Monsignor (;
pl. monsignori ) is an honorific
form of address for those members of the
clergy of the
Catholic Church including bishops, honorary prelates and canons. In some cases, these
ecclesiastical honorific titles derive from the pope, but in other cases it is simply a customary or honorary style belonging to a prelate or honorary prelate. These are granted to individuals who have rendered valuable service to the Church, or who provide some special function in Church governance, or who are members of bodies such as certain
chapters. The title is never bestowed on those classified as
religious in Catholicism. Although in some languages the word is used as a form of address for bishops, which is indeed its primary use in those languages, this is not customary in English.
Monsignor is the
apocopic form of the
Italian monsignore, from the
French mon seigneur, meaning "my lord." It is abbreviated
Mgr,
Msgr, or
Mons.