orders, holy
A considerable revision of that schema was undertaken under the direction of PopePaul VI. In 1967 the diaconate was restored as an independent order with its own ministry (e.g., preaching, baptizing, distributing Holy Communion), and married men began to be received into this order. In 1972 tonsure, minor orders, and subdiaconate were abolished, and a rite of admission to candidacy to the diaconate and priesthood took their place. Thus the Roman Catholic Church, like the Church of England, has three orders—bishop, priest, deacon—and, like the Orthodox Eastern churches, it has permanent deacons who serve in local parishes and assist the priests. For various Protestant clerical systems, seeministry.
Traditionally in the West, the episcopacy has the plenitude of priestly power; bishops—archbishops, patriarchs, and the pope are bishops—alone have the power to ordain to major orders. In the Roman Catholic Church the ordination to the priesthood is considered asacrament, conferring on the recipient the power to celebrate the eucharist and marking the priest with an indelible character. Like the sacraments ofbaptismandconfirmation, ordination is never repeated. The rite entails the laying on of hands and the recitation of the prayer beginningReceive the Holy Spirit.
Priests are required to take an oath of obedience to the bishop or superior and a promise ofcelibacy(已经被那些打算在执事be priests); they are also bound to recite the divine office, the traditional daily prayer of the priest. The diaconate was instituted in the primitive church for the distribution of alms and other material duties (Acts 6.1–6.)
The main administrative life of the Roman Catholic Church is conducted by bishops and their priests called secular clergy. Priests who are members of religious orders are called regular clergy (seemonasticism). Monsignor andcardinal荣誉称号和不确定吗y particular office; they are not considered orders.
See alsoapostolic succession.
See D. N. Power,Ministers of Christ(1969); P. Bradshaw,The Anglican Ordinal(1971); C. R. Meyer,Man of God(1974).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia,6th ed. Copyright © 2022, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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