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In the canon law of the Catholic Church, exclaustration is the official authorization for a member of a religious order (in short, a religious) bound by perpetual vows to live for a limited time outside their religious institute, usually with a view to discerning whether to depart definitively. [1]
Exclaustration is distinguished from permission to live outside of a religious community for purposes such as caring for a parent or for reasons of work or study. The religious who in such circumstances is forced to be absent physically does not wish to separate even temporarily from the institute. [2]
Exclaustration is distinguished also from dispensation from religious vows. The exclaustrated religious remains a religious and remains bound by those vows, although the manner of exercising poverty and obedience is altered in view of the changed circumstances. [3]
A religious bound by temporary vows may for a grave reason be authorized to live in the secular world to discern his/her vocation. It is not to be seen as a trial period before seeking an indult of departure. They are two separate requests. This authorization is called an indult of departure, not an exclaustration. [4] Unless the religious rejects it, an indult of departure entails dispensation from the religious vows that have been taken. [5]
If the religious who is to be exclaustrated is a deacon or priest, he must first obtain the consent of the local ordinary (diocesan bishop or the equivalent in law of a diocesan bishop, such as an apostolic prefect) of the place where he intends to reside. Such residence may serve as a first step towards incardination into the jurisdiction of the ordinary. Agreement must be made with the local ordinary about any exercise of sacred ministry by the religious during the period of exclaustration. [2]
In addition to ordinary or simple exclaustration, as described above, the Holy See, but not the religious superior or the diocesan bishop, may grant what has been called an exclaustration ad experimentum to a religious priest who has definitively decided to leave his institute and become a diocesan priest and who has found a diocesan bishop willing to accept him on a trial basis. This has the additional effect that he will be automatically released from his religious vows and incardinated into the diocese when the bishop decides to accept him definitively or, provided the bishop has not rejected him before then, at the close of a five-year trial period. [6]
If a diocesan bishop is willing to incardinate a religious priest immediately, there is no need for exclaustration, and secularization (dispensation from the religious vows) is granted instead. [6]
In certain situations where a religious priest does not intend to become a diocesan priest, the Holy See has sometimes granted what has been called "qualified exclaustration" at the religious priest's request, authorizing him to live for a limited time as a layman without exercising priestly faculties and free from all clerical obligations other than the enduring obligation of celibacy. This favour is granted only when there is reasonable hope that the petitioner will recover his priestly vocation. [2] [6]
It has been suggested that qualified exclaustration would be more accurately described not as an exclaustration but as a temporary laicization, and it has also been called "a mixture of exclaustration, secularization, and reduction to the lay state". [7]
Qualified exclaustration was suggested as a possible solution when the Society of Jesus initially refused Robert Drinan, a Jesuit priest, permission to run for a seat in the United States Congress. [8]
Exclaustration for up to three years may be granted by the superior general of the institute, with the consent of the institute's council. Grants for more than three years or extension of an already granted exclaustration to beyond three years is reserved to the Holy See for institutes raised to the level of papal jurisdiction ("institutes of pontifical right") and to the diocesan bishop for institutes under diocesan jurisdiction ("institutes of diocesan right"). [9] In the case of nuns, the granting of exclaustration even for a period shorter than three years was reserved to the Holy See [10] until the promulgation of Cor Orans. Cor Orans specifies ″the Major Superior, with the consent of her Council, can grant the indult of exclaustration to a nun professed with solemn vows, for not more than a year, after the consent of the Ordinary of the place where the nun will have to live, and after having heard the opinion of the diocesan Bishop or of the competent religious Ordinary.″ [11]
Apart from being granted at the request of the religious concerned, exclaustration may also, at the request of the superior general with the consent of the council, be imposed for grave reasons by the Holy See in the case of institutes of pontifical right and by the diocesan bishop in the case of institutes of diocesan right. [10] The authority imposing the exclaustration is thus outside the religious institute and may impose it either for a fixed period or indefinitely. In the latter case the exclaustration ends only when lifted by the authority that imposed it. [2]
A prelate is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin praelatus, the past participle of praeferre, which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'prefer'; hence, a prelate is one set over others.
In the Catholic Church, a religious order is a community of consecrated life with members that profess solemn vows. They are classed as a type of religious institute.
An ordinary is an officer of a church or civic authority who by reason of office has ordinary power to execute laws.
In Catholic canon law, an indult is a permission or privilege, granted by the competent church authority – the Holy See or the diocesan bishop, as the case may be – for an exception from a particular norm of church law in an individual case.
A vicar general is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the (arch)bishop, the vicar general exercises the (arch)bishop's ordinary executive power over the entire diocese and, thus, is the highest official in a diocese or other particular church after the diocesan bishop or his equivalent in canon law.
The hierarchy of the Catholic Church consists of its bishops, priests, and deacons. In the ecclesiological sense of the term, "hierarchy" strictly means the "holy ordering" of the church, the Body of Christ, so to respect the diversity of gifts and ministries necessary for genuine unity.
A religious is, in the terminology of many Western Christian denominations, such as the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, and Anglican Communion, what in common language one would call a "monk" or "nun".
Consecrated life is a state of life in the Catholic Church lived by those faithful who are called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way. It includes those in institutes of consecrated life, societies of apostolic life, as well as those living as hermits or consecrated virgins.
A society of apostolic life is a group of men or women within the Catholic Church who have come together for a specific purpose and live fraternally. It is regarded as a form of consecrated life.
In the jurisprudence of the canon law of the Catholic Church, a dispensation is the exemption from the immediate obligation of the law in certain cases. Its object is to modify the hardship often arising from the rigorous application of general laws to particular cases, and its essence is to preserve the law by suspending its operation in such cases.
Incardination is the formal term in the Catholic Church for a clergyman being under a bishop or other ecclesiastical superior. It is also sometimes used to refer to laity who may transfer to another part of the church. Examples include transfers from the Western Latin Church to an Eastern Catholic Church or from a territorial diocese to one of the three personal ordinariates for former Anglicans.
In the Catholic Church, a secular institute is one of the forms of consecrated life recognized in Church law.
A secular institute is an institute of consecrated life in which the Christian faithful living in the world strive for the perfection of charity and work for the sanctification of the world, especially from within.
Dimissorial letters are testimonial letters given by a bishop or by a competent religious superior to his subjects in order that they may be ordained by another bishop. Such letters testify that the subject has all the qualities demanded by canon law for the reception of the order in question, and request the bishop to whom they are addressed to ordain him.
The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms priest refers only to presbyters and pastors. The church's doctrine also sometimes refers to all baptised (lay) members as the "common priesthood", which can be confused with the ministerial priesthood of the consecrated clergy.
The Military Ordinariate of the Philippines is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or military ordinariate of the Catholic Church in the Philippines serving the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police, and the Philippine Coast Guard.
A faculty, in the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, is an ecclesiastical right conferred on a subordinate, by a superior who enjoys jurisdiction in the external forum. These rights then allow the subordinate to act, in the external or internal forum, validly or lawfully, or at least safely.
The conditions for the canonical erection of a house of religious are indicated in canons 608-611 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
Precedence signifies the right to enjoy a prerogative of honor before other persons; for example, to have the most distinguished place in a procession, a ceremony, or an assembly, to have the right to express an opinion, cast a vote, or append a signature before others, to perform the most honorable offices.
The canonical situation of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a group founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, is unresolved. The Society of Saint Pius X has been the subject of much controversy since 1988, when Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta were illicitly consecrated as bishops at Ecône, at the International Seminary of Saint Pius X, in violation of canon law. Lefebvre and the four other SSPX bishops individually incurred a disciplinary latae sententiae excommunication for this schismatic act. The excommunications of the four living SSPX bishops were remitted in 2009.
This is a glossary of terms used within the Catholic Church. Some terms used in everyday English have a different meaning in the context of the Catholic faith, including brother, confession, confirmation, exemption, faithful, father, ordinary, religious, sister, venerable, and vow.
