A quick look at the workings of the Catholic Church

The Latin word 'veritas' means truth.

The piece below appears in this week's Independent News and Media Irish regional newspapers.

By Michael Commane

Late in January I climbed Djouce Mountain in the Wicklow Hills with a friend of mine and a colleague of his. Coming down the mountain my friend’s colleague asked me what kind of a priest I was. It stopped me in my track, as you could take the question in many ways.

What the man wanted to know was whether or not I was a member of a congregation/order or a diocesan priest. He was also interested to know how orders differ from each other.

Some days earlier at work a colleague suggested I should write a column explaining the different sorts of priests there are. My whimsical reply to him was that there is no end to that story.

There are 22 dioceses and four archdioceses in Ireland. The archdioceses are, Armagh, Dublin, Cashel and Emly, and Tuam. In each of the archdioceses there is an archbishop. The current archbishop in Armagh is a cardinal.

While all 22 dioceses are loosely associated with an archdiocese, bishops and archbishops are independent of each other. Archbishops and bishops are members of the Irish Episcopal Conference.

Every diocese in Ireland has direct access to the sea and that’s for historical reasons.
Every diocese is divided into parishes, which are usually administered by a parish priest, who may have a curate or a number of curates. All these appointments are made by the diocesan bishop.

That’s all clear so far but add to the equation religious orders and congregations and the matter gets that little bit more complicated.

In Ireland, as in most countries where the Catholic Church has a tradition, there are large numbers of religious orders and congregations.

Priests who are members of religious orders are not answerable to a bishop, instead they report to their local ‘superior’ (not a word I like). Most congregations/orders call their national superior a provincial. This was an issue during the Fr Brendan Smyth crisis in 1994. Smyth was a member of the Norbertine Order. Because he was a member of an order it seems he was able to fly below the radar of ecclesial authority. Whether he did or not, it was an argument the church used. You might call it a damage limitation job.

Many orders and congregations, both women and men, run post primary schools in Ireland. None of these schools is in any way responsible to a local bishop. There are also many churches in Ireland, which are not parish churches, run by orders and congregations and these churches do not come under the influence or authority of a local bishop.

While all the various and different religious orders and congregations will talk and write about their unique charism or mission, I think it’s fair to say that there is a great blur in how one institute differs from another. Maybe it’s best of all to say that there are historical differences that separate many of the orders and congregations. Yes, it’s clear to say that the Cistercians live a different lifestyle to the Jesuits. But I’m sure most people who go to church would not be too informed as to how the Dominicans differ from the Augustinians or the Franciscans.

Now to add even more to the confusion: a practice has grown up in Ireland and the universal church that bishops invite orders and congregations to help them out in the running of the diocese. And this is usually done by asking a religious order or congregation to take over the running of a parish. And once that happens then the men running the parish are answerable to the local bishop.

That’s what it sounds like in theory. But nothing is ever as simple as that. What happens if a priest, who is not under the authority of a bishop, says or does something out of order?

As in all human relations, people try to solve things in an amicable and reasonable way. But when that does not work what happens? You got it in one? The Catholic Church is centrally organised and controlled. If there is a local dispute it finds its way to the religious/congregational superiors and bishops. If that fails it goes to the papal nuncio, who is the Vatican’s representative in Ireland, who is also the doyen of the diplomatic corps. If that does not solve the problem, then the person is in trouble and someone at the Vatican will be in touch.

Have you noticed I have not said a word about the distinction between religious orders and congregations? Nor have I said a word about women’s congregations. And did you know there is a difference between sisters and nuns. And not a word about how bishops are appointed. Not yet.

Enough for this issue.