Difference Between Regular Clergy and Secular Clergy
What is the Regular Clergy?
It is known by the name of regular clergy to those who have taken the vow to exercise their ministry of spiritual service within a convent or monastery and who obey its rules, since they belong to the mendicant order. This religious order is characterized by the fact that they live on the alms of others, for which they take the vow of poverty and support themselves by charity.
By taking vows, the cleric renounces his goods and properties, leaving them at the disposal of the community to which he belongs. Likewise, these people decide of their own free will to assume the vows of chastity, that is, they renounce sexual pleasures and the possibility of having offspring, and the vow of obedience, thus ignoring their own will to follow their immediate superior. , who would be the leader of the monastery, and this in turn reports directly to the Pope.
Those who make up this group are called friars, sores or tertiaries. The purpose of the regular clergy is to carry out the evangelizing and missionary work from humility, providing a social service of teaching religion with a true vocation.
What is the Secular Clergy?
The secular clergy, also known as diocesan clergy, is the priest or deacon who lives and shares with the people, or as the translation of the Latin term secular refers, “of the world.” These ecclesiastical figures are ordered to deliver the sacraments of the church to the parishioners.
When priests take their vows of religious service, they offer their obedience to the hierarchical structure of the religion, which directly reports to a bishop, who in turn is accountable to the Pope, who is the highest authority within this triangular organization. Likewise, the secular clergy practice celibacy, in which they decide not to marry or leave offspring.
Difference Between Regular Clergy and Secular Clergy
- The secular clergy is the one who is ordained as a priest to bring the sacraments to the community, while the regular clergy is the one who isolates himself to serve God from his personal actions professing humility and religious vocation.
- The regular clergy take vows of chastity, obedience (leaving aside their will) and poverty (renouncing their own and common material goods); On the other hand, the secular clergy also take the vow of chastity and that of obedience to the hierarchy, but without losing their own will.
- The secular clergy follows a hierarchical structure that has the presbyters, the bishop and the pope. On the other hand, the regular clergy obeys the authority in the place where they live and after this, the only authority is the pope.