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A religious order is characterized by an authority structure where a superior general has jurisdiction over the order's dependent communities. An exception is the Order of Saint Benedict which is not a religious order in this technical sense, because it has a system of independent houses, meaning that each abbey is autonomous. However, the ...
In canonical and general usage, it refers to those who exercise authority within a Christian church. [3] In the Catholic Church, authority rests chiefly with bishops, [4] while priests and deacons serve as their assistants, co-workers or helpers. [5] Accordingly, "hierarchy of the Catholic Church" is also used to refer to the bishops alone. [6]
De facto precedence should be applied where, a non-ordained religious or lay ecclesial minister serves in an office equivalent listed below (e.g., a diocesan director of Catholic Education is an equal office to an episcopal vicar, a pastoral life director an equal office to pastor, though with respect to the principle of the hierarchy of order ...
The Catholic Church claims to be the Church founded by Jesus Christ for the salvation of men. The Catholic Church needs, like every society, a regulating power (the authority of the Church). The decree Lamentabili sane, of 3 July 1907, rejects the doctrine that Christ did not desire to found a permanent, unchangeable Church endowed with ...
The exercise of the Catholic Church's magisterium is sometimes, but only rarely, expressed in the solemn form of an ex cathedra papal declaration, "when, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, [the Bishop of Rome] defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church," [7] or of a similar ...
Priests lay their hands on the ordinands during a Catholic rite of ordination. The sacrament of holy orders in the Catholic Church includes three orders: bishops, priests, and deacons, in decreasing order of rank, collectively comprising the clergy. In the phrase "holy orders", the word "holy" means "set apart for a sacred purpose".
The Roman Catholic Church understands herself as a single polity whose supreme earthly authority is the Supreme Pontiff (Pope). In Anglicanism , the churches are autonomous, though the majority of members are organizationally united in the Anglican Communion , which has no governmental authority.
The patriarch of an Eastern Church sui iuris heads an autonomous Church, is elected by the synod of that Church, and exercises authority within his patriarchal territory and on eparchies and parishes outside his territory. A minor Latin patriarch is an honorific title above archbishop given to some Latin dioceses for historical reasons.