Prelate

File:Erzabt Ildefons Schober OSB.JPG

Benedictine and Archabbot Ildefons Schober in prelate dress and cappa magna

A prelate (/ˈprɛlət/) 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.

The archetypal prelate is a bishop, whose prelature is his particular church. All other prelates, including the regular prelates such as abbots and major superiors, are based upon this original model of prelacy.

Related terminology

In a general sense, a "prelate" in the Catholic Church and other Christian churches is a bishop or other ecclesiastical person who possesses ordinary authority of a jurisdiction, i.e., of a diocese or similar jurisdiction, e.g., ordinariates, apostolic vicariates/exarchates, or territorial abbacies. It equally applies to cardinals, who enjoy a kind of "co-governance" of the church as the most senior ecclesiastical advisers and moral representatives of the Supreme Pontiff, and certain "superior prelates of the offices of the Roman Curia" who are not bishops, e.g., the auditors (judges) of the Roman Rota and protonotaries apostolic. By extension, it refers to "inferior" or "lesser prelates", that is priests who have the title and dress of prelates as a personal honorific, i.e., Papal chaplains, prelates of honor (formerly "domestic prelates"), and honorary protonotaries apostolic. All these enjoy the title of monsignor, which also is used in some nations for bishops and archbishops. The seven de numero protonotaries apostolic in Rome, who are special Papal notaries, are true prelates like bishops; others are "supernumerary" protonotaries apostolic who enjoy this as an honorific, like Papal chaplains and prelates of honor.

In the strict canonical sense, "prelate" denominates a priest or bishop who is ordinary of a personal prelature (see below), which is a functional equivalent of a diocese that has a "particular pastoral or missionary work for various regions or for different social groups" (cf. Code of Canon Law, Canon 294) yet no territorial jurisdiction.

In the Armenian Apostolic Church, "prelate" (in English) denominates a diocesan bishop, whose jurisdiction of his diocese is denominated a "prelacy".

Territorial prelatures

In the Catholic Church, a territorial prelate is a prelate whose geographic jurisdiction, denominated a "territorial prelature", is outside of and therefore not subject to any diocese. A territorial prelate is sometimes denominated a "prelate nullius", from the Latin "nullius diœceseos" (prelate of no diocese), denoting that his territory is directly subject to the Holy See (the Supreme Pontiff) and is not a diocese. As of 2013, there were 44 territorial prelatures, all of which were in the Latin Church.

The term also is used generically, in which case it may equally refer to an apostolic prefecture, an apostolic vicariate, or a territorial abbacy.

Personal prelatures

In the Catholic Church, the personal prelature was conceived during the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) in no. 10 of the decree Presbyterorum ordinis and Pope Paul VI later enacted it into law in the motu proprio Ecclesiae sanctae. The institution was later reaffirmed in the Code of Canon Law of 1983. Such a prelature is an institution having clergy and, possibly, lay members which would execute specific pastoral activities. The adjective "personal" refers to the fact that in contrast with previous canonical use for ecclesiastical institutions, the jurisdiction of the prelate is not territorial and instead is of specific persons wherever they are located. The establishment of personal prelatures is an exercise of the theologically inherent power of self-organization which the Church has to pursue its mission, though a personal prelature is not a particular church, as are dioceses and military ordinariates.

Personal prelatures are fundamentally secular organizations operating in the world (members do not take vows and live normal lives), whereas religious institutes are religious organizations operating out of the world (members take vows and live by the proper law of their institute).

The first, and presently only, personal prelature is Opus Dei, which Pope John Paul II erected as such in 1982 by the Apostolic constitution Ut sit. In the case of Opus Dei, the Prelate is elected by members of the Prelature and confirmed by the Supreme Pontiff; the laity and clergy of the Prelature remain subject to the government of the particular churches in whose territory they live, and the laity associated with the Prelature, both men and women, are organically united under the jurisdiction of the Prelate.

Guidelines

On 15 February 2018, a motu proprio issued by Pope Francis ordered prelates and bishops to live simply and renounce any desire for power after they retired from senior offices of the Roman Curia. Several such officials and bishops had been criticized in the preceding years for luxurious living, such as having large apartments and police escorts after they retired. One notable incident involved Tarcisio Bertone, an Italian prelate and former Cardinal Secretary of State removed from office in 2013, who used an apartment that had been renovated at the cost of nearly half a million dollars in funds, which were diverted from a Vatican-owned hospital by the former president of the hospital. Even after he retired, Tarcisio Bertone used escorts of Vatican City and Italian police to move around Rome.

See also

• Catholic Church hierarchy § Equivalents of diocesan bishops in law
• Ordinariate for Eastern Catholic faithful
• Personal ordinariate

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Real Prelate, the incumbent of a prelature, i.e., of an ecclesiastical office with special and stable jurisdiction in foro externo and with special precedence over other ecclesiastical offices; or, honorary, with distinctions of this ecclesiastical dignity without the corresponding office. The original prelates are the bishops as possessors of jurisdiction over the members of the Church based on Divine institution. Apart from the bishops, the real prelates include:

• (1) those who have quasi-episcopal, independent jurisdiction over a special territory separated from the territory of a diocese (prœlatus nullius, sc. diœceseos), as is the case with the abbeys and provostships of monasteries (Monte Cassino, Einsiedein, St. Maurice in the Canton of Wallis, etc.);

• (2) those who have offices in the administration of dioceses, and enjoy an independent and proper jurisdiction (e.g., the earlier archdeacons, the provosts and deans of cathedral and collegiate churches, in so far as these still exercise a regular, personal jurisdiction;

• (3) abbots and provosts of monasteries, even when they administer no territory with episcopal powers, but have merely the permanent, supreme distinction of the monastery;

• (4) titular bishops, both those who in the vicariates Apostolic and other territories have supreme ecclesiastical administration, and those who have simply received episcopal consecration without jurisdiction over a special district, such as certain officials in Rome, consecrating bishops, etc.;

• (5) the highest officials of the Roman offices, who, in addition to the cardinals, have a prominent share in the direction of the Roman Church, and thus have a special relation to the person of the pope.

In consequence of the extent of the government of the Church, prelates are especially numerous in Rome. The most important real prelates of the papal curia are: the three highest officials of the Camera Apostolica (vice-camerlengo, general auditor, and treasurer) and the Majordomo of the Vatican, who are called prelati di fiocchetti; the secretaries of the congregations of cardinals, the regent of the papal chancery, the regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, and certain other high officials of the congregations of the Curia; the members of the College of Prothonotaries Apostolic de numero participantium, the auditors of the Rota, the clerics of the Apostolic Chamber, the referendaries of the Siqnatura justitiœ. In the Constitution "Inter ceteras" of 11 June, 1659, Alexander VII laid down the conditions under which these real prelatures might be accepted. The dignity granted by the pope with mention of these conditions is called "prælatura justitiæ"; when the conditions are not imposed in the granting of the dignity, the latter is called "prælatura gratiæ". To the real prelates belong, therefore, although no jurisdiction in foro externo is attached to their offices, all the highest palace officials, who perform a constant service in the retinue of the pope and in the offices created for that purpose. The appointment to these offices confers of itself the prelature. Such officials are the Papal Almoner, the Secretary of Latin Briefs and Briefs to the Princes, the substitute of the Cardinal Secretary of State, the four real Privy Chamberlains, the real Privy Chaplains of the Pope. A second class of prelates are those on whom the title and rank of the prelature are conferred with the corresponding dress and privileges, but without the office or court service otherwise attached to it. These are:

• (1) the prothonotaries Apostolic other than the real ones (see PROTHONOTARY APOSTOLIC);

• (2) the papal domestic prelates (Antistes urbanus, Prœlatus urbanus, Prœlatus domesticus), who are appointed to this dignity by papal Brief. They have the right of wearing the garb of a prelate and of using in Solemn High Mass the special candle (palmatoria), but not the other episcopal insignia (Motu Proprio "Inter multiplices" of Pius X, 21 February, 1905, in "Acta S. Sedis", XXXVII, 491, sq.);

• (3) the supernumerary privy chamberlains (Camerieri segreti sopra-numerarii), honorary chamberlains and chaplains, who may on special occasions wear the same garb as the officiating chamberlains of the pope.

All prelates have the title "Monsignore" and a special costume (purple) corresponding to their rank; the higher prelates enjoy in addition other special privileges.

TAMBURINI, De iure abbatum et aliorum prœlatorum tam regularium quam sœcularium episcopis inferiorum (3 vols., Lyons, 1640); BANGEN, Die Römische Kurie, ihre gegenwärtige Zusammensetzung u. ihre Geschäftsgang (Münster, 1854); HILLING, Die Römische Kurie (Paderborn, 1906); BATTANDIER, Annuaire pontifical catholique. (Paris, 1898-); TROMBETTA, De iuribus et privilegiis prœlatorum Romanœ Curiœ (Sorrento, 1906); BAART, The Roman Court (Milwaukee, 1895); TAUNTON, The Law of the Church (London, 1906).