Canon law defines an ecumenical council and its procedure; actually, the law represents the procedure followed in the convocation of Vatican I. There is no precise criterion for determining what is an ecumenical council, and one can say only that councils are ecumenical if and only if the Roman Catholic Church regards them as such. The Orthodox churches recognize the first eight councils only.
The ecumenical council is recognized as the supreme authority within the Roman Catholic Church. Along with the pope this makes two supreme authorities; the church reconciles this logical dilemma by asserting that the ecumenical council, acting with the pope, is supreme. Only the pope can convoke an ecumenical council, and he or his legates must preside. There are no limits to the competence of an ecumenical council, but the pope must approve its decrees.
The Great Schism (1378–1417), during which three men claimed the papacy simultaneously, led to the movement known as conciliarism, which maintained that the ecumenical council was the means of saving the church from scandal and corruption. The idea of conciliarism was rooted in debates from the 12th century; in the 15th century it was applied with much success to the resolution of the schism, though the excesses of extremist conciliarists soon led to the demise of the movement, and much of the policy of the Roman see since that time has been devoted to the suppression of conciliarist sentiments. This has naturally led to questions about the value of ecumenical councils, which are cumbersome and expensive compared with an omnicompetent office such as the papacy. Nevertheless, the usefulness of ecumenical councils has been illustrated by both Vatican I and Vatican II. Apart from the public and psychological impact produced by a consensus so broad, the council makes available to the church a fund of wisdom and experience not available to the Roman Curia, and it seems to generate among participants a state of mind and a strength of purpose that is above their normal level of thought and action. The priesthood
Although the term “priest” (Greek hiereus) refers to the entire Christian people, it is given to no church officer in the New Testament. First appearing in the 2nd century, the office is associated with the establishment of the eucharistic sacrifice, over which the priest was called to preside. No doubt the development of the monarchical episcopate also contributed to the emergence of the priesthood; the bishop needed assistance in his threefold task of teaching, sanctifying, and governing, and the priest exercised this power as an officer of the bishop. Although priests are members of either a diocese or a religious community, in the exercise of the threefold ministry every priest is subject to the bishop of the diocese in which the ministry is conducted.
The pastor of the parish is the model priest. Despite the fact that in large parishes the pastor may be primarily an administrator, Catholics experience their church directly through the parochial clergy. Catholics hear sermons, worship, receive the sacraments, and look for religious counsel and direction in their parish. Many Catholics, particularly in the United States, send their children to parish schools. The parish is also the centre of activities ranging from recreation to adult education and social work, all under the direction of the clergy. Whereas the parochial clergy are genuine pastors, the pastoral office has often been reduced for the bishop and is barely visible in the pope. The strength of the Roman Catholic Church historically has been rooted in its priests, especially in its parochial clergy.
Roman Catholicism for centuries has fostered a distinct clerical identity, symbolized by clerical garb, which sets priests as a class apart from lay Catholics. The priesthood is also set apart by gender; only men may become Catholic priests. The most striking feature of this class, celibacy, has stirred up considerable dissatisfaction in the modern church. Many priests and other observers have called for the acceptance of married priests, arguing that the rule of celibacy interferes with the ministry. Others have urged the acceptance of female priests. Because of this dissatisfaction and the issues related to it, there have been a significant number of departures from the priesthood and an alarming decrease in the number of candidates. Religious communities
Religious communities in the Roman Catholic Church consist of groups of men or women who live a common life and pronounce the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience (the evangelical counsels). Members of religious communities generally accept a rule of life that emphasizes humility and the renunciation of worldly goods and pleasures. The aim of such a life has traditionally been the contemplation of God and the pursuit of Christian perfection (theologically defined as perfect love). The religious life also has been understood as flight from the world, though monastic communities often have been great economic and cultural centres. Hermits and monks
The origins of the religious life traditionally have been traced to the apostolic community in Jerusalem at the very beginning of the church. In the 1st century, groups of ascetics adopted lives of celibacy and poverty. In the 3rd and 4th centuries St. Anthony and other anchorites, or hermits, who escaped sin and temptation by flight from the world—mostly in the deserts of Syria, Egypt, and Palestine—greatly stimulated the growth of the movement. Flight from the world became the rule of the cloister, forbidding both free entrance of “externs” and free egress of the religious and imposing supervision in all dealings with seculars. The evangelical counsels meant a life of solitude and destitution and an effort to attain union with God by prolonged, almost constant contemplation. Where large numbers of hermits assembled in the same place, cenobitism (common life) emerged, and the hermits or monks (Greek monachos, “solitary”) elected one of their members abbot (Aramaic abba, “father”). Eastern monasticism produced the rules of Pachomius and Basil in the 4th century, and travelers (most notably John Cassian) introduced monasticism into the Latin church. Western monasticism, however, came to be dominated by the rule of Benedict of Nursia, who founded his communities in Italy in the 6th century.
Compared with most contemporary monastic rules, the Benedictine Rule emphasizes less austerity and contemplation and more common life and common work in charity and harmony. It has many offshoots and variations, and it has proved itself sturdy, surviving many near collapses and reforms. The monk does not join an “order” but a monastery. He takes vows of obedience, stability, and fidelity to the monastic life, adopts the habit (i.e., the distinct form of dress of the order), and the tonsure. Although Benedictine monasteries were almost always located in rural regions, the labour of the monks transformed them into food-producing areas which then attracted settlement. Thus, the monks who had fled the world found that the world sought them out for services, which they gladly rendered.
A medieval monk copying from a text, in a scriptorium.