You can also be a Lutheran minister that converts to Catholicism and become a priest even if you’re married, but you can’t marry again.
Anglican churches and Lutheran churches are sometimes called liturgical denominations and share some commonality in liturgy with the catholic church, even though they have doctrinal differences.
nm
Taking a moment to … er … pontificate…
There’s not a supervisory hierarchy that exists as you describe.
The direct hierarchy of ecclesiastical superiors is:
That’s it.
It’s not true in any but a ceremonial sense to say that an archbishop is the boss of a bishop, and a cardinal is the boss of them both.
Every diocese has one Ordinary, who is a bishop. If the diocese is a metropolitan diocese, then it’s called an archdiocese and its bishop is called an archbishop. But the archbishop just bosses his own archdiocese, not the neighboring dioceses.
In each diocese, the Ordinary is the top boss. He bosses all the priests, deacons, and any auxiliary bishops assigned to help him. (Interestingly enough, an auxiliary bishop is sometimes called a ‘titular’ bishop, because every bishop has to be, even if in name only, the boss of some diocese, so an auxiliary bishop, and bishops that work in Vatican departments, are given in-name-only responsibility for dioceses that no longer exist; Bishop Denis J. Madden is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and his real job is to assist Archbishop Lori, the boss of the archdiocese. But he’s technically also the bishop of an abandoned diocese in Alegria called Baia.)
The diocesan bishop is subordinate only to the Pope. While there are episcopal conferences of bishops for countries that set norms like what holy days may be moved to the nearest Sunday, these are not binding on bishops; a bishop is free to make his own rules (consistent with canon law).
Similarly, a cardinal is a mark of distinction and an extra job, but it’s not a supervisory position over bishops and archbishops.
I say all this because the phrasing you used – “basic hierarchy (priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, etc” – suggested that perhaps you were picturing a ladder of authority with those ranks as steps. That’s not it at all.
I must know! And besides, this is the Straight Dope, where ignorance is fought every day.
How DOES the Second Coming work?
Note that, while what Bricker laid out is the formal hierarchy, there’s also an informal hierarchy with more steps in it. Even though an archbishop or cardinal doesn’t have any more official authority than any other bishop, in practice, if an archbishop or cardinal says something, they’re more likely to be heeded. Similarly, although any baptized male in principle can be made Pope, in practice it’s always someone who’s already a cardinal.
Oh, and there are also some odd details like who picks the new bishop of a diocese, if there’s a vacancy (most often due to death). That’s done under authority of the Pope, and he could directly pick the successor if he chose, but in practice it’s done by a semi-official structure at a lower level.
Pope Callixtus III was a priest.
Your article is odd, they claim Callixtus III was the last Non-priest in 1455, but the “last priest elected who was not a cardinal was Urban VI in 1378”.
Actually, Pope Leo X was the last Non-priest to be elected Pope. However, he was a Cardinal, and was ordained priest, and consecrated as bishop just before becoming Pope.
Explanation is that you don’t have to be priested to be a cardinal.
And of course for plum goodies handed out, most monks obviously weren’t priests, but for their own superiors an abbot didn’t even have to be a monk.
Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria is a good example. He was never ordained a priest but was made a cardinal (and was simultaneously a prince, “infante,” of the Spanish throne).
Better if your a woman. (ducks)
I’m completely lost. All this catholic hierarchy stuff makes no sense when I don’t know the difference in half the terms.
You may want to read up on the Orthodox, which orders and sacraments are accounted fully valid by Rome, both Russian and Greek and all the smaller Orthodox others; although not in communion.
The Eastern Orthodox are not the same as the smaller Eastern Catholic communions such as The Maronite, The Chaldean, The Syriac, The Coptic and The Byzantine, to name but a few, who are part of The Holy See.
Archpriests and Protopresbyters are styled as the Very Reverend (V. Rev.), while Archimandrites can be styled as the Very Reverend (V. Rev.) or as the Right Reverend (Rt. Rev.).
The Second Coming is the one where Jesus comes back throned in glory in the clouds to judge the quick and the dead, in other words Judgment Day. According to all Church teaching and the NT.
And a question re the hierarchy: isn’t a full Council superior to the Pope?
No.
The Code of Canon Law specifically provides, at Can. 338:
Conciliarism
Basically it was a pale shadow of the conflict between monarchy and parliamentarianism — with faults on both sides.