Chaplain

A chaplain is a trained professional, who provides spiritual, emotional, and psychosocial support in secular or religious institutions, serving people of any faith or no faith. The term chaplaincy can refer to the chapel, facility, or department in which one or more chaplains carry out their role, as well as to the profession itself. The name originates from Martin of Tours, who gave his cappellanu cloak to a veteran in need during a snowstorm. Though the term chaplain originally referred to representatives of the Christian faith, it is now also applied to people of other religions or philosophical traditions, as in the case of chaplains serving with military forces and an increasing number of chaplaincies at U.S. universities. In recent times, many lay people have received professional training in chaplaincy and are now appointed as chaplains in schools, hospitals, companies, universities, prisons and elsewhere to work alongside, or instead of, official members of the clergy. The concepts of a multi-faith team, secular, generic, or humanist chaplaincy are also gaining increasing use, particularly within healthcare and educational settings. In the Catholic tradition, a chaplain is also a traditional title for an auxiliary priest (i.e., priest assistant/cooperator) assigned to a parish and subordinate to its pastor. This position is now officially called parochial vicar or assistant priest; some dioceses use the term chaplain officially. Side buildings of some parish houses (i.e., rectories) are traditionally called "chaplain houses". This historic term originated because the chaplain was usually assigned to a filial church or a chapel. Until 1983, the 1917 Code of Canon Law (canons 471–476) distinguished 5 types of parochial vicars: vicarius actualis, vicarius oeconomus, vicarius substitutus, vicarius adiutor, and vicarius cooperator, the latter of whom is traditionally called a chaplain. The 1983 Code of Canon Law does not distinguish such subtypes. The...