Monsignor is not a sacramental order or a governing office but an honorific title the Pope confers on priests, most often at the recommendation of their own bishop, in recognition of service to a diocese or the wider Church; a priest granted the title continues in whatever assignment, parish, seminary, chancery office or elsewhere, he already held, the honor added to his standing rather than changing it. The custom traces to the practice of the papal household and Roman Curia extending honorary rank and privileges of dress to clergy connected with papal service, gradually broadening into an honor available, through episcopal nomination, to diocesan priests worldwide who had no direct curial role at all.
Pope Francis narrowed the practice significantly in 2014, restricting the most common grade, chaplain of His Holiness, to priests aged sixty-five and older and signaling a preference for recognizing priestly service through means other than titles carrying distinctive dress, such as the purple-trimmed cassock, the fascia and buttons, monsignori are traditionally entitled to wear. The change reflected a broader emphasis in his papacy on simplicity in clerical dress and status markers, though the title itself, and the three traditional grades beneath the rank of bishop, protonotary apostolic, prelate of honor and chaplain of His Holiness, remain in use where a diocese chooses to seek them for a priest.