Part Second: Of Religious

The religious state, or stable manner of living in common, by which the faithful, besides the common precepts, also take up the evangelical counsels to be observed through vows of obedience, chastity, and poverty, is to be held in honor by all.

In the canons which follow, there come under the name:

1° Of a religion: a society approved by legitimate ecclesiastical authority, in which the members, according to the proper laws of that society itself, pronounce public vows, perpetual or temporary, yet to be renewed after the elapsed time, and thus tend toward evangelical perfection.

2° Of an Order: a religion in which solemn vows are pronounced; of a monastic Congregation: the union of several monasteries sui iuris joined among themselves under the same Superior; of an exempt religion: a religion, whether of solemn or simple vows, withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the local Ordinary; of a religious Congregation or simply of a Congregation: a religion in which only simple vows, whether perpetual or temporary, are emitted.

3° Of a religion of pontifical right: a religion which has obtained either approval or at least a decree of praise from the Apostolic See; of diocesan right: a religion which, erected by Ordinaries, has not yet obtained this decree of praise.

4° Of a clerical religion: a religion whose greater part of members are increased by the priesthood; otherwise it is lay.

5° Of a religious house: a house of any religion in general; of a regular house: a house of an Order; of a formed house: a religious house in which at least six professed religious dwell, of whom, if there is question of a clerical religion, at least four are priests.

6° Of a province: the union of several religious houses joined among themselves under the same Superior, constituting a part of the same religion.

7° Of religious: those who have pronounced vows in some religion; of religious of simple vows: those who are in a religious Congregation; of regulars: those who are in an Order; of sisters: religious women of simple vows; of nuns: religious women of solemn vows or, unless from the nature of the matter or from the context of speech something else is clear, religious women whose vows by institute are solemn, but for some places by prescription of the Apostolic See are simple.

8° Of major Superiors: the Abbot Primate, the Abbot Superior of a monastic Congregation, the Abbot of a monastery sui iuris, even one pertaining to a monastic Congregation, the supreme Moderator of a religion, the provincial Superior, their vicars, and others having power after the manner of provincials.

The rules and particular constitutions of individual religions, not contrary to the canons of this Code, retain their force; but those which are opposed to the same are abrogated.

The things established concerning religious, although expressed in the masculine term, also hold by equal right concerning women, unless from the context of speech or from the nature of the matter something else is clear.

§ 1. Religious precede lay persons; clerical religions precede lay religions; canons regular precede monks; monks precede other regulars; regulars precede religious Congregations; Congregations of pontifical right precede Congregations of diocesan right; in the same kind the prescription of can. 106, n. 5 is to be observed.

§ 2. But the secular clergy precedes both lay persons and religious outside their churches and also in their churches, if there is question of a lay religion; moreover the cathedral or collegiate Chapter precedes the same everywhere.