CONSTITUTION ("STATUTES") OF THE ARCHCONFRATERNITY OF ST STEPHEN
The Archconfraternity of St Stephen is a Public Association of Christ's Faithful as Altar Servers [cf: canon 301, 1983 Code of Canon Law[i]] established at Westminster Cathedral in 1905 by the authority of Pope Pius X.
The object of the Archconfraternity is to advance the Roman Catholic Religion and in particular -
i) to encourage, positively and practically, the highest standards of serving at the Church's Liturgy and so contribute to the whole community's participation in a more fruitful worship of God.
ii) to provide altar servers with a greater understanding of what they are doing so that they may serve in an increasingly reverent and prayerful manner and thereby be led to a deepening response to their vocation in life.
iii) to unite servers of different parishes and dioceses for their mutual support and encouragement.The Superior General of the Archconfraternity is the Archbishop of Westminster, who appoints the National Director [Moderator; cf: canon 317, 1983 Code of Canon Law[ii]] who is also chaplain to the Central Council.
The affairs of the Archconfraternity shall be administered by the Central Council under the guidance of the National Director.
The Central Council shall consist of the National Director, the Officers, and Members of the Council in accordance with the Rules of Procedure obtaining at the time.The Officers of the Archconfraternity are the President; Vice-President; Treasurer, Secretary and Goods Manager.
A Guild of St Stephen may be established in any church or chapel with the permission of the Ordinary [cf: canon 312, 1983 Code of Canon Law[iii]], affiliated to the Archconfraternity at Westminster, and thereby observes its objects and standards.
Diocesan Bishops may appoint a priest, deacon or competent lay person as Director of the Guild for their own diocese. These form the National Council of Priest Directors of the Guild, which is an advisory body to the National Director.
A Diocesan Director may form an advisory Lay Council to assist the work of the Guild in their diocese.
Membership of the Guild is open to servers who have made their First Holy Communion, without limit of age, who can serve Mass, and who have shown a wish to live up to the objects and standards of the Guild, subject to the requirements of Canon 316 : 1 & 2 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law[iv].
Servers should be given adequate training and should serve satisfactorily for a minimum of six months before being enrolled as a member of the Guild, using the prescribed form of enrolment.
Footnotes
[i] Can. 301 §1 It is for the competent ecclesiastical authority alone to establish associations of Christ’s faithful which intend to impart Christian teaching in the name of the Church, or to promote public worship, or which are directed to other ends whose pursuit is of its nature reserved to the same ecclesiastical authority.
§2 The competent ecclesiastical authority, if it judges it expedient, can also establish associations of Christ’s faithful to pursue, directly or indirectly, other spiritual ends whose attainment is not adequately provided for by private initiatives.
§3 Associations of Christ’s faithful which are established by the competent ecclesiastical authority are called public associations.
[ii] Can. 317 §1 Unless the statutes provide otherwise, it belongs to the ecclesiastical authority mentioned in can. 312 §1 to confirm the moderator of a public association on election, or to appoint the moderator on presentation, or by his own right to appoint the moderator. The same authority appoints the chaplain or ecclesiastical assistant, after consulting the senior officials of the association, wherever this is expedient.
§2 The norm of §1 is also valid for associations which members of religious institutes, by apostolic privilege, establish outside their own churches or houses. In associations which members of religious institutes establish in their own church or house, the appointment or confirmation of the moderator and chaplain belongs to the Superior of the institute, in accordance with the statutes.
§3 The laity can be moderators of associations which are not clerical. The chaplain or ecclesiastical assistant is not to be the moderator, unless the statutes provide otherwise.
§4 Those who hold an office of direction in political parties are not to be moderators in public associations of the faithful which are directly ordered to the exercise of the apostolate.
[iii] Can. 312 §1 The authority which is competent to establish public associations is:
1° the Holy See, for universal and international associations
2° the Episcopal Conference in its own territory, for national associations which by their very establishment are intended for work throughout the whole nation;
3° the diocesan Bishop, each in his own territory, but not the diocesan Administrator, for diocesan associations, with the exception, however, of associations the right to whose establishment is reserved to others by apostolic privilege.
§2 The written consent of the diocesan Bishop is required for the valid establishment of an association or branch of an association in the diocese even though it is done in virtue of an apostolic privilege. Permission, however, which is given by the diocesan Bishop for the foundation of a house of a religious institute, is valid also for the establishment in the same house, or in a church attached to it, of an association which is proper to that institute.
[iv] Can. 316 §1 A person who has publicly rejected the catholic faith, or has defected from ecclesiastical communion, or upon whom an excommunication has been imposed or declared, cannot validly be received into public associations.
§2 Those who have been lawfully enrolled but who fall into one of the categories mentioned in §1, having been previously warned, are to be dismissed, in accordance with the statutes of the association, without prejudice to their right of recourse to the ecclesiastical authority mentioned in can. 312 §1.