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A personal prelature is a canonical structure of the Catholic Church which comprises clergy and laity under the jurisdiction of a prelate who undertake specific pastoral activities. Along with dioceses and military ordinariates, personal prelatures, were originally under the administration of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, but since 4 August 2022, personal prelatures have been placed in the Dicastery for the Clergy.^[1] Unlike dioceses, which cover territories, personal prelatures—like military ordinariates—minister to persons as regards some objectives regardless of where they live. The first personal prelature is Opus Dei.

Origins

In the Catholic Church, the personal prelature was conceived during the sessions of the Second Vatican Council in no. 10 of the decree Presbyterorum ordinis and was later enacted into law by Paul VI in his motu proprio Ecclesiae sanctae. The institution was later reaffirmed in the 1983 Code of Canon Law.^[2]

Nature

A personal prelature is an institution having clergy and lay members which carry out specific pastoral activities. The adjective personal refers to the fact that, in contrast with previous canonical use for ecclesiastical institutions, the jurisdiction of the prelate is not linked to a territory but over persons wherever they happen to be. The establishment of personal prelatures is an exercise of the theologically inherent power of self-organization which the Church has to pursue its mission, though a personal prelature is not a particular church as dioceses and eparchies are.^{[citation needed]}

Structure

A personal prelature is an ordinary jurisdictional structure of the Catholic Church. The prelate is a presbyter nominated by the Pope and governs the prelature with ordinary power. In order to de-emphasize the importance of hierarchy in the governance of the personal prelature Pope Francis decreed in 2022 that the prelate should not be consecrated bishop.^[3]

The prelate has the right to erect a national or international seminary, and to promote students to holy orders, in service to the pastoral mission of the prelature (can. 295).

The lay faithful of a prelature are determined by a personal criteria, which is established in each case by the Apostolic See, in the constitutional documents of the prelature, or in its statutes. Diverse organizational models are possible, according to a variety of possible missions: for example, the determination a iure of those lay faithful for whom the pastoral mission is intended, or the express inscription in an apposite register, as is the case in other personal ecclesiastical circumscriptions. It is also possible that, through a mutual agreement or convention, lay faithful can pursue the specific mission of the prelature in organic cooperation with the prelate and his presbyterium, by the terms established in its statutes (can. 296). The fact that these lay persons are under the jurisdiction of the prelate does not impede their being under the authority of the diocesan bishop or pertaining to other ecclesiastical jurisdictions (accumulative jurisdiction).

The statutes likewise are to define the relations of the personal prelature with the diocesan bishops in whose dioceses the prelature exercises its pastoral or missionary works (can. 297).

Application

Opus Dei

The first, and thus far the only, personal prelature is Opus Dei, which was established as a personal prelature by Pope John Paul II in 1982 through the Apostolic constitution Ut sit. In the case of Opus Dei, the prelate is elected by members of the prelature and confirmed by the Pope.^{[citation needed]}

According to John Paul II, the priests and lay faithful (both men and women) in the Prelature of the Holy Cross are "the components by which the Prelature is organically structured." According to the website Prelaturas Personales.

John Paul II, speaking about the Prelature of Opus Dei, affirmed: 'First of all, I wish to emphasize that the membership of the lay faithful in their own particular Churches and in the Prelature, into which they are incorporated, enables the special mission of the Prelature to converge with the evangelizing efforts of each particular Church, as envisaged by the Second Vatican Council in desiring the figure of personal prelatures.' (Discourse, October 17, 2001). "^[4]

Other possible personal prelatures

Philippine clergy proposes personal prelatures for the pastoral care of Filipino migrants. This canonical set-up can help the Filipino migrants integrate better into their local church and help spread best practices in integration from other places where Filipinos have migrated. A prelature rather than an ordinariate can better serve the purpose since it will not have to provide all the pastoral services and the migrants will continue to be faithful of their specific dioceses.^[5]

The Society of Saint Pius X has been offered a canonical restructuring as a personal prelature by Rome.^[6]

Related structures: personal ordinariate and apostolic administration

On October 20, 2009, it was announced that the Holy See would create personal ordinariates for Anglicans entering the Catholic Church, a formula inspired by existing military ordinariates, in ways that are comparable to the current Opus Dei personal prelature.^[7] A major difference between an ordinariate and a prelature is the ordinariates (both personal and military) may erect parishes and those who inscribe themselves in the apposite register effectively become transients in their geographic diocese (no accumulative membership). The personal ordinariates for former Anglicans were also authorized to use a unique liturgy developed by the CDF and CDW. Three are established: Our Lady of the Southern Cross for Australia and Japan, Our Lady of Walsingham for England and Wales, The Chair of Saint Peter for USA and Canada.^{[citation needed]}