Cathal BarryCathal Barry takes a look at Church’s principles for the reform of religious life
Despite the challenges, consecrated men and women are determined to play a vital role in helping to “keep the Gospel alive” here, The Irish Catholic reported during the summer.
While many communities are facing dwindling numbers, Fr Peter Rodgers head of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori), said he is confident that religious life can help “reawaken” the Church in Ireland.
His comments came after the Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Religious urged Ireland’s priests, brothers and nuns to set an example for others by living out the Gospel message.
On first visit to Ireland, Brazilian Cardinal João Braz de Aviz called on Irish consecrated men and women to be “an example for other Christians of how one can live the radical choice of God and of the Gospel, not alone but in communion”.
The upbeat message comes ahead of a special year-long focus on consecrated life called for by Pope Francis, who asked the Church’s religious sisters, brothers and priests to “wake up the world” with their testimony of faith.
The Pope’s emotive phrase is certainly a rallying call to religious for a renewal of their way of life. Such reform has been needed for some time now, first highlighted some 50 years ago during the Second Vatican Council.
In its Decree on the Adaption and Renewal of Religious Life, Perfectae Caritatis, the council “intendsto treat of the life and discipline of those institutes whose members make profession of chastity, poverty and obedience and to provide for their needs in our time”.
Later in the text, the conciliar fathers lay out several principles for the renewal and adaptationof the religious life which they maintain should include “both the constant return to the sources of all Christian life and to the original spirit of the institutes and their adaptation to the changed conditions of our time”.
This renewal, the document decrees, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Church, must be advanced according to the following principles:
a) Since the ultimate norm of the religious life is the following of Christ set forth in the Gospels, let this be held by all institutes as the highest rule.
b) It redounds to the good of the Church that institutes have their own particular characteristics and work. Therefore let their founders' spirit and special aims they set before them as well as their sound traditions-all of which make up the patrimony of each institute-be faithfully held in honour.
c) All institutes should share in the life of the Church, adapting as their own and implementing in accordance with their own characteristics the Church's undertakings and aims in matters biblical, liturgical, dogmatic, pastoral, ecumenical, missionary and social.
d) Institutes should promote among their members an adequate knowledge of the social conditions of the times they live in and of the needs of the Church. In such a way, judging current events wisely in the light of faith and burning with apostolic zeal, they may be able to assist men more effectively.
e) The purpose of the religious life is to help the members follow Christ and be united to God through the profession of the evangelical counsels. It should be constantly kept in mind, therefore, that even the best adjustments made in accordance with the needs of our age will be ineffectual unless they are animated by a renewal of spirit. This must take precedence over even the active ministry.
The conciliar fathers also make it clear that the manner of living, praying and working should be suitably adapted everywhere to the modern physical and psychological circumstances of the members and also, as required by the nature of each institute, to the necessities of the apostolate, the demands of culture, and social and economic circumstances.
They also call for the manner of governing the institutes to be examined according to the same criteria, and note the need for all constitutions, directories, custom books, books of prayers and ceremonies to be suitably re-edited and, obsolete laws being suppressed, to be adapted to the decrees of the sacred synod.
The decree recognises that an effective renewal and adaptation “demands the cooperation of all the members of the institute”.
However, to establish the norms of adaptation and renewal, to embody it in legislation as well as to make allowance for adequate and prudent experimentation “belongs only to the competent authorities, especially to general chapters,” it says.
The document clearly states that the approval of the Holy See or of the local Ordinary must be obtained where necessary according to law. However, it notes that superiors should “take counsel in an appropriate way and hear the members of the order in those things which concern the future well-being of the whole institute”.
For the adaptation and renewal of convents of nuns, “suggestions and advice may be obtained also from the meetings of federations or from other assemblies lawfully convoked”.
Nevertheless, “everyone should keep in mind that the hope of renewal lies more in the faithful observance of the rules and constitutions than in multiplying laws,” the document states.
Another Vatican II document that deals with religious is, Lumen Gentium, the dogmatic constitution on the Church.
Here the council encourages and praises the men and women, Brothers and Sisters, who in monasteries, or in schools and hospitals, or in the missions, “adorn the Bride of Christ by their unswerving and humble faithfulness in their chosen consecration and render generous services of all kinds to mankind”.
It concludes: “Let each of the faithful called to the profession of the evangelical counsels, therefore, carefully see to it that he persevere and ever grow in that vocation God has given him. Let him do this for the increased holiness of the Church, for the greater glory of the one and undivided Trinity, which in and through Christ is the fount and the source of all holiness.”