Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, the interstices is a period of at least three months between the

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

of a man to the

diaconate A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...

and his ordination to the

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

hood. A bishop may shorten the length of this interval if he has an extraordinary reason for doing so. It is generally longer than three months. It has been applied to many other offices as well. When rules for the progression of a candidate through church offices were first codified in the 4th and 5th centuries, for example, some bishops established a waiting period of four years as acolyte or subdeacon and five years as a deacon.H. Ahaus, "Orders," in Charles George Herbermann, et al., eds, ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'', vol. 11 (NY: Universal Knowledge Foundation, 1913), 282

References

{{Reflist Christian terminology Christian ordination de:Interstiz