Jul 13 Mon
What are the differences between ordinary Christian people, priests, and the religious?
In the Church, there is both a radical equality of dignity and a diversity of function among the faithful: a unity of mission and a diversity of ministries. These differences in the faithful, established by the Lord, achieve the unity and mission of his body.
All baptized persons (the faithful) are equally called to the fullness of sanctity; they all enjoy equal dignity in the Church as God’s children born of Christ. All of them are equal in dignity and duties. All are equally called to seek sanctity and apostolate—this call is their unity or principle of equality.
Furthermore, “to shepherd the People of God and to increase its members without cease, Christ the Lord set up in his Church a variety of offices, which aim at the good of the whole body.” In the Church, there is a diversity of ministries sharing in the same mission: the laity, the religious, and the clergy.
- THE LAITY
Everything that is said of the People of God applies equally to the laity, the religious, and the clergy. Specifically, the Second Vatican Council described the laity:
“By reason of their special vocation, it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will. They live in the world, that is, they are engaged in each and every work and business of the earth and in the ordinary circumstances of social and family life, which, as it were, constitute their very existence."
To spread the divine message of salvation, laypeople do so either individually or by forming associations.
- THE SECULAR CLERGY
“Secular” (priests and laypeople) usually means “this person is not a religious.”
Secular clerics (usually diocesan clergy) are ordained but do not make a religious profession in an institution. They retain their own property (unlike religious, who renounce in the sense proper to vows), and their obedience is to the bishop in the way proper to clerical discipline. The priests of Opus Dei are included here.
- THE RELIGIOUS
Religious are Christians who belong to a Religious Institute (an order or congregation), such as a Dominican, Franciscan, or brother of La Salle; this also includes nuns. They are consecrated to God by vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, abandoning the world for love of him.
They serve the Church through apostolic works like catechesis, education, and assistance to the sick. The religious life is a wonderful witness before the whole people of God to the supremacy of heavenly values.
Yet the words “religious” and “secular” don’t mainly mean “good vs. bad” or “pious vs. worldly.” They refer to different kinds of Church life and different canonical states—especially regarding consecration, vows, and how one lives in the world.
To keep it clear:
Religious (in the usual sense) means belonging to a vowed, canonical, consecrated life; secular means living outside religious profession (either as diocesan clergy or as lay faithful), though all can be holy and both serve the Church.