in charge of any of a number of even smaller districts within the deanery, called ''definitio''. They oversee the ecclesiastical property and generally assist the dean, under the ordinary authority of the bishop. Alternative titles for this position are chamberlain or treasurer. These diocesan offices are n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commissary General
A commissary is a government official charged with oversight or an ecclesiastical official who exercises in special circumstances the jurisdiction of a bishop. In many countries, the term is used as an administrative or police title. It often corresponds to the command of a police station, which is then known as a "commissariat". In some armed forces, commissaries are officials charged with overseeing the purchase and delivery of supplies, and they have powers of administrative and financial oversight. Then, the "commissariat" is the organization associated with the corps of commissaries. By extension, the term "commissary" came to be used for the building where supplies were disbursed. In some countries, both roles are used; for example, France uses " police commissaries" (''commissaires de police'') in the French National Police and "armed forces commissaries" (''commissaires des armées'') in the French armed forces. The equivalent terms are ''commissaire'' in French, ''com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Provincial Superior
A provincial superior is an officer of a religious institute (including religious orders) acting under the institute's Superior General. A provincial superior exercises general supervision over all the members of that institute in a territorial division of the order called a ''province'', which is similar to, but not to be confused with, an ecclesiastical province. Instead, the province under a provincial superior is one made up of particular churches or dioceses under the supervision of a Metropolitan Bishop. The division of a religious institute into provinces is generally along geographical lines and may consist of one or more countries, or of only a part of a country. There may be, however, one or more houses of one province situated within the physical territory of another since the jurisdiction over the individual religious is personal, rather than territorial. The title of the office is often abbreviated to Provincial. Among the friars and Third Order Religious Sister ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rector General
A rector is, in an ecclesiastical sense, a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations. In contrast, a vicar is also a cleric but functions as an assistant and representative of an administrative leader. Ancient usage In ancient times bishops, as rulers of cities and provinces, especially in the Papal States, were called rectors, as were administrators of the patrimony of the Church (e.g. '). The Latin term ' was used by Pope Gregory I in '' Regula Pastoralis'' as equivalent to the Latin term ' (shepherd). Roman Catholic Church In the Roman Catholic Church, a rector is a person who holds the ''office'' of presiding over an ecclesiastical institution. The institution may be a particular building—such as a church (called his rectory church) or shrine—or it may be an organization, such as a parish, a mission or quasi-parish, a seminary or house of studies, a university, a hospital, or a community of clerics or religious. If a re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prior General
Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be lower in rank than the abbey's abbot or abbess. Monastic superiors In the Rule of Saint Benedict, the term appears several times, referring to any superior, whether an abbot, provost, dean, etc. In other old monastic rules, the term is used in the same generic sense. With the Cluniac Reforms, the term ''prior'' received a specific meaning; it supplanted the provost or dean (''praepositus''), spoken of in the Rule of St. Benedict. The example of the Cluniac congregations was gradually followed by all Benedictine monasteries, as well as by the Camaldolese, Vallombrosians, Cistercians, Hirsau congregations, and other offshoots of the Benedictine Order. Monastic congregations of hermit origin generally do not use the title of abbot for the h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Custos-general
Custos () means a religious superior or an official in the Franciscan Order. The precise meaning has differed over time, and among the Friars Minor, Conventuals, and Capuchins. Description Francis of Assisi sometimes applied the word to any superior in the Order: Guardians, Ministers Provincial, and even to the Minister General. Sometimes he restricts it to officials presiding over a certain number of friaries in the larger provinces of the Order with restricted powers and subject to their respective Ministers Provincial. It is in this latter sense that he refers to the ''custodes'' as having power, conjointly with the Provincials, to elect and to depose the Minister General. The friaries over which a ''custos'' (in this latter sense) presided were collectively called a custody (). The number of custodies in a province varied according to its size. Already at an early period it was deemed expedient that only one of the several ''custodes'' of a province should proceed to the Gen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivalent is abbess. Origins The title had its origin in the monasteries of Egypt and Syria, spread through the eastern Mediterranean, and soon became accepted generally in all languages as the designation of the head of a monastery. The word is derived from the Aramaic ' meaning "father" or ', meaning "my father" (it still has this meaning in contemporary Arabic: أب, Hebrew: אבא and Aramaic: ܐܒܐ) In the Septuagint, it was written as "abbas". At first it was employed as a respectful title for any monk, but it was soon restricted by canon law to certain priestly superiors. At times it was applied to various priests, e.g. at the court of the Frankish monarchy the ' ("of the palace"') and ' ("of the camp") were chaplains to the Merovingian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canon Law (Catholic Church)
The canon law of the Catholic Church () is "how the Church organizes and governs herself". It is the system of religious laws and canon law, ecclesiastical legal principles made and enforced by the Hierarchy of the Catholic Church, hierarchical authorities of the Catholic Church to regulate its external organization and government and to order and direct the activities of Catholics toward the mission of the Church. It was the first modern Western world, Western legal system and is the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West, while the unique traditions of Eastern Catholic canon law govern the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic particular churches '. Positive ecclesiastical laws, based directly or indirectly upon immutable divine law or natural law, derive formal authority in the case of universal laws from Promulgation (Catholic canon law), promulgation by the supreme legislator—the supreme pontiff, who possesses the totality of legislative, executi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
