In the Catholic Church, secular clergy are religious ministers, such as deacons and priests, who do not belong to a religious order. While regular clergy take vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience and place themselves under a monastic rule (regulum), secular clergy do not take vows, and they live in the world (saeculum). They are still bound to Canon law, which for Latin rite priests means that they are bound to obligations of celibacy and obedience. Like regular clergy, secular clergy are also bound to the recitation of the Divine Office.
A number of intra-Church conflicts have occurred due to the tensions between regular and secular clergy. Secular clergy always takes precedence of the regular clergy of equal rank.[1]
One of the roots of the Philippine Revolution was the agitation of native secular priests for parish assignments. The powerful religious orders were given preferential treatment in these assignments, and were usually Spaniards who trained in European chapters. The agitation led to the execution of the "Gomburza filibusteros."
The secular clergy in contemporary times is referred to as the "diocesan" or (in the case of an archdiocese) "archdiocesan" clergy.
References
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"Secular Clergy". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Secular_Clergy.
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