Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Greek antiquity, a court of justice; especially, in Athens, one of the courts in which dicasts sat; hence, the court or body of dicasts themselves.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun rare A court of justice; judgment hall.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A term used by the Vatican corresponding to ministry or department as subdivisions of the papal curia, referring to the administrative departments of the Vatican City State, as well as strictly ecclesiastical departments; more often termed congregation.
  • noun A judicial body of the ancient Athenian state, made up of dicasts.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Greek dikastes, 'judges', from dike 'right, custom, judgement'

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Examples

  • "The liturgical dicastery is the Vatican office that has most oft en changed its Secretary in recent years: Di Noia will be the fourth in just seven years."

    On the Movement of Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith 2009

  • I know well that, following the publication of the Instruction "Eucharisticum mysterium" of 25 May 1967 and the promulgation, on 21 June 1973, of the Document "De sacra communione et cultu mysterii eucharistici extra Missam", the insistence on the theme of the Eucharist as the inexhaustible source of holiness has been a concern of the first priority for the dicastery.

    Pope Benedict on Eucharistic Adoration 2009

  • During a visit today to Toronto, the general superior explained that the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, established precisely to oversee the process of healing the society's separation from the Church, will remain a distinct entity within the Church's dicastery for doctrinal matters.

    Fellay: Restructuring of Ecclesia Dei Imminent 2009

  • The liturgical one is the Vatican dicastery that has most often changed its Secretary in recent years: Di Noia will be the fourth in just seven years.

    Rumour Watch: DiNoia To Succeed Ranjith As CDW Secretary? 2009

  • It is the result of a reserved vote, which took place on March 12, in the course of a "plenary" session of the dicastery responsible for the liturgy, and it represents the first concrete step towards that "reform of the reform" often desired by Pope Ratzinger.

    Tornielli: The "Reform of the Reform" Proposals Approved by the Pope 2009

  • A dialogue which is comes under the responsibility of the supreme doctrinal dicastery since Lefebvre's followers argue that with the Second Vatican Council the Catholic doctrine has been changed and ask that this be clarified in view of a formal return of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X to the Catholic Church.

    Rumour Watch: Motu Proprio on the Reorganisation of Ecclesia Dei 2009

  • And the Commission would then be attached to the Congregation for Divine Worship, assuming, within the framework of one dicastery, the responsibility of the traditional form of the Roman rite, under the charge of Cardinal Cañizares.

    Rumor Watch: Ecclesia Dei to Become Part of CDW? 2009

  • In this outstanding preface, the Prefect of the dicastery charged with the sacred liturgy quite frankly recognizes that the liturgical reforms after the Second Vatican Council have often not been completely successful, that a false spirit of rupture was at work.

    Cardinal Cañizares Writes About Usus Antiquior and Liturgical Reform 2009

  • A top Vatican secretary responded by telling Selvaraj to take the case "to the competent Roman dicastery" -- in other words, back to the CDF, the office that had failed to return his correspondence.

    Accused Catholic Priests Left In Legal Limbo 2010

  • German Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum,” the Vatican dicastery or administrative agency on charity, aid and relief, blamed “gender mainstreaming” and “radical feminism” for attacking biological manhood and insisting that “sexual roles are learned.”

    Archive 2009-02-01 Renee 2009

Comments

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  • Where the die is cast? Iacta alea est

    November 26, 2012

  • In my next D&D campaign, I might need to have little metal figurines to represent characters who are members of a court. If the characters themselves were playing dice games, then the miniature figurings could depict die-casting die-cast dicasts.

    November 26, 2012

  • In Australia D&D refers to Desperate and Dateless, a kind of bachelor & spinster ball usually held midsummer on a country farm. Your figurines should therefore represent characters like the ute-toting beermouthed buck getting amorously sloshed with the beaut little ugg-booted sheila, both with underwear rapidly descening paddockwards to the tune of go-the-grope slobberguffaws from his/her coven of oldmate.

    November 27, 2012