Editing Major orders (section)

{{Short description|Roman Catholic Church term no longer in use}}
[[Image:Priestly ordination.jpg|thumb|right|Ordination of a priest]]  
For some centuries the [[Catholic Church]] distinguished between '''major orders''' ("greater orders"), which the [[Council of Trent]] also called [[Holy Orders (Catholic Church)|holy orders]], and [[minor orders]] (lesser orders). The [[Catechism of the Council of Trent]] spoke of the "several distinct orders of ministers, intended by their office to serve the [[priesthood (Catholic Church)|priesthood]], and so disposed, as that, beginning with the [[cleric]]al [[tonsure]], they may ascend gradually through the lesser to the greater orders", and stated: 
{{blockquote|Their number, according to the uniform and universal doctrine of the Catholic Church, is seven, Porter, Reader, Exorcist, Acolyte, Sub-deacon, Deacon and Priest. ... Of these, some are greater, which are called "Holy", some lesser, which are called "Minor Orders". The great or Holy Orders are [[subdeacon|Sub-deaconship]], [[deacon|Deaconship]] and [[priesthood (Catholic Church)|Priesthood]]; the lesser or Minor Orders are [[porter (doorkeeper)|Porter]], [[Reader (liturgy)|Reader]], [[Exorcist]], and [[Acolyte]].<ref>[http://www.google.com/search?q=1829+catechism+council+trent+%22greater+or+holy+orders%22&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1 Catechism of the Council of Trent (Dublin 1829), p. 310]</ref>}}

The Catechism of the Council of Trent thus repeats what is stated in chapter II of that Council's Decree on the Sacrament of Order, using the word "priest" to refer both to [[bishop]]s and to presbyters.<ref>In the Code of Canon Law, "the Latin words ''sacerdos'' and ''sacerdotium'' are used to refer in general to the ministerial priesthood shared by bishops and presbyters. The words ''presbyter, presbyterium'' and ''presbyteratus'' refer to priests [in the English use of the word] and presbyters" (Woesteman, Wm. ''The Sacrament of Orders and the Clerical State'' St Paul's University Press: Ottawa, 2006, p. 8).</ref> In chapter IV, it uses the word "priest" to refer instead to presbyters alone. It thus speaks of bishops as "superior to priests", and of "the ordination of bishops, priests, and of the other orders".  In its canon VI, it declares that in the Catholic Church "there is a hierarchy by divine ordination constituted, consisting of bishops, priests, and ministers".<ref>[http://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct23.html The Council of Trent: The Twenty-Third Session]</ref>

By his [[motu proprio]] ''Ministeria quaedam'' of 15 August 1972, [[Pope Paul VI]] decreed: "The orders hitherto called minor are henceforth to be spoken of as 'ministries'."<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/motu_proprio/documents/hf_p-vi_motu-proprio_19720815_ministeria-quaedam_lt.html ''Ministeria quaedam''], II</ref> This abandonment of the term "minor orders" automatically brought an end also to use of the term "major orders".

The same motu proprio also decreed that the [[Latin Church]] would no longer have the major order of subdiaconate, but it permitted any [[episcopal conference]] that so desired to apply the term "subdeacon" to those who hold the ministry (formerly called the minor order) of "[[acolyte]]".<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/motu_proprio/documents/hf_p-vi_motu-proprio_19720815_ministeria-quaedam_lt.html ''Ministeria quaedam''], IV</ref> 

For the [[Latin Church]] there are thus now only three orders, as stated in the [[Canon law (Catholic Church)|Code of Canon Law]]: "The orders are the episcopate, the presbyterate, and the diaconate."<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P3N.HTM Code of Canon Law, canon 1009 §1]</ref> These three orders are also referred to as "sacred orders" or "holy orders".<ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/88.HTM Concordance of use of the term "orders" in the Code of Canon Law]</ref><ref>[https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4U.HTM Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Three Degrees of the Sacrament of Holy Orders]</ref>