The Friars Minor, in contrast, use the title "Minister Provincial", in line with their emphasis on living as brothers to one another.
In religious institutes whether of men or of women, the provincial superior appoints the regular confessors, calls together the Provincial Chapter, presides over its deliberations, and takes care that the orders of the General Chapter and the Superior General are properly carried out.
The principal duty of the provincial superior is to make regular visitations of the houses of the province in the name of the General and to report to the latter on all the religious and the property of the order; authority over the various houses and local superiors differs in different orders.
For institutes of men, at the end of his term of office, the provincial is bound, according to the Constitution "Nuper" of Innocent XII (23 December 1697), to prove that he has complied with all the precepts of that decree concerning Masses; if he fails to do so, he loses his right to be elected and to vote in the general chapter.
A unique case was eastern Paraguay, where the Spanish colonial authorities allowed the Jesuit missionaries to establish both the Catholic faith and a unique, humane regime for the local Guarani Indian tribes, making their provincial superior the governor of the first autonomous Indian reserve, known as the (Jesuit) Misiones or Reducciones, until 1667, ten years after a Guarani rebellion against increased abuse by the regular colonial authorities: the territory lost its status and was divided up between Spain (then under the viceroyalty of la Plata, previously part of Upper Peru) and Portugal (Brazil).