Rector
RECTOR
A term applied to several persons whose offices are very different, as,
1. The rector of a parish is a clergyman that has the charge and care of a parish, and possesses all the tithes, &c.
2. The same name is also given to the chief elective officer in several foreign universities, and also to the head master of large schools.
3. Rector is also used in several convents, for the superior officer who governs the house. the Jesuits gave this name to the superiors of such of their houses as were either seminaries or colleges.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
rector
(Latin: rego, rule)
(1) A priest placed in charge of a church which is neither a parochial nor a capitular church nor annexed to the house of a religious community for its religious functions; loosely used also to designate a pastor, and hence the term rectory.
(2) The head of an educational institution, of certain religious communities, etc.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Rector
(From the Latin regere, to rule).
Priests who preside over missions or quasi-parishes are called rectors: in England and the United States they are removable and irremovable, or permanent. These latter are known also as missionary rectors (M.R.). The term rector is applied likewise to the heads of universities, seminaries, and colleges; to the local superiors of religious houses of men; to the pope, as rector of the world, in the conferring of the tiara. In some universities, e.g. Louvain, the actual president is known as rector magnificus. Rector general is the title given to the superior general of certain religious, e.g. Clerics Regular of the Mother of God. In ancient times bishops as rulers of cities and provinces, especially in the Papal States, were called rectors; also administrators of the patrimony of the Church (e.g. rector Siciliæ). To a rector who has resigned is often given the title rector emeritus. One who supplies the place usually occupied by a rector is styled pro-rector (in parishes, administrator), while assistants to rectors in institutions are known as vice-rectors (in parishes, as curates, assistant, or associate, rectors, etc.). Rector is used by Gregory the Great in the “Regula Pastoralis” as equivalent to pastor.
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Conc. Balt. Plen., III; Acta et Decreta (Baltimore, 1886); TAUNTON, The Law of the Church (London, 1906), s. v. Missionary Rectors.
ANDREW B. MEEHAN Transcribed by Thomas J. Bress
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Rector
(Lat. rector, a ruler), the title of several classes of clerical and collegiate officials, some of which are referred to under their respective heads.
1. As regards clerical rectors, the title, in its most ordinary English use, is applied to the clergyman who holds complete and independent charge of a parish. This use, however, is a departure from the canonical signification of the title, which meant rather a clergyman who was appointed to govern a parish where the chief parochial jurisdiction was vested in a religious corporation or in some non-resident dignitary. The office of vicar is an outgrowth of the rectorate, on the appropriation of benefices to monasteries and other religious houses of old; and the distinction between rector and vicar, which is therefore to be noticed here, is as follows: The rector has the right to all the ecclesiastical dues in his parish, whereas the vicar has generally an appropriator or impropriator over him, who is entitled to part of the profits, and to whom he is, in effect, only perpetual curate, with an appointment of glebe and generally one third of the tithes. SEE VICAR.
2. In certain of the monastic orders, the name rector is given to the heads of convents, as it is
3. Also given to the heads of universities, colleges, seminaries, and similar educational corporate institutions.