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Dear Winston,
There are two or three classes of faithful, depending on how you divide
them:
- Clerics
- consecrated religious, and
- lay people.
(This may be a oversimplification
but will serve for our purposes here.)
Clerics include:
- bishops
- presbyters, and
- deacons.
Presbyters are normally
called priests, but I used the term presbyter since bishops
are also priests (but not presbyters), so a priest is cleric ranking
above a deacon, usually below a bishop.
A father is an affectionate
term for a priest. Usually it's an honorific: Father Smith or Father
Jim.
One would never say Priest Smith, though one would say Bishop
Smith.
All the other titles are titles of consecrated religious.
A religious is a person
consecrated to celibacy or virginity for the sake of the Kingdom and who
normally lives in community.
A contemplative (and usually cloistered) religious
is a monk (male) or nun (female).
- Contemplative means that
their chief ministry is praying (as opposed, say, to teaching).
- Cloistered means that they are isolated from the world.
Note:
This is the technical definition of nun. In common parlance it's usually synonymous with sister.
The terms brother and sister refer to religious
who may or may not be contemplative and who are not ordained. They are
honorific titles (Brother John, Sister Mary Magdalene).
A monk is always either a brother or a father. A nun is always a sister,
but a sister is not necessarily a nun (nor is a brother or priest necessarily
a monk).
The term mother is an honorific title that refers to the female
head of a religious order, like (Mother Angelica).
Eric
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