SACRED CONGREGATION FOR RELIGIOUS AND FOR SECULAR INSTITUTES
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS IN THE CHURCH'S TEACHING ON
RELIGIOUS LIFE AS APPLIED TO INSTITUTES DEDICATED TO WORKS OF THE
APOSTOLATE
INTRODUCT1ON
1. The renewal of religious life during the past twenty years has been in
many respects an experience of faith. Courageous and generous efforts have been
made to explore prayerfully and deeply what it means to live consecrated life
according to the Gospel, the founding charism of a religious institute, and the
signs of the times. Religious institutes dedicated to works of the apostolate
have tried, in addition, to meet the changes required by the rapidly evolving
societies to which they are sent and by the developments in communication which
affect their possibilities of evangelization. At the same time, these institutes
have been dealing with sudden shifts in their own internal situations: rising
median age, fewer vocations, diminishing numbers, pluriformity of life-style and
works, and frequently insecurity regarding identity. The result has been an
understandably mixed experience with many positive aspects and some which raise
important questions.
2. Now, with the ending of the period of special experimentation mandated
by Ecclesiae Sanctae II, many religious institutes dedicated to works of
the apostolate are reviewing their experience. With the approval of their
revised constitutions and the coming into effect of the newly formulated Code of
Canon Law, they are moving into a new phase of their history. At this point of
new beginning, they hear the repeated pastoral call of Pope John Paul II to
evaluate objectively and humbly the years of experimentation so as to recognize
their positive elements and their deviations (to International Union of Women
Superiors General 1979; to Major Superiors of Men and Women Religious in France,
1980). Religious superiors and chapters have asked this Sacred Congregation for
directives as they assess the recent past and look toward the future. Bishops,
too, because of their special responsibility for fostering religious life, have
asked for counsel. In view of the importance of these developments, the Sacred
Congregation for Religious and for Secular Institutes, at the direction of the
Holy Father, has prepared this text of principles and fundamental norms. Its
purpose is to present a clear statement of the Church's teaching regarding
religious life at a moment which is particularly significant and opportune.
3. This teaching has been set forth in our times in the great documents of
the Second Vatican Council, particularly Lumen Gentium, Perfectae Caritatis
and Ad Gentes. It has been further developed in the Apostolic
Exhortation Evangelica Testificatio of Paul VI, in the addresses of Pope
John Paul II, and in the documents of this Sacred Congregation for Religious and
for Secular Institutes, especially Mutuae Relationes, Religious and Human
Promotion, and The Contemplative Dimension of Religious Life. Most
recently, its doctrinal richness has been distilled and reflected in the revised
Code of Canon Law. All these texts build on the rich patrimony of pre-conciliar
teaching to deepen and refine a theology of religious life which has developed
consistently down the centuries.
4. Religious life itself is a historical as well as a theological reality.
The lived experience, today as in the past, is varied and this is important. At
the same time, experience is a dimension which needs to be tested in relation to
the Gospel foundation, the magisterium of the Church, and the approved
constitutions of an institute. The Church regards certain elements as essential
to religious life: the call of God and consecration to him through profession of
the evangelical counsels by public vows; a stable form of community life; for
institutes dedicated to apostolic works, a sharing in Christ's mission by a
corporate apostolate faithful to a specific founding gift and sound tradition;
personal and community prayer; asceticism; public witness; a specific relation
to the Church; a life-long formation; and a form of government calling for
religious authority based on faith. Historical and cultural changes bring about
evolution in the lived reality, but the forms and direction that the evolution
takes are determined by the essential elements without which religious life
loses its identity. In the present text addressed to institutes dedicated to
apostolic works this Sacred Congregation confines itself to a clarification and
re-statement of these essential elements.
I.
RELIGIOUS LIFE: A PARTICULAR FORM OF CONSECRATION TO GOD
5. Consecration is the basis of religious life. By insisting on this, the
Church places the first emphasis on the initiative of God and on the
transforming relation to him which religious life involves. Consecration is a
divine action. God calls a person whom he sets apart for a particular dedication
to himself. At the same time, he offers the grace to respond so that
consecration is expressed on the human side by a profound and free
self-surrender. The resulting relationship is pure gift. It is a covenant of
mutual love and fidelity, of communion and mission, established for God's glory,
the joy of the person consecrated, and the salvation of the world.
6. Jesus himself is the one whom the Father consecrated and sent in a
supreme way (cf. Jn 10:36). He sums up all the consecrations of the old
law, which foreshadowed his own, and in him is consecrated the new People of
God, henceforth mysteriously united to him. By baptism, Jesus shares his life
with each Christian. Each is sanctified in the Son. Each is called to holiness.
Each is sent to share the mission of Christ and is given the capacity to grow in
the love and service of the Lord. This baptismal gift is the fundamental
Christian consecration and is the root of all others.
7. Jesus lived his own consecration precisely as Son of God: dependent on
the Father, loving him above all and completely given to his will. These aspects
of his life as Son are shared by all Christians. To some, however, for the sake
of all, God gives the gift of a closer following of Christ in his poverty,
chastity, and obedience through a public profession of these counsels mediated
by the Church. This profession, in imitation of Christ, manifests a particular
consecration which is "rooted in that of baptism and is a fuller expression
of it" (PC 5). The fuller expression recalls the hold of the divine person
of the Word over the human nature which he assumed and it invites a response
like that of Jesus: a dedication of oneself to God in a way which he alone makes
possible and which witnesses to his holiness and absoluteness. Such a
consecration is a gift of God: a grace freely given.
8. When consecration by profession of the counsels is affirmed as a
definitive response to God in a public commitment taken before the Church, it
belongs to the life and holiness of the Church (cf. LG 44). It is the Church
which authenticates the gift and which mediates the consecration. Christians so
consecrated strive to live now what will be in the after-life. Such a life "more
fully manifests to all believers the presence of heavenly goods already
possessed here below" (LG 44). In this manner these Christians "give
outstanding and striking testimony that the world cannot be transfigured and
offered to God without the spirit of the beatitudes" (LG 31).
9. Union with Christ by consecration through profession of the counsels can
be lived in the midst of the world, translated in the work of the world, and
expressed by means of the world. This is the special vocation of the secular
institutes, defined by Pius XII as "consecrated to God and to others"
in the world and "by means of the world" (Primo feliciter, V
and II). Of themselves, the counsels do not necessarily separate people from the
world. In fact, it is a gift of God to the Church that consecration through
profession of the counsels can take the form of a life to be lived as a hidden
leaven. Christians so consecrated continue the work of salvation by
communicating the love of Christ through their presence in the world and through
its sanctification from within. Their style of life and presence are not
distinguished externally from those of their fellow Christians. Their witness is
given in their ordinary environment of life. This discreet form of witness flows
from the very nature of their secular vocation and is part of the way that their
consecration is meant to be lived (cf. PC 11).
10. Such is not the case, however, with those whose consecration by the
profession of the counsels constitutes them as religious. The very nature of
religious vocation involves a public witness to Christ and to the Church.
Religious profession is made by vows which the Church receives as public. A
stable form of community life in an institute canonically erected by the
competent ecclesiastical authority manifests in a visible way the covenant and
communion which religious life expresses. A certain separation from family and
from professional life at the time a person enters the novitiate speaks
powerfully of the absoluteness of God. At the same time, it is the beginning of
a new and deeper bond in Christ with the family that one has left. This bond
becomes firmer as detachment from otherwise legitimate relationships,
occupations, and forms of relaxation continues to reflect God's absoluteness
publicly throughout life. A further aspect of the public nature of religious
consecration is that the apostolate of religious is in some sense always
corporate. Religious presence is visible, affecting ways of acting, attire, and
style of life.
11. Religious consecration is lived within a given institute according to
constitutions which the Church, by her authority, accepts and approves. This
means that consecration is lived according to specific provisions which manifest
and deepen a distinctive identity. The identity derives from that action of the
Holy Spirit which is the institute's founding gift and which creates a
particular type of spirituality, of life, of apostolate, and of tradition (cf.
MR 11). Looking at the numerous religious families, one is struck by the wide
variety of founding gifts. The Council laid stress on the need to foster these
as so many gifts of God (cf. PC 2b). They determine the nature, spirit, purpose,
and character which form each institute's spiritual patrimony, and they are
basic to that sense of identity which is a key element in the fidelity of every
religious (cf. ET 51).
12. In the case of institutes dedicated to works of the apostolate,
religious consecration has a further note: the participation in Christ's mission
is specific and concrete. Perfectae Caritatis recalls that the very
nature of these institutes requires "apostolic activity and charitable
services" (PC 8). By the fact of their consecration, the members are
dedicated to God and available to be sent. Their vocation implies the active
proclamation of the Gospel through "works of charity that are entrusted to
the institute by the Church and are to be performed in her name" (PC 8).
For this reason, the apostolic activity of such institutes is not simply a human
effort to do good but "an action that is deeply ecclesial" (EN 60). It
is rooted in union with the Christ who was sent by the Father to do his work. It
expresses a consecration by God which sends the religious to serve Christ in his
members in concrete ways (cf. EN 69) corresponding to the founding gift of the
institute (cf. MR 15). "The entire religious life of such religious should
be imbued with an apostolic spirit, and all their apostolic activity with a
religious spirit" (PC 8).
II.
CHARACTERISTICS
1. Consecration by public vows
13. It is proper, though not exclusive, to religious life to profess the
evangelical counsels by vows which the Church receives. These are a response to
the prior gift of God which, being a gift of love, cannot be rationalized. It is
something that God himself works in the person he has chosen.
14. As a response to the gift of God, the vows are a triple expression of
a single "yes" to the one relationship of total consecration. They are
the act by which the religious "makes himself or herself over to God in a
new and special way" (LG 44). By them, the religious gladly dedicates the
whole of life to God's service, regarding the following of Christ "as the
one thing that is necessary, and seeking God before all else and only him"
(PC 5). Two reasons prompt this dedication: first, a desire to be free from
hindrances that could prevent the person from loving God ardently and
worshipping him perfectly (cf. ET 7); and second, a desire to be consecrated in
a more total way to the service of God (cf. LG 44). The vows themselves "show
forth the unbreakable bond that exists between Christ and his bride the Church.
The more stable and firm these bonds are, the more perfect will the Christian's
religious consecration be" (LG 44).
15. The vows themselves are specific: three ways of pledging oneself to
live as Christ lived in areas which cover the whole of life: possessions,
affections, autonomy. Each emphasizes a relation to Jesus, consecrated and sent.
He was rich but became poor for our sakes, emptying himself, and having nowhere
to lay his head. He loved with an undivided heart, universally, and to the end.
He came to do the will of the Father who sent him, and he did it steadily,
learning obedience through suffering, and becoming a cause of salvation for all
who obey.
16. The distinguishing mark of the religious institute is found in the way
in which these values of Christ are visibly expressed. For this reason, the
content of the vows in each institute, as expressed in its constitutions, must
be clear and unambiguous. The religious foregoes the free use and disposal of
his or her property, depends through the lawful superior on the institute for
the provision of material goods, puts gifts and all salaries in common as
belonging to the community, and accepts and contributes to a simple manner of
life. He or she undertakes to live chastity by a new title, that of the vow, and
to live it in consecrated celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom. This implies a
manner of life that is a convincing and credible witness to a total dedication
to chastity and which foregoes any behavior, personal relationships, and forms
of recreation incompatible with this. The religious is pledged to obey the
directives of lawful superiors according to the constitutions of the institute
and further accepts a particular obedience to the Holy Father in virtue of the
vow of obedience. Implicit in the commitment to the institute which the vows
include is the pledge to live a common life in communion with the brothers or
sisters of the community. The religious undertakes to live in fidelity to the
nature, purpose, spirit and character of the institute as expressed in its
constitutions, proper law, and sound traditions. There is also the willing
undertaking of a life of radical and continuous conversion as demanded by the
Gospel, further specified in the content of each of the vows.
17. Consecration through profession of the evangelical counsels in
religious life necessarily inspires a way of living which has a social impact.
Social protest is not the purpose of the vows, but there is no doubt that the
living of them has always offered a witness to values which challenge society
just as they challenge the religious themselves. Religious poverty, chastity,
and obedience can speak forcefully and clearly to today's world which is
suffering from so much consumerism and discrimination, eroticism and hatred,
violence and oppression (cf. RHP 15).
2. Communion in community
18. Religious consecration establishes a particular communion between
religious and God and, in him, between the members of the same institute. This
is the basic element in the unity of an institute. A shared tradition, common
works, well-considered structures, pooled resources, common constitutions, and a
single spirit can all help to build up and strengthen unity. The foundation of
unity, however, is the communion in Christ established by the one founding gift.
This communion is rooted in religious consecration itself. It is animated by the
Gospel spirit, nourished by prayer, distinguished by generous mortification, and
characterized by the joy and hope which spring from the fruitfulness of the
cross (cf. ET 41).
19. For religious, communion in Christ is expressed in a stable and visible
way through community life. So important is community living to religious
consecration that every religious, whatever his or her apostolic work, is bound
to it by the fact of profession and must normally live under the authority of a
local superior in a community of the institute to which he or she belongs.
Normally, too, community living entails a daily sharing of life according to
specific structures and provisions established in the constitutions. Sharing of
prayer, work, meals, leisure, common spirit, "relationships of friendship,
cooperation in the same apostolate, and mutual support in community of life
chosen for a better following of Christ, are so many valuable factors in daily
progress" (ET 39). A community gathered as a true family in the Lord's name
enjoys his presence (cf. Mt 18:25) through the love of God which is
poured out by the Holy Spirit (cf. Rm 5:5). Its unity is a symbol of the
coming of Christ and is a source of apostolic energy and power (cf. PC 15). In
it the consecrated life can thrive in conditions which are proper to it (cf. ET
38) and the ongoing formation of members can be assured. The capacity to live
community life with its joys and restraints is a quality which distinguishes a
religious vocation to a given institute and it is a key criterion of suitability
in a candidate.
20. The local community, as the place where religious life is primarily
lived, has to be organized in a way which makes religious values clear. Its
center is the Eucharist in which the members of the community participate daily
as far as possible and which is honored by having an oratory where the
celebration can take place and where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved (cf. ET
48). Times of prayer together daily, based on the word of God and in union with
the prayer of the Church as offered especially in the liturgy of the hours,
support community life. So also does an established rhythm of more intense times
of prayer on a weekly and monthly basis, and the annual retreat. Frequent
reception of the sacrament of reconciliation is also part of religious life. In
addition to the personal aspect of God's pardon and his renewing love in the
individual, the sacrament builds community by its power of reconciliation and
also manifests a special bond with the Church. In accordance with the proper law
of the institute, moreover, time is provided for daily private prayer and for
good spiritual reading. Ways are found for deepening the devotions particular to
the institute itself, especially that to Mary, the Mother of God. The needs of
the institute as a whole are kept before the members and there is an
affectionate remembrance in prayer of those members who have already been called
from this life by the Father. The fostering of these religious values of
community life and the ensuring of a suitable organization to promote them is
the responsibility of all the members of the community, but in a particular way
it is that of the local superior (cf. ET 26).
21. The style of community life itself will relate to the form of
apostolate for which the members have responsibility and to the culture and
society in which this responsibility is accepted. The form of apostolate may
well decide the size and location of a community, its particular needs, its
standards of living. But whatever the apostolate, the community will strive to
live simply, according to norms established at institute and province level and
applied to its own need. It will build into its way of living the asceticism
implicit in religious consecration. It will provide for its members according to
their needs and its own resources, always bearing in mind its responsibilities
towards the institute as a whole and towards the poor.
22. In view of the crucial importance of community life, it should be noted
that its quality is affected, positively or negatively, by two kinds of
diversity in the institute: that of its members and that of its works. These are
the diversities of Saint Paul's image of the Body of Christ or the Council's
image of the pilgrim People of God. In both, the diversity is a variety of gifts
which is meant to enrich the one reality. The criterion for accepting both
members and works in a religious institute, therefore, is the building of unity
(cf. MR 12). The practical question is: do God's gifts in this person or project
or group make for unity and deepen communion? If they do, they can be welcomed.
if they do not, then no matter how good the gifts may seem to be in themselves
or how desirable they may appear to some members, they are not for this
particular institute. It is a mistake to try to make the founding gift of the
institute cover everything. A gift which would virtually separate a member from
the communion of the community cannot be rightly encouraged. Nor is it wise to
tolerate widely divergent lines of development which do not have a strong
foundation of unity in the institute itself. Diversity without division and
unity without regimentation are a richness and a challenge that help the growth
of communities of prayer, joy, and service in witness to the reality of Christ.
It is a particular responsibility of superiors and of those in charge of
formation to ensure that the differences which make for disintegration are not
mistaken for the genuine value of diversity.
23. When God consecrates a person, he gives a special gift to achieve his
own kind purposes: the reconciliation and salvation of the human race. He not
only chooses, sets apart, and dedicates the person to himself, but he engages
him or her in his own divine work. Consecration inevitably implies mission.
These are two facets of one reality. The choice of a person by God is for the
sake of others: the consecrated person is one who is sent to do the work of God
in the power of God. Jesus himself was clearly aware of this. Consecrated and
sent to bring the salvation of God, he was wholly dedicated to the Father in
adoration, love, and surrender, and totally given to the work of the Father,
which is the salvation of the world.
24. Religious, by their particular form of consecration, are necessarily
and deeply committed to the mission of Christ. Like him, they are called for
others: wholly turned in love to the Father and, by that very fact, entirely
given to Christ's saving service of their brothers and sisters. This is true of
religious life in all its forms. The life of cloistered contemplatives has its
own hidden, apostolic fruitfulness (cf. PC 7) and proclaims to all that God
exists and that God is love. Religious dedicated to works of the apostolate
continue in our time Christ "announcing God's Kingdom to the multitude,
healing the sick and the maimed, converting sinners to a good life, blessing
children, doing good to all, and always obeying the will of the Father who sent
him" (LG 46). This saving work of Christ is shared by means of concrete
services mandated by the Church in the approval of the constitutions. The fact
of this approval qualifies the kind of service undertaken, since it must be
faithful to the Gospel, to the Church, and to the institute. It also establishes
certain limits, since the mission of religious is both strengthened and
restricted by the consequences of consecration in a particular institute.
Further, the nature of religious service determines how the mission is to be
done: in a profound union with the Lord and sensitivity to the times which will
enable the religious "to transmit the message of the Incarnate Word in
terms which the world is able to understand" (ET 9).
25. Whatever may be the works of service by which the word is transmitted,
the mission itself is undertaken as a community responsibility. It is to the
institute as a whole that the Church commits that sharing in the mission of
Christ which characterizes it and which is expressed in works inspired by the
founding charism. This corporate mission does not mean that all the members of
the institute are doing the same thing or that the gifts and qualities of the
individual are not respected. It does mean that the works of all the members are
directly related to the common apostolate, which the Church has recognized as
expressing concretely the purpose of the institute. This common and constant
apostolate is part of the institute's sound traditions. It is so closely related
to identity that it cannot be changed without affecting the character of the
institute itself. It is therefore a touchstone of authenticity in the evaluation
of new works, whether these services will be done by a group or by individual
religious. The integrity of the common apostolate is a particular responsibility
of major superiors. They must see that the institute is at once faithful to its
traditional mission in the Church and open to new ways of undertaking it. Works
need to be renewed and revitalized, but this has to be done always in fidelity
to the institute's approved apostolate and in collaboration with the respective
ecclesiastical authorities. Such renewal will be marked by the four great
loyalties emphasized in the document, Religious and Human Promotion: "fidelity
to humanity and to our times; fidelity to Christ and the Gospel; fidelity to the
Church and its mission in the world; fidelity to religious life and to the
charism of the institute" (RHP 13).
26. The individual religious finds his or her personal apostolic work
within the ecclesial mission of the institute. Basically it will be a work of
evangelization: striving in the Church and according to the mission of the
institute to help bring the Good News to "all the strata of humanity and
through it to transform humanity itself from within" (EN 18; RHP Intro.).
In practice, it will involve some form of service in keeping with the purpose of
the institute and usually undertaken with brothers or sisters of the same
religious family. In the case of some clerical or missionary institutes, it may
sometimes involve working alone. In the case of other institutes, working alone
is with the permission of superiors to meet an exceptional need for a certain
time. At the end of life, the apostolate will be for many a mission of prayer
and suffering only. But at whatever stage, the apostolic work of the individual
is that of a religious sent in communion with an ecclesially missioned
institute. Such work has its source in religious obedience (cf. PC 8, 5c, 10).
Therefore, it is distinct in its character from those apostolates proper to the
laity (cf. RHP 22; AA 2, 7, 13, 25). It is by their obedience in their corporate
and ecclesial works of evangelization that religious manifest one of the most
important aspects of their lives. They are genuinely apostolic, not because they
have an "apostolate," but because they are living as the apostles
lived: following Christ in service and in communion according to the teaching of
the Gospel in the Church he founded.
27. There is no doubt that, in many areas of the world at the present time,
religious institutes dedicated to apostolic works are facing difficult and
delicate questions with respect to the apostolate. The reduced number of
religious, the fewer young persons entering, the rising median age, the social
pressures from contemporary movements are coinciding with an awareness of a
wider range of needs, a more individual approach to personal development, and a
higher level of awareness with regard to issues of justice, peace, and human
promotion. There is a temptation to want to do everything. There is also a
temptation to leave works which are stable and a genuine expression of the
institute's charism for others which seem more immediately relevant to social
needs but which are less expressive of the institute's identity. There is a
third temptation to scatter the resources of an institute in a diversity of
short-term activities only loosely connected with the founding gift. In all
these instances, the effects are not immediate but, in the long run, what will
suffer is the unity and identity of the institute itself, and this will be a
loss to the Church and to its mission.
4. Prayer
28. Religious life cannot be sustained without a deep life of prayer,
individual, communal, and liturgical. The religious who embraces concretely a
life of total consecration is called to know the risen Lord by a warm, personal
knowledge, and to know him as one with whom he or she is personally in
communion: "This is eternal life: to know the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom he has sent" (Jn 17:3). Knowledge of him in faith
brings love: "You did not see him, yet you love him; and still without
seeing him you are already filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be
described" (I Pet 1:8). This joy of love and knowledge is brought
about in many ways, but fundamentally, and as an essential and necessary means,
through individual and community encounter with God in prayer. This is where the
religious finds "the concentration of the heart on God" (CDm 1), which
unifies the whole of life and mission.
29. As with Jesus for whom prayer as a distinct act held a large and
essential place in life, the religious needs to pray as a deepening of union
with God (cf. Lk 5:16). Prayer is also a necessary condition for
proclaiming the Gospel (cf. Mk 1:35-38). It is the context of all
important decisions and events (cf. Lk 6:12-13). As with Jesus, too, the
habit of prayer is necessary if the religious is to have that contemplative
vision of things by which God is revealed in faith in the ordinary events of
life (cf. CDm 1). This is the contemplative dimension which the Church and the
world have the right to expect of religious by the fact of their consecration.
It must be strengthened by prolonged moments of time apart for exclusive
adoration of the Father, love of him and listening in silence before him. For
this reason, Paul VI insisted: "Faithfulness to daily prayer always remains
for each religious a basic necessity. Prayer must have a primary place in your
constitutions and in your lives" (ET 45).
30. By saying "in your constitutions," Paul VI gave a reminder
that for the religious prayer is not only a personal turning in love to God but
also a community response of adoration, intercession, praise, and thanksgiving
that needs to be provided for in a stable way (cf. ET 43). This does not happen
by chance. Concrete provisions at the level of each institute and of each
province and local community are necessary if prayer is to deepen and thrive in
religious life individually and communally. Yet only through prayer is the
religious ultimately able to respond to his or her consecration. Community
prayer has an important role in giving this necessary spiritual support. Each
religious has a right to be assisted by the presence and example of other
members of the community at prayer. Each has the privilege and duty of praying
with the others and of participating with them in the liturgy which is the
unifying center of their life. Such mutual help encourages the effort to live
the life of union with the Lord to which religious are called. "People have
to feel that through you someone else is at work. To the extent that you live
your total consecration to the Lord, you communicate something of him and,
ultimately, it is he for whom the human heart is longing" (Pope John Paul
II, Altötting).
5. Asceticism
31. The discipline and silence necessary for prayer are a reminder that
consecration by the vows of religion requires a certain asceticism of life "embracing
the whole being" (ET 46). Christ's response of poverty, love, and obedience
led him to the solitude of the desert, the pain of contradiction, and the
abandonment of the cross. The consecration of religious enters into this way of
his; it cannot be a reflection of his consecration if its expression in life
does not hold an element of self-denial. Religious life itself is an ongoing,
public, visible expression of Christian conversion. It calls for the leaving of
all things and the taking up of one's cross to follow Christ throughout the
whole of life. This involves the asceticism necessary to live in poverty of
spirit and of fact; to love as Christ loves; to give up one's own will for God's
sake to the will of another who represents him, however imperfectly. It calls
for the self-giving without which it is not possible to live either a good
community life or a fruitful mission. Jesus' statement that the grain of wheat
needs to fall to the ground and die if it is to bear fruit has a particular
application to religious because of the public nature of their profession. It is
true that much of today's penance is to be found in the circumstances of life
and should be accepted there. However, unless religious build into their lives "a
joyful, well-balanced austerity" (ET 30) and deliberately determined
renunciations, they risk losing the spiritual freedom necessary for living the
counsels. Indeed, without such austerity and renunciation, their consecration
itself can be affected. This is because there cannot be a public witness to
Christ poor, chaste, and obedient without asceticism. Moreover, by professing
the counsels by vows, religious undertake to do all that is necessary to deepen
and foster what they have vowed, and this means a free choice of the cross, that
it may be "as it was for Christ, proof of the greatest love" (ET 29).
6. Public witness
32. Of its nature, religious life is a witness that should clearly manifest
the primacy of the love of God and do so with a strength coming from the Holy
Spirit (cf. ET 1). Jesus himself did this supremely: witnessing to the Father "with
the power of the Spirit in him" (Lk 4:14) in his living, dying,
rising, and remaining for ever the faithful witness. In his turn he sent his
apostles in the power of the same Spirit to be his witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth (cf. Acts
1:8). The subject of their testimony was always the same: "Something which
has existed since the beginning, that we have heard, and we have seen with our
own eyes; that we have watched and touched with our hands: the Word, who is life"
(I Jn 1:1): Jesus Christ "the Son of God, proclaimed in all his
power through his resurrection from the dead" (Rm 1: 5).
33. Religious, too, in their own times, are called to bear witness to a
similar, deep, personal experience of Christ and also to share the faith, hope,
love and joy which that experience goes on inspiring. Their continuous
individual renewal of life should be a source of new growth in the institutes to
which they belong, recalling the words of Pope John Paul II: "What counts
most is not what religious do, but what they are as persons consecrated to the
Lord" (Message to the Plenary Assembly of the SCRIS, March 1980). Not only
directly in works of announcing the Gospel but even more forcefully in the very
way that they live, they should be voices that affirm with confidence and
conviction: We have seen the Lord. He is risen. We have heard his word.
34. The totality of religious consecration requires that the witness to the
Gospel be given publicly by the whole of life. Values, attitudes and life-style
attest forcefully to the place of Christ in one's life. The visibility of this
witness involves the foregoing of standards of comfort and convenience that
would otherwise be legitimate. It requires a restraint on forms of relaxation
and entertainment (cf. ES 1, §2; CD 33-35). To ensure this public witness,
religious willingly accept a pattern of life that is not permissive but largely
laid down for them. They wear a religious garb that distinguishes them as
consecrated persons, and they have a place of residence which is properly
established by their institute in accordance with common law and their own
constitutions. Such matters as travel and social contacts are in accord with the
spirit and character of their institute and with religious obedience. These
provisions alone do not ensure the desired public witness to the joy, hope, and
love of Jesus Christ, but they offer important means to it, and it is certain
that religious witness is not given without them.
35. The way of working, too, is important for public witness. What is done
and how it is done should both proclaim Christ from the poverty of someone who
is not seeking his or her own fulfillment and satisfaction. In our age
powerlessness is one of the great poverties. The religious accepts to share this
intimately by the generosity of his or her obedience, thereby becoming one with
the poor and powerless in a particular way, as Christ was in his Passion. Such a
person knows what it is to stand in need before God, to love as Jesus does, and
to work at God's plan on God's terms. Moreover, in fidelity to religious
consecration, he or she lives the institute's concrete provisions for promoting
these attitudes.
36. Fidelity to the mandated apostolate of one's own religious institute is
also essential for true witness. Individual dedication to perceived needs at the
expense of the mandated works of the institute can only be damaging. However,
there are ways of living and working which witness to Christ very clearly in the
contemporary situation. The constant evaluation of use of goods and of style of
relationships in one's own life is one of the religious' most effective ways of
promoting the justice of Christ at the present time (cf. RHP 4e). Being a voice
for those who are unable to speak for themselves is a further mode of religious
witness, when it is done in accordance with the directives of the local
hierarchy and the proper law of the institute. The drama of the refugees, of
those persecuted for political or religious beliefs (cf. EN 39), of those denied
the right to birth and life, of unjustified restrictions of human freedom, of
social inadequacy that causes suffering in the old, the sick, and the
marginalized: these are present continuations of the Passion which call
particularly to religious who are dedicated to apostolic works (cf. RHP 4d).
37. The response will vary according to the mission, tradition and identity
of each institute. Some may need to seek approval for new missions in the
Church. In other cases, new institutes may be recognized to meet specific needs.
In most cases, the creative use of well-established works to meet new challenges
will be a clear witness to Christ yesterday, today, and for ever. The witness of
religious who, in loyalty to the Church and to the tradition of their institute,
strive courageously and with love for the defense of human rights and for the
coming of the Kingdom in the social order can be a clear echo of the Gospel and
the voice of the Church (cf. RHP 3). It is so, however, to the extent that it
manifests publicly the transforming power of Christ in the Church and the
vitality of the institute's charism to the people of our time. Finally,
perseverance, which is a further gift of the God of the covenant, is the
unspoken but eloquent witness of the religious to the faithful God whose love is
without end.
7. Relation to the Church
38. Religious life has its own place in relation to the divine and
hierarchical structure of the Church. It is not a kind of intermediate way
between the clerical and lay conditions of life, but comes from both as a
special gift for the entire Church (cf. LG 43; MR 10). In particular, by being
an outward, social sign of the mystery of God's consecrating action throughout
life, and by being this through the mediation of the Church for the good of the
entire Body, the religious life in a special way participates in the sacramental
nature of the People of God. This is because it is itself a part of the Church
as mystery and as social reality, and it cannot exist without both these
aspects.
39. It was this dual reality that the Second Vatican Council underscored in
insisting on the sacramental nature of the Church: at once necessarily a
mystery, invisible, a divine communion in the new life of the Spirit; and
equally necessarily a social reality, visible, a human community under one who
represents Christ the head. As mystery (cf. LG 1), the Church is the new
creation, vivified by the Spirit and assembled in Christ to come with confidence
to the Father's throne of grace (cf. Heb 4:16). As social reality, she
presupposes the historical initiative of Jesus Christ, his paschal going to the
Father, his objective headship of the Church he founded and the hierarchic
character which proceeds from that headship: from his setting up of a variety of
ministries which aim at the good of the whole Body (cf. LG 18; cf. MR 1-5). The
twofold aspect of "visible social organism and invisible divine presence
intimately united" (MR 3) is what gives the Church "her special
sacramental nature by virtue of which she is the visible sacrament of saving
unity" (LG 9). She is both subject and object of faith essentially
transcending the parameters of any purely sociological perspective even while
she renews her human structures in the light of historical evolutions and
cultural changes (cf. MR 3). Her very nature makes her at once "universal
sacrament of salvation" (LG 48): a visible sign of the mystery of God, and
hierarchical reality: a concrete divine provision by which that sign can be
authenticated and made efficacious.
40. The religious life touches both aspects. The founders and foundresses
of religious institutes ask the hierarchical Church publicly to authenticate the
gift of God on which the existence of their institute depends. By doing so, the
founders and those who follow them also give witness to the mystery of the
Church, because each institute exists in order to build up the Body of Christ in
the unity of its diverse functions and activities.
41. In their origins, religious institutes depend in a unique way on the
hierarchy. The bishops in communion with the successor of Peter form a college
that jointly shows forth and carries out in the Church-sacrament the functions
of Christ the head (cf. MR 6; LG 21; PO 1, 2; CD 2). They have not only the
pastoral charge of fostering the life of Christ in the faithful, but also the
duty of verifying gifts and competencies. They are responsible for coordinating
the Church's energies and for guiding the entire people in living in the world
as a sign and instrument of salvation. They therefore have in a special way the
ministry of discernment with regard to the manifold gifts and initiatives among
God's people. As a particularly rich and important example of these manifold
gifts, each religious institute depends for the authentic discernment of its
founding charism on the God-given ministry of the hierarchy.
42. This relationship obtains not only for the first recognition of a
religious institute but also for its ongoing development. The Church does more
than bring an institute into being. She accompanies, guides, corrects, and
encourages it in its fidelity to its founding gift (cf. LG 45) for it is a
living element in her own life and growth. She receives the vows made in the
institute as vows of religion with ecclesial consequences, involving a
consecration made by God himself through her mediation (cf. MR 8). She gives to
the institute a public sharing in her own mission, both concrete and corporate
(cf. LG 17; AG 40). She confers on the institute, in accordance with her own
common law and with the constitutions that she has approved, the religious
authority necessary for the life of vowed obedience. In short, the Church
continues to mediate the consecratory action of God in a specific way ,
recognizing and fostering this particular form of consecrated life.
43. In daily practice, this ongoing relation of religious to the Church is
most often worked out at diocesan or local level. The document Mutuae
Relationes is entirely devoted to this theme from the point of view of
present-day application. Suffice it to say here that the life and mission of the
People of God are one. They are fostered by all according to the specific roles
and functions of each. The unique service rendered by religious to this life and
mission lies in the total and public nature of their vowed Christian living,
according to a community founding gift approved by ecclesiastical authority.
8. Formation
44. Religious formation fosters growth in the life of consecration to the
Lord from the earliest stages, when a person first becomes seriously interested
in undertaking it, to its final consummation, when the religious meets the Lord
definitively in death. The religious lives a particular form of life, and life
itself is in constant ongoing development. It does not stand still. Nor is the
religious simply called and consecrated once. The call of God and the
consecration by him continue throughout life, capable of growing and deepening
in ways beyond our understanding. The discernment of the capacity to live a life
that will foster this growth according to the spiritual patrimony and provisions
of a given institute, and the accompanying of the life itself in its personal
evolution in each member in community, are the two main facets of formation.
45. For each religious, formation is the process of becoming more and more
a disciple of Christ, growing in union with and in configuration to him. It is a
matter of taking on increasingly the mind of Christ, of sharing more deeply his
gift of himself to the Father and his brotherly service of the human family, and
of doing this according to the founding gift which mediates the Gospel to the
members of a given religious institute. Such a process requires a genuine
conversion. "Putting on Jesus Christ" (cf. Rm 13:14, Gal
3:27, Eph 4:24) implies the stripping off of selfishness and egoism (cf.
Eph 4:22-24, Col 3:9-10). The very fact of "walking
henceforth according to the Spirit" means giving up "the desires of
the flesh" (Gal 5:16). The religious professes to make this putting
on of Christ, in his poverty, his love, and his obedience, the essential pursuit
of life. It is a pursuit which never ends. There is a constant maturing in it,
and this reaches not only to spiritual values but also to those which contribute
psychologically, culturally, and socially to the fullness of the human
personality. As the religious grows toward the fullness of Christ according to
his or her state of life, there is a verification of the statement in Lumen
Gentium: "While the profession of the evangelical counsels involves
the renunciation of goods that undoubtedly deserve to be highly valued, it does
not constitute an obstacle to the true development of the human person, but by
its nature is extremely beneficial to that development" (LG 46).
46. The ongoing configuration to Christ comes about according to the
charism and provisions of the institute to which the religious belongs. Each has
its own spirit, character, purpose, and tradition, and it is in accordance with
these that the religious grow in their union with Christ. For religious
institutes dedicated to works of the apostolate, formation includes the
preparation and continual updating of the members to undertake the works proper
to their institute, not simply as professionals, but as "living witnesses
to love without limit and to the Lord Jesus" (ET 53). Accepted as a matter
of personal responsibility by each religious, formation becomes not only an
individual personal growth but also a blessing to the community and a source of
fruitful energy for the apostolate.
47. Since the initiative for religious consecration is in the call of God,
it follows that God himself, working through the Holy Spirit of Jesus, is the
first and principal agent in the formation of the religious. He acts through his
word and sacraments, through the prayer of the liturgy, the magisterium of the
Church and, more immediately, through those who are called in obedience to help
the formation of their brothers and sisters in a more special way. Responding
to God's grace and guidance, the religious accepts in love the responsibility
for personal formation and growth, welcoming the consequences of this response
which are unique to each person and always unpredictable. The response, however,
is not made in isolation. Following the tradition of the early fathers of the
desert and of all the great religious founders in the matter of provision for
spiritual guidance, religious institutes each have members who are particularly
qualified and appointed to help their sisters and brothers in this matter. Their
role varies according to the stage reached by the religious but its main
responsibilities are: discernment of God's action; the accompaniment of the
religious in the ways of God; the nourishing of life with solid doctrine and the
practice of prayer; and, particularly in the first stages, the evaluation of the
journey thus far made. The director of novices and the religious responsible for
those in first profession have also the task of verifying whether the young
religious have the call and capacity for first and for final profession. The
whole process, at whatever stage, takes place in community. A prayerful and
dedicated community, building its union in Christ and sharing his mission
together, is a natural milieu of formation. It will be faithful to the
traditions and constitutions of the institute, and be well inserted in the
institute as a whole, in the Church and in the society it serves. It. will
support its members and keep before them in faith during the whole of their
lives the goal and values which their consecration implies.
48. Formation is not achieved all at once. The journey from the first to
the final response falls broadly into five phases: the pre-novitiate, in which
the genuineness of the call is identified as far as possible; the novitiate,
which is initiation into a new form of life; first profession and the period of
maturing prior to perpetual profession; perpetual profession and the ongoing
formation of the mature years; and finally the time of diminishment, in whatever
way this comes, which is a preparation for the definitive meeting with the Lord.
Each of these phases has its own goal, content, and particular provisions. The
stages of novitiate and profession especially, because of their importance, are
carefully determined in their main lines by the Church in her common law. All
the same, much is left to the responsibility of individual institutes. These are
asked to give details concretely in their constitutions for a considerable
number of the provisions to which common law refers in principle.
9. Government
49. The government of apostolic religious, like all the other aspects of
their life, is based on faith and on the reality of their consecrated response
to God in community and mission. These women and men are members of religious
institutes whose structures reflect the Christian hierarchy of which the head is
Christ himself. They have chosen to live vowed obedience as a value in life.
They therefore require a form of government that expresses these values and a
particular form of religious authority. Such authority, which is particular to
religious institutes, does not derive from the members themselves. It is
conferred by the Church at the time of establishing each institute and by the
approving of its constitutions. It is an authority invested in superiors for the
duration of their term of service at general, intermediate, or local level. It
is to be exercised according to the norms of common and proper law in a spirit
of service, reverencing the human person of each religious as a child of God
(cf. PC 14), fostering cooperation for the good of the institute, but always
preserving the superior's final right of discerning and deciding what is to be
done (cf. ET 25). Strictly speaking, this religious authority is not shared. It
may be delegated according to the constitutions for particular purposes but it
is normally ex officio and is invested in the person of the superior.
50. Superiors do not exercise authority in isolation, however. Each must
have the assistance of a council whose members collaborate with the superior
according to norms that are constitutionally established. Councilors do not
exercise authority by right of office as superiors do, but they collaborate with
the superior and help by their consultative or deliberative vote according to
ecclesiastical law and the constitutions of the institute.
51. Supreme authority in an institute is also exercised, though in an
extraordinary manner, by a general chapter while it is in session. This again
is according to the constitutions, which should designate the authority of the
chapter in such a way that it is quite distinct from that of the superior
general. The general chapter is essentially an ad hoc body. It is
composed of ex officio members and elected delegates who ordinarily meet
together for one chapter only. As a sign of unity in charity, the celebration of
a general chapter should be a moment of grace and of the action of the Holy
Spirit in an institute. It should be a joyful, paschal, and ecclesial experience
which benefits the institute itself and also the whole Church. The general
chapter is meant to renew and protect the spiritual patrimony of the institute
as well as elect the highest superior and councilors, conduct major matters of
business, and issue norms for the whole institute. Chapters are of such
importance that the proper law of the institute has to determine accurately what
pertains to them whether at general or at other levels: that is, their nature,
authority, composition, mode of proceeding and frequency of celebration.
52. Conciliar and post-conciliar teaching insists on certain principles
with regard to religious government which have given rise to considerable
changes during the past twenty years. It laid down clearly the basic need for
effective, personal, religious authority at all levels, general, intermediate,
and local, if religious obedience is to be lived (cf. PC 14; ET 25). It further
underlined the need for consultation, for appropriate involvement of the members
in the government of the institute, for shared responsibility, and for
subsidiarity (cf. ES II, 18). Most of these principles have by now found their
way into revised constitutions. It is important that they be so understood and
implemented as to fulfill the purpose of religious government: the building of a
united community in Christ in which God is sought and loved before all things,
and the mission of Christ is generously accomplished.
Mary, joy and hope of religious life
53. It is especially in Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, that
religious life comes to understand itself most deeply and finds its sign of
certain hope (cf. LG 68). She, who was conceived immaculate because she was
called from among God's people to bear God himself most intimately and to give
him to the world, was consecrated totally by the overshadowing of the Holy
Spirit. She was the Ark of the new covenant itself. The handmaid of the Lord in
the poverty of the anawim, the Mother of fair love from Bethlehem to Calvary and
beyond, the obedient Virgin whose "yes" to God changed our history,
the missionary hurrying to Hebron, the one who was sensitive to needs at Cana,
the steadfast witness at the foot of the cross, the center of unity which held
the young Church together in its expectation of the Holy Spirit, Mary showed
throughout her life all those values to which religious consecration is
directed. She is the Mother of religious in being Mother of him who was
consecrated and sent, and in her fiat and magnificat religious
life finds the totality of its surrender to and the thrill of its joy in the
consecratory action of God.
III.
SOME FUNDAMENTAL NORMS
The revised Code of Canon Law transcribes into canonical norms the rich
conciliar and post-conciliar teaching of the Church on religious life. Together
with the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the pronouncements of
successive Popes in recent years, it gives the basis on which current Church
praxis regarding religious life is founded. The natural evolution necessary for
ordinary living will always continue, but the period of special experimentation
for religious institutes, as provided by the motu proprio Ecclesiae Sanctae
II, ended with the celebration of the second ordinary general chapter after the
special chapter of renewal. Now the revised Code of Canon Law is the Church's
juridical foundation for religious life, both in its evaluation of the
experience of experimentation and its looking to the future. The following
fundamental norms contain a comprehensive synthesis of the Church's provisions.
I. Call and consecration
§1. Religious life is a form of life to which some Christians, both
clerical and lay, are freely called by God so that they may enjoy a special gift
of grace in the life of the Church and may contribute each in his or her own way
to the saving mission of the Church (cf. LG 43).
§2. The gift of religious vocation is rooted in the gift of baptism but
is not given to all the baptized. It is freely given and unmerited: offered by
God to those whom he chooses freely from among his people and for the sake of
his people (cf. PC 5).
§3. In accepting God's gift of vocation, religious respond to a divine
call: dying to sin (cf. Rm 6:11), renouncing the world, and living for
God alone. Their whole lives are dedicated to his service and they seek and love
above all else "God who has first loved us" (cf. I Jn 4:10;
cf. PC 5, 6). The focus of their lives is the closer following of Christ (cf. ET
7).
§4. The dedication of the whole life of the religious to God's service
constitutes a special consecration (cf. PC 5). It is a consecration of the whole
person which manifests in the Church a marriage effected by God, a sign of the
future life. This consecration is by public vows, perpetual or temporary, the
latter renewable on expiry. By their vows, religious assume the observance of
the three evangelical counsels; they are consecrated to God through the ministry
of the Church (can. 607, 654), and they are incorporated into their institute
with the rights and duties defined by law.
§5. The conditions for validity of temporary profession, the length of
this period and its possible extension are determined in the constitutions of
each institute, always in conformity with the common law of the Church (can.
655-658).
§6. Religious profession is made according to the formula of vows
approved by the Holy See for each institute. The formula is common because all
members undertake the same obligations and, when fully incorporated, have the
same rights and duties. The individual religious may add an introduction and/or
conclusion, if this is approved by competent authority.
§7. Considering its character and the ends proper to it. every
institute should define in its constitutions the way in which the evangelical
counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience are to be observed in its own
particular way of life (can. 598.1).
II. Community
§8. Community life, which is one of the marks of a religious institute
(can. 607.2), is proper to each religious family. It gathers all the members
together in Christ and should be so defined that it becomes a source of mutual
aid to all, while helping to fulfill the religious vocation of each (can. 602).
It should offer an example of reconciliation in Christ, and of the communion
that is rooted and founded in his love.
§9. For religious, community life is lived in a house lawfully erected
under the authority of a superior designated by law (can. 608). Such a house is
erected with the written approval of the diocesan bishop (can. 609) and should
be able to provide suitably for the necessities of its members (can. 610.2),
enabling community life to expand and develop with that understanding cordiality
which nourishes hope (cf. ET 39).
§10. The individual house should have at least an oratory in which the
Eucharist may be celebrated and is reserved so that it is truly the center of
the community (can. 608).
§11. In all religious houses according to the character and mission of
the institute and according to the specifications of its proper law, some part
should be reserved to the members alone (can. 667.1). This form of separation
from the world, which is proper to the purpose of each institute, is part of the
public witness which religious give to Christ and to the Church (cf. can.
607.3). It is also needed for the silence and recollection which foster prayer.
§12. Religious should live in their own religious house, observing a
common life. They should not live alone without serious reason, and should not
do so if there is a community of their institute reasonably near. If, however,
there is a question of prolonged absence, the major superior with the consent of
his or her council, may permit a religious to live outside the houses of the
institute for a just cause, within the limits of common law (can. 665.1).
III. Identity
§13. Religious should regard the following of Christ proposed in the
Gospel and expressed in the constitutions of their institute as the supreme rule
of life (can. 662).
§14. The nature, end, spirit, and character of the institute, as
established by the founder or foundress and approved by the Church, should be
preserved by all, together with the institute's sound traditions (can. 578).
§15. To safeguard the proper vocation and identity of the individual
institutes, the constitutions of each must provide fundamental norms concerning
the government of the institute, the rule of life for its members, their
incorporation and formation, and the proper object of the vows (can. 587). This
is in addition to the matters referred to in III §14.
§16. The constitutions are approved by competent ecclesiastical
authority. For diocesan institutes, this is the local Ordinary; for pontifical
institutes; the Holy See. Subsequent modifications and authentic interpretations
are also reserved to the same authority (can. 576, 587.2).
§17. By their religious profession, the members of an institute bind
themselves to observe the constitutions faithfully and with love, for they
recognize in them the way of life approved by the Church for the institute and
the authentic expression of its spirit, tradition, and law.
IV. Chastity
§18. The evangelical counsel of chastity embraced for the Kingdom of
heaven is a sign of the future life and a source of abundant fruitfulness in an
undivided heart. It carries with it the obligation of perfect continence in
celibacy (can. 599).
§19. Discretion should be used in all things that could be dangerous to
the chastity of a consecrated person (cf. PC 12; can. 666).
V. Poverty
§20. The evangelical counsel of poverty in imitation of Christ calls
for a life poor in fact and in spirit, subject to work and led in frugality and
detachment from material possessions. Its profession by vow for the religious
involves dependence and limitation in the use and disposition of temporalities
according to the norms of the proper law of the institute (can. 600).
§21. By the vow of poverty, religious give up the free use and disposal
of goods having material value. Before first profession, they cede the
administration of their goods to whomsoever they wish and, unless the
constitutions determine otherwise, they freely dispose of their use and usufruct
(can. 668). Whatever the religious acquires by personal industry, by gift, or as
a religious, is acquired for the institute; whatever is acquired by way of
pension, subsidy, or insurance is also acquired for the institute unless the
proper law states otherwise (can. 668.3).
VI. Obedience
§22. The evangelical counsel of obedience, lived in faith, is a loving
following of Christ who was obedient unto death.
§23. By their vow of obedience, religious undertake to submit their
will to legitimate superiors (can. 601) according to the constitutions. The
constitutions themselves state who may give a formal command of obedience and in
what circumstances.
§24. Religious institutes are subject to the supreme authority of the
Church in a particular manner (can. 590.1). All religious are obliged to obey
the Holy Father as their highest superior in virtue of the vow of obedience
(can. 590.2).
§25. Religious may not accept duties and offices outside their own
institute without the permission of a lawful superior (can. 671). Like clerics,
they may not accept public offices which involve the exercise of civil power
(can. 285.3; cf. also can. 672 with the additional canons to which it refers).
VII. Prayer and asceticism
§26. The first and principal duty of religious is assiduous union with
God in prayer. They participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice daily insofar as
possible and approach the sacrament of penance frequently. The reading of Sacred
Scripture, time for mental prayer, the worthy celebration of the liturgy of the
hours according to the prescriptions of proper law, devotion to the Blessed
Virgin, and a special time for annual retreat are all part of the prayer of
religious (can. 663, 664, 1174).
§27. Prayer should be both individual and communitarian.
§28. A generous asceticism is constantly needed for daily conversion to
the Gospel (cf. Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution Paenitemini, 17 February
1966, II-III, 1, c). For this reason, religious communities must not only be
prayerful groups but also ascetical communities in the Church. In addition to
being internal and personal, penance must also be external and communal (cf. CDm
14; cf. SC 110).
VIII. Apostolate
§29. The apostolate of all religious consists first in the witness of
their consecrated life which they are bound to foster by prayer and penance
(can. 673).
§30. In institutes dedicated to works of the apostolate, apostolic
action is of their very nature. The life of the members should be imbued with an
apostolic spirit, and all apostolic activity should be imbued with the religious
spirit (can. 675.1).
§31. The essential mission of those religious undertaking apostolic
works is the proclaiming of the word of God to those whom he places along their
path, so as to lead them towards faith. Such a grace requires a profound union
with the Lord, one which enables the religious to transmit the message of the
Incarnate Word in terms which today's world is able to understand (cf. ET 9).
§32. Apostolic action is carried out in communion with the Church, and
in the name and by the mandate of the Church (can. 675.3).
§33. Superiors and members should faithfully retain the mission and
works proper to the institute. They should accommodate them with prudence to the
needs of times and places (can. 677.1).
§34. In apostolic relations with bishops, religious are bound by canons
678-683. They have the special obligation of being attentive to the magisterium
of the hierarchy and of facilitating for the bishops the exercise of the
ministry of teaching, and witnessing authentically to divine truth (cf. MR 33;
cf. LG 25).
IX. Witness
§35. The witness of religious is public. This public witness to Christ
and to the Church implies separation from the world according to the character
and purpose of each institute (can. 607.3).
§36. Religious institutes should strive to render a quasi-collective
witness of charity and poverty (can. 640).
§37. Religious should wear the religious garb of the institute,
described in their proper law, as a sign of consecration and a witness of
poverty (can. 669.1).
X. Formation
§38. No one may be admitted to religious life without suitable
preparation (can. 597.3).
§39. Conditions for validity of admission, for validity of novitiate,
and for temporary and perpetual profession are indicated in the common law of
the Church and the proper law of each institute (can. 641-658). So also are
provisions for the place, time, program and guidance of the novitiate and the
requirements for the director of novices.
§40. The length of time of formation between first and perpetual vows
is stated in the constitutions in accordance with common law (can. 655).
§41. Throughout their entire life, religious should continue their
spiritual, doctrinal and practical formation, taking advantage of the
opportunities and time provided by superiors for this (can. 661).
XI. Government
§42. It belongs to the competent ecclesiastical authority to constitute
stable forms of living by canonical approval (can. 576). To this authority are
also reserved aggregations (can. 580) and the approval of constitutions (can.
587.2). Mergers, unions, federations, confederations, suppressions, and the
changing of anything already approved by the Holy See, are reserved to that See
(can. 582-584).
§43. Authority to govern in religious institutes is invested in
superiors who should exercise it according to the norms of common and proper law
(can. 617). This authority is received from God through the ministry of the
Church (can. 618). The authority of a superior at whatever level is personal and
may not be taken over by a group. For a particular time and for a given purpose,
it may be delegated to a designated person.
§44. Superiors should fulfill their office generously, building with
their brothers or sisters a community in Christ in which God is sought and loved
before everything. In their role of service, superiors have the particular duty
of governing in accordance with the constitutions of their institute and of
promoting the holiness of its members. In their person, superiors should be
examples of fidelity to the magisterium of the Church and to the law and
tradition of their institute. They should also foster the consecrated lives of
their religious by their care and correction, their support and their patience
(cf. can. 619).
§45. Conditions for appointment or election, the length of term of
office for the various superiors, and the mode of canonical election for the
superior general are stated in the constitutions according to common law (can.
623-625).
§46. Superiors must each have their own council, which assists them in
fulfilling their responsibility. In addition to cases prescribed in the common
law, proper law determines those cases in which the superior must obtain the
consent or the advice of the council for validity of action (can. 627.1 and
627.2).
§47. The general chapter should be a true sign of the unity in charity
of the institute. It represents the entire institute and when in session
exercises supreme authority in accordance with common law and the norms of the
constitutions (can. 631). The general chapter is not a permanent body; its
composition, frequency, and functions are stated in the constitutions (can.
631.2). A general chapter may not modify its own composition but it may propose
modifications for the composition of future chapters. Such modifications require
the approval of the competent ecclesiastical authority. The general chapter may
modify those elements of proper law which are not subject to the authority of
the Church.
§48. Chapters should not be convoked so frequently as to interfere with
the good functioning of the ordinary authority of the major superior. The
nature, authority, composition, mode of procedure and frequency of meeting of
chapters and of similar assemblies of the institute are determined exactly by
proper law (can. 632). In practice, the main elements of these should be in the
constitutions.
§49. Provision for temporal goods (can. 634-640) and their
administration as well as norms concerning the separation of members from the
institute by transfer, departure, or dismissal (can. 684-704) are also found in
the common law of the Church and must be included, even if only in brief, in the
constitutions.
CONCLUSION
These norms, based on traditional teaching, the revised Code of Canon Law
and current praxis, do not exhaust the Church's provision for religious life.
They indicate, however, her genuine concern that the life lived by institutes
dedicated to works of the apostolate should develop ever more richly as a gift
of God to the Church and to the human family. In drawing up this text, which the
Holy Father has approved, the Sacred Congregation for Religious and for Secular
Institutes wishes to help those institutes to assimilate the Church's revised
provision for them and to put it in its doctrinal context. May they find in it a
firm encouragement to the closer following of Christ in hope and joy in their
consecrated lives.
From the Vatican, on the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, 31 May 1983.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
I. THE RELIGIOUS LIFE: A PARTICULAR FORM OF CONSECRATION TO GOD
II. CHARACTERISTICS
- Consecration by public vows
- Communion in community
- Evangelical mission
- Prayer
- Asceticism
- Public witness
- Relation to the Church
- Formation
- Government
Mary, joy and hope of religious life
III. SOME FUNDAMENTAL NORMS
CONCLUSION
ABBREVIATIONS
AA Apostolicam Actuositatem
AG Ad Gentes
CD Christus Dominus
CDm The Contemplative Dimension of Religious Life
EN Evangelii Nuntiandi
ES Ecclesiae Sanctae
ET Evangelica Testificatio
LG Lumen Gentium
MR Mutuae Relationes
OT Optatam Totius
PC Perfectae Caritatis
RHP Religious and Human Promotion
SC Sacrosanctum Concilium
|