What is a congregation? This ... Or about the meaning of an intricate term

The Catholic Church is an incredibly large organization. At the head of it is the Pope, who, according to the doctrine of this church, is the successor of the apostle Peter and in this capacity performs the ministry of the vicar of Jesus Christ on earth. Under its spiritual principle, the papal throne unites about a billion and a quarter people. Therefore, it can be stated with certainty that Catholicism is the largest religious denomination in the world. In addition, the Pope is a secular ruler of the sovereign city-state of the Vatican, located in Rome.

Of course, a powerful administrative resource, which is divided into various kinds of commissions, departments, councils, administrations, tribunals, secretariats and congregations, helps to manage all these structures to the successor of the primitive apostle. That's what the congregation is, and this article will be discussed.

Roman Curia

First, in order to form a clear picture of the system of the papal administration, it is necessary to find out what the Roman Curia is. It is the central and supreme authority that, on behalf of the Roman pontiff (one of the Pope's titles), administers the church and the Vatican. Since the papal state has a theocratic character with a monarchical form of government, the curia can not be compared with a Duma or a parliament. It's just an administration that at the highest level oversees all the administrative and religious affairs of the church and the Vatican, and also mediates between the pope and the rest of the world in this vein.

The congregation in this system performs the role of the head office on a particular range of issues - this is the main meaning of this term within the Catholic world. Its additional semantic load will be discussed below.

Congregations of the Roman Curia

The congregation is the highest administrative unit in the curia. There are several of them and they are accountable to other, smaller units and departments. They first appeared relatively late - in the sixteenth century in the number of fifteen. Over time, the bureaucratic apparatus of the church grew to twenty congregations. The reorganization followed in 1908, when Pope Pius X reduced them to twelve. And half a century later, Pope Paul VI, reforming the church management system, left only nine. Just so many of them exist in our time.

From the moment of its appearance to the reform of John Paul II, each congregation had the official title of "sacred". One of them most clearly entered the history of Europe in connection with the hunt for witches and the persecution of heretics, becoming in some way a household name. It's about the famous Inquisition, which, by the way, still exists. Today it is officially called the "Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith". Of course, today the methods of its work have changed a little, and all the instruments of torture and partisan inquiries have long ago been dismantled in the dungeons of its subordinate institutions. Nevertheless, it is the most important congregation, having weight over all others. The modern Inquisition deals with questions of religion and morals. Its tasks include maintaining the purity of the Catholic doctrine on religious issues and suppressing unhealthy tendencies in the church to revise the doctrine of faith and moral principles.

Monastic Congregations

As has already been said, the concept of "congregation" is not exhausted in the dictionary of Catholic terminology by the offices of the Roman Curia alone. The church right knows one more definition of this term. According to him, the congregation is a monastic organization that does not have the status of an order. Initially, such communities of monks practiced their own statutes without official approval of the Pope. They also differed in the character of the vows they brought. The fact is that the monastic vows in the Catholic Church used to be divided into simple and solemn. The latter were brought only by members of regular orders, and the congregations were content with the usual format. Later this division was abolished, but some other differences remained. Thus, the number of congregations is relatively small, and their members carry their ministry primarily in the world, and not outside the walls of the monasteries.

How many total congregations exist is hard to say. Their huge number and number are constantly changing due to the closure of the old ones, the initiation of new ones, the merger and division of existing ones. In the Catholic environment there is even a joke on this subject: even God does not know three things - how much money is from the mendicant orders, what the Jesuits are plotting and how many monastic organizations and congregations exist in the Catholic church.

Plus, before, this term was referred to as semi-monastic or laity communities, assuming certain obligations. Later they received the name of societies of apostolic life.

Congregations in Protestantism

However, the word "congregation" is not a monopoly property of the papal administration and monks. Outside the Catholic church, in the Protestant church, this term is also known. But in the ranks of churches independent of the Vatican, he has several other connotations. According to the established terminology, the meaning of the word "congregation" is a local community of believers. Such a community includes both laity and clergy. The peculiarity of the congregation is its complete administrative and religious independence from anyone. This form of church organization was called congregationalism, which is also the name of a particular Protestant denomination that adheres to this principle in its life.

The secular meaning of the term "congregation"

In conclusion, one must speak about the secular semantics of this word. And here it is necessary to recall England and its famous universities, within the framework of which an academic meeting is periodically convened to resolve certain issues. The congregation is the kind of meeting that has the status of an advisory body in the management of an educational institution.