Superior (Religious)

SUPERIOR (Religious). - He is the supreme head of a religious Order or Congregation: the first of the so-called major superiors. In the CIC he appears under the name moderator supremus (can. 488 no. 8). It is to Franciscanism that the organization of religious life on a centralized system is owed, with submission to the authority of a supreme superior, called by St. Francis "minister general." All religions founded later adopted this conception, though sometimes changing its name: master general (Dominicans), prior general (Carmelites), prepositus general (Jesuits), master general (Crocigeri), major rector (Salesians), etc. Even the Benedictines, who had and still have a cenobitic form, have a primate abbot and general superiors of monastic Congregations under different names (abbot general president, archabbot), though with an authority more representative than real (CIC, can. 501 § 3). By common law no general can be elected for life (can. 505), but at most for 12 years, save by apostolic indult, and no one can be elected before having completed 40 years of age, of which at least ten in religious profession, counting from first profession. It is further required that he be born of a legitimate marriage (can. 504); and that he govern with the assistance of a certain number of religious, his counselors (can. 516 § 1). He has, however, true jurisdiction over the whole religion (can. 502), which he can and must canonically visit (can. 511), with the burden of subsequently reporting on it to the Holy See (can. 510). This power is immediate also over individual religious, independently of the subject superiors, and can extend to expulsion, although in this regard the said power is greatly limited by cann. 647 § 1 and 2 no. 4, 649-50, 651 § 1 and 666. In general the authority of the general is rather reduced in religions of diocesan right; broader in those of pontifical right. In exempt clerical religions, moreover, the general has true ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the internal and external forum (can. 501 § 1), thereby coming to be by law numbered among the Ordinaries (v.; can. 198 § 1) and among prelates strictly so called (can. 110). And they must be convoked to the Ecumenical Council, where they have a deliberative vote together with the primate abbot and the superior abbots of monastic Congregations. The abbot nullius of Montecassino and the abbots nullius dioeceseos, the general abbots of the Canons Regular and of the monastic Orders, the abbot of St. Jerome de Urbe, and the generals and vicars general of the Mendicant Orders have a part in the pontifical Chapel.

In female Congregations too the supreme moderatrix is called superior general or mother general and has dominative power over all the religious according to the constitutions. To her is equated the abbess (v.) and the prioress of nuns; both indeed appear in the CIC under the name of major superiors (cfr. cann. 490, 504).

Lorenzo Simeone