Now the back story as I know you’ll be disappointed if I don’t
I was watching the Golden Girls, and Sofia decides to be a nun. Of course being a sitcom the process was rather rushed and she became a within the course of 10 minutes.
But how is it in real life.
As there are different religions, let’s for the sake of this example focus on the Roman Catholic Church.
So I want to become a nun.
What are the steps?
And part II (notice the cool use of “II” instead of the “2,” see it’s like Rocky)
So I want to become a priest.
What are the steps?
Do you have to go to nun/priest college? I am assuming there is a “trial” period of some sort? Do you have to decided what kind of priest/nun you want to be first? (Such as nun that teaches or nun that helps in a hospital)
Again, I realize priests and nun are not equal, in other words, a nun isn’t the equivalent of a male priest but I thought I’d be better to combine the threads then do one thread for each
A priest must go to seminary where they receive a theological degree, usually a master of divinity, but there are others. While in seminary they study biblical interpretation, christology, homilies and other religious stuff. Once they pass seminary, they are ordained by their diocesan bishop if they’re going to be a diocesan priest. I’m not sure which bishop ordains monastic priests, it may just be the bishop of the diocese in which the monastery is located.
If you want to become a nun, you spend a chunk of time living in the convent to discern whether you truly wish to join the order, then you become a novice for a while and then take your vows to be a full member of the monastic community. This is the same process that a man who wishes to become a monk must go through. I’m certain many people join monasteries knowing they want to teach or nurse or whatever and I’m sure the monastery will help with that choice but a lot of people don’t necessarily have anything set in mind although they may find one during discernment and of course, if the abbot or prioress says you must do this, then you darn well are going to do that.
Well, if you wanted to become a nun, then there’s a pretty big first step needed.
But kidding aside, let’s just generalize it slightly to becoming a monk (“monk” is actually a gender-neutral term). Basically, you go to the monastery you want to join, and tell them you’d like to join. You’re then a novitiate for several years, to give you the chance to be sure that the monastic life is right for you, and then you take final vows. During this time, you’ll be living at the monastery, praying and worshiping with the other monks, dressing in the habit of the order if they have one, taking part in the work of the order (if nothing else, maintaining the monastery itself, though most orders also have some work they do to support themselves, and some they do for outreach), and so on. Or, if you decide as a novitiate that the monastic life isn’t right for you after all, you can leave and go back to lay life, no hard feelings, and you’re still a Catholic in good standing.
To become a priest, you’ll need to go to seminary school and receive other training (a process that takes about 8 years), and then receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders from a bishop. Technically, it’s the sacrament all by itself that makes you a priest, but the bishop won’t administer it unless you’ve gone through all the training.
I’m not sure, but I think an abbot might also be able to ordain priests. An abbot is almost equivalent to a bishop.
Note, by the way, that not all monasteries are led by an abbot-- Some are just led by a prior, which is a purely administrative position, not a sacramental one.
Yeah, but it’s not a one time thing. A catholic in good standing should be getting themself to confession a few times a year at least. So, if you want to be a priest you should have gone at least once but it’s not like it’s part of some pre-ordination checklist like confirmation or baptism.
Isn’t that only if you’ve never been baptised before?
I thought that Roman Catholicism recognized any baptism with water in the name of the Trinity as a valid baptism, without the need for re-baptism upon conversion to Roman Catholicism?
An abbott is also an administrative position, not one of orders, and not equivalent to a bishop.
There were at some time "mitred abbots" (pre-Reformation in England, for example), who encroached on the powers of bishops, including in some cases claiming the power to ordain deacons, but never priests, as far as I know.
I’m not sure what you mean by “that religion” (Roman Catholic or just Christian). Just wanted to mention that any Christian baptism is valid as far as the RCC is concerned. You won’t be “rebaptized” as Catholic if you’ve already been batized by a protestant church, for instance.
Also, if you happen to be an Anglican or Orthodox priest, you can jump all the required steps and just become a catholic one by accepting to be in communion with Rome, since your former ordination as a priest, having been done by a bishop in the apostolic succession, is valid in the eyes of the RCC (added bonus, you can do that even if you’re married).
I don’t think that’s correct for Anglican priests, clairobscur. There was an issue over whetehr the chain of apostolic succession and ordination was broken in the Anglican Church, due to the wording of the Anglican ordination ceremonies in the late 16th and 17th centuries. From the perspective of the Anglican church, of course the view is that there is no break in the chain. However, Pope Leo XIII disagreed, and said so in a Papal Encyclical: On the Nullity of Anglican Orders.
Could be. I’m not 100% sure on that point, but in any event you would have to be baptized if you weren’t already.
And just for the record, I was somewhat playing the pedant in my first post, as part of a long tradition in GQ of squeezing out every spec of factual information about a topic. It surprised me, though, that someone would challenge the clearly factual nature of “Confession” being a sacrament. The Church might officially call it something else, but as someone who was raised Catholic, I can attest that most of us lay people call it that-- Confession.
Baptism, Confession, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Matrimony, Holy Orders, Last Rights.
Those are the seven sacraments I learned in Catechism. Did I miss any or get any wrong?