Dictionary
A modern dictionary of Catholic terms, both common and obscure. Find accurate definitions of words and phrases.
CONFRATERNITY
In ecclesiastical law an association of the laity whose primary purpose is the promotion of public worship. Other aims may be joined with the primary one. Over the years, as recognized by the Code of Canon Law (1918), confraternities were founded as sodalities. An archconfraternity would be a sodality with the right to aggregate other associations of the same kind. By this aggregation the affiliated society could participate in all the spiritual favors conferred by the Holy See on the archconfraternity. (Etym. Latin con-, with + fraternitas, brotherhood.)
All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.
