Clarification please about priests

[John Anthony]

I have some questions mainly for my RC friends here.

Am I correct in believing the following:

>>There are just two kinds of priests, religious and diocesan. If a priest belongs to a religious order, he is a religious priest. Otherwise in all cases he is a diocesan priest.

>>Where a priest works and what kind of work he does has no bearing on his designation. A religious priest may work full time at a parish or in a diocesan department doing the same job as diocesan priests, yet he remains a religious priest.

The reason I ask these questions is that somewhere I read that only one diocesan priest has ever been canonized. This seems so extraordinary to me that I think I must be mistaken somewhere in my understanding of types of priests.

[watcher]

[John Anthony]

[Janet]

[Pizza Man]

I know that there were a lot of priests who were myrtered when they went to preach in England, but most of them were probobly religious.
However, in recent times, where the Church has been persecuted, like in China, I'm sure that there have been some diocesan priests who were killed.

[jo]

I am not sure what you're talking about there .. can you clarify? :). I would presume that ALL priests who were martyred were religious..

[Karen]

[Pizza Man]

Yes, that is right Karen. Religious orders frequently send missionarys to convert people in areas of the world where the Church has little or no presence. Diocesan Priests are generaly the ones that live in a certain parish and work there for as long as the bishop says to.