Secular Clergy
SECULAR CLERGY
See CLERGY.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
secular clergy
(Latin: secularis, pertaining to the world)
A term applied to the clergy, who are not members of a religious order, and whose immediate superior is the bishop of the diocese, to whom they owe obedience and under whose direction they labor for the sanctification of souls, and for this purpose are not bound by rule of cloister, but are more freely in touch with persons of the world.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Secular Clergy
(Lat. clerus sæcularis)
In the language of religious the world (sæculum) is opposed to the cloister; religious who follow a rule, especially those who have been ordained, form the regular clergy, while those who live in the world are called the secular clergy. Hence the expression so frequently used in canonical texts: “uterque clerus”, both secular and regular clergy. The secular cleric makes no profession and follows no religious rule, he possesses his own property like laymen, he owes to his bishop canonical obedience, not the renunciation of his own will, which results from the religious vow of obedience; only the practice of celibacy in Holy Orders is identical with the vow of chastity of the religious. The secular clergy, in which the hierarchy essentially resides, always takes precedence of the regular clergy of equal rank; the latter is not essential to the Church nor can it subsist by itself, being dependent on bishops for ordination. (See CLERIC; REGULARS.)
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Du CANGE, Glossarium, s.vv. Sæculum; Clericus.
A. BOUDINHON Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIIICopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Secular Clergy
Parish priests and all who were charged with the cure of souls were named clerici seculares, so called as living according to the manners of the time (seculum). They were so called in contradistinction to regular clergy (q.v.), who belonged to the monastic orders or religious congregations.