Religious institute
Part of a series on the |
Canon law of the Catholic Church |
---|
Catholicism portal |
In the Catholic Church, "A religious institute is a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, and lead a life of brothers or sisters in common."[1]
A religious institute is one of the two types of
Description
A member of a religious institute lives in community with other members of the institute and observes the three evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience, which they bind themselves to observe by public vows.[2]
Classification
Since every religious institute has its own unique
Other religious institutes have apostolates that wherein their members interact with the secular world, such as in teaching, healthcare, social work, while maintaining their distinctiveness in
Religious orders are discerned as:
- monastic made up of monks or nuns (some of whom may be clerics) or nuns who are bound to live and work at their monastery and celebrate the Liturgy of the Hoursin common
- mendicant made up of friars (some of whom may be clerics) who, while living and praying in common, may have a more active apostolate, and depend on alms for their support
- canons regularmade up of canons (clerics) and canonesses regular, who sing the liturgy in choir and may run parish-like apostolates
- clerics regularmade up of priests who are also vowed religious and who usually have a more active apostolate
In each instance, the term "regular" means those following a rule; either a pre-existing one such as the Rule of Saint Augustine or the Rule of St Basil, etc. or one composed by the founder, which generally incorporates aspects of earlier, traditional rules such as those mentioned or the Rule of Saint Benedict.
Terminology
- Traditionally, institutes for men are referred to as the "first orders".
- Those of women as the second orders.
- Some religious orders, for example the Franciscans or the Dominicans, have Third orders.
- Associated members who live in community and follow a rule are called "Third order religious" . Various religious congregations are tertiaries-
- Members who, without living in formal community, have made a private vow or promise, such as of perseverance in pious life. They are often called Third order secular.
In common parlance, all members of male religious institutes are often termed
The term nun was in the
Historically, what are now called religious institutes were distinguished as either religious orders, whose members make solemn vows, or religious congregations, whose members make simple vows. Since the 1983 Code of Canon Law, only the term religious institute is used,[6] while the distinction between solemn and simple vows is still maintained.[7]
Admission and religious vows
Admittance to a religious institute is regulated by the requirements canon law states. Religious profession can be temporary or perpetual: "Temporary profession is to be made for the period defined by the institute's own law. This period may not be less than three years nor longer than six years."[8]
Broadly speaking, after a period spanning postulancy, and novitiate and while in temporary vows to test their vocation with a particular institute, members wishing to be admitted permanently are required to make public and perpetual vows.
A vow is classified as public if a legitimate superior accepts it in the name of the church, as happens when one joins a religious institute. In making their religious profession, the members are "incorporated into the institute, with the rights and duties defined by law", and "through the ministry of the Church they are consecrated to God".[9]
Typically, members of religious institutes either take vows of evangelical chastity, poverty, and obedience (the "Evangelical Counsels") to lead a life in imitation of Christ Jesus, or, those following the Rule of Saint Benedict, the vows of obedience, stability (that is, to remain with this particular community until death and not seek to move to another), and "conversion of life" which implicitly includes the counsels of chastity and evangelical poverty.[10] Some institutes take additional vows (a "fourth vow" is typical), specifying some particular work or defining condition of their way of life (e.g., the Jesuit vow to undertake any mission upon which they are sent by the pope; the Missionaries of Charity vow to serve always the poorest of the poor).
The traditional distinction between simple and solemn vows no longer has any juridical effect. Solemn vows once meant those taken in what was called a religious order. "Today, in order to know when a vow is solemn it will be necessary to refer to the proper law of the institutes of consecrated life."[11]
Should the members want to leave the institute after perpetual vows, they would have to seek a papal indult of dispensation. The benefits of the profession are of a spiritual nature.[12]
Daily living in religious institutes is regulated by canon law as well as the particular rule they have adopted and their own constitutions and customs. Their respective timetables ("
Religious rules, constitutions and statutes
Religious institutes generally follow one of the four great religious rules:
Some institutes combine a rule with constitutions that give more precise indications for the life of the members. Thus the Capuchin Constitutions of 1536 are added to the Rule of Saint Francis.[16] In addition to the more fundamental provisions of the rule or constitutions, religious institutes have statutes that are more easily subject to change.[17]
Foundation and approval
Religious institutes normally begin as an association formed, with the consent of the diocesan bishop, for the purpose of becoming a religious institute. After time has provided proof of the rectitude, seriousness and durability of the new association, the bishop, having obtained permission of the Holy See, may formally set it up as a religious institute under his own jurisdiction. Later, when it has grown in numbers, perhaps extending also into other dioceses, and further proved its worth, the Holy See may grant it formal approval, bringing it under the Holy See's responsibility, rather than that of the Bishops of the dioceses where it is present.[18] For the good of such institutes and to provide for the needs of their apostolate, the Holy See may exempt them from the governance of the local Bishops, bringing them entirely under the authority of the Holy See itself or of someone else.[19] In some respects, for example public liturgical practice, they always remain under the local bishop's supervision.
History
First millennium
Roots in Egypt and Syriac- and Greek-speaking East
From the earliest times there were probably individual hermits who lived a life in isolation in imitation of Jesus' 40 days in the desert. They have left no confirmed archaeological traces and only hints in the written record. Communities of virgins who had consecrated themselves to Christ are found at least as far back as the 2nd century.[20] There were also individual ascetics, known as the "devout", who usually lived not in the deserts but on the edge of inhabited places, still remaining in the world but practicing asceticism and striving for union with God, although extreme ascetism such as encratism was regarded as suspect by the Church.[21]
The Greeks (e.g. St
Gaul
The earliest forms of monasticism in Western Europe involved figures such as
Italy
The anonymous Rule of the Master (Regula magistri), was written somewhere south of Rome around 500. The rule adds administrative elements not found in earlier rules, defining the activities of the monastery, its officers, and their responsibilities in great detail. One of the writings that influenced the Master was Saint Augustine's Letter 211, which was sent to a community of women in the city of Hippo governed by his sister. Augustine's writings were well known in the West in the sixth century (though unknown in the East until several centuries later) and his texts on religious or monastic life were considered standard.[25]
Ireland
The earliest Monastic settlements in Ireland emerged at the end of the 5th century. The first identifiable founder of a monastery was Saint Brigid of Kildare, who ranked with Saint Patrick as a major figure of the Irish church. The monastery at Kildare was a double monastery, with both men and women ruled by the Abbess, a pattern found in many other monastic foundations.[27]
Commonly, Irish monasteries were established by grants of land to an abbot or abbess, who came from a local noble family. The monastery became the spiritual focus of the tribe or kin group. Irish monastic rules specify a stern life of prayer and discipline in which prayer, poverty, and obedience are the central themes. However Irish monks read even secular Latin texts with an enthusiasm that their contemporaries on the continent lacked. By the end of the 7th century, Irish monastic schools were attracting students from England and from Europe.
Irish monasticism spread widely, first to
Developments around 1100
A monastic revival already begun in the 10th century with the
13th century
The 13th century saw the founding and rapid spread of the
16th century and later
By the constitution Inter cetera of 20 January 1521,
.A special case happened in 1540.
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
20th century
The 1917 Code of Canon Law reserved the name "religious order" for institutes in which the vows were solemn, and used the term "religious congregation" or simply "congregation" for those with simple vows. The members of a religious order for men were called "regulars", those belonging to a religious congregation were simply "religious", a term that applied also to regulars. For women, those with simple vows were simply "sisters", with the term "nun" reserved in canon law for those who belonged to an institute of solemn vows, even if in some localities they were allowed to take simple vows instead.[4]
The same Code also abolished the distinction according to which solemn vows, unlike simple vows, were indissoluble. It recognized no totally indispensable religious vows and thereby abrogated for the Latin Church the special consecration that distinguished "orders" (institutes with solemn vows) from "congregations" (institutes with simple vows), while keeping some juridical distinctions between the two classes. Even these remaining juridical distinctions were abolished by the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which distinguishes solemn from simple vows but does not divide religious into categories on that basis.
By then a new form of institutes of consecrated life had emerged alongside that of religious institutes: in 1947 Pope Pius XII recognized secular institutes as a form in which Christians profess the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience while living in the world.[38]
Life-span
In 1972, the French
See also
- List of Catholic religious institutes
- Religious order (Catholic)
- Society of apostolic life
- Vocational discernment in the Catholic Church
References
- ^ "Code of Canon Law, Title II, Can. 607 §2". Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
- ^ ""Religious Institutes", Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life". Archived from the original on 2020-02-26. Retrieved 2020-03-15.
- ^ Code of Canon Law, canon 667
- ^ a b "CIC 1917: text - IntraText CT". www.intratext.com. Archived from the original on 2019-05-15. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
- ^ "Code of Canon Law: Table of Contents". www.vatican.va. Archived from the original on 2021-08-22. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
- ^ "Code of Canon Law: Table of Contents". www.vatican.va. Archived from the original on 2021-08-22. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
- ISBN 2-891272-32-3), p. 745
- ^ "Code of Canon Law, canon 655". Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2011-10-12.
- ^ "Jerome Card. Hamer, Prefect. Directives on Formation in Religious Institutes, Chapter I, "Religious Profession: An Act of the Church which Consecrates and Incorporates", Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, 2 February 1990". Archived from the original on 7 March 2023. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
- ^ "Order of Saint Benedict". Saint John's Abbey. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
- ISBN 2-89127-232-3), p. 745
- ^ cf. Dom Columba Marmion, Christ the Ideal of the Monk, ch. VI.
- ^ a b c Vermeerschl, Arthur (1911). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. .
- ^ "Catholic Encyclopedia Entry of "The Carmelite Order"". Archived from the original on 2020-04-20. Retrieved 2023-02-20.
- ^ "St. Ignatius of Loyola - Ordination | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Archived from the original on 2023-02-17. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
- ^ "C.F.R. Constitutions". 2012-04-05. Archived from the original on 2012-04-05. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
- ^ "Canonical Content of the Proper Law of an Institute". www.jgray.org. Archived from the original on 2022-05-17. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
- ^ "Code of Canon Law: Table of Contents". www.vatican.va. Archived from the original on 2021-08-22. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
- ^ "Code of Canon Law: Table of Contents". www.vatican.va. Archived from the original on 2021-08-22. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
- ISBN 978-0-664-25546-6.
- ^ 1 Timothy 4:1–5
- ISBN 978-977-416-311-1.
- ^ Hassett, Maurice. "John Cassian." The Catholic Encyclopedia Archived 2011-04-24 at the Wayback Machine Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 7 March 2023 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "Staley, Tony. "So long ago, but not really", The Compass News, Archidiocese of Green Bay, January 12, 2001". Archived from the original on 2023-03-08. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
- ^ Fortin OSB, John R., "Saint Augustine's Letter 211 in The Rule of the Master and The Rule of Saint Benedict", Journal of Early Christian Studies, vol. 14, No.2, Summer 2006, pp.225-234
- ISBN 978-0-495-57360-9), vol. 1, p. 298
- ^ Grattan-Flood, William. "St. Brigid of Ireland." The Catholic Encyclopedia Archived 2023-03-06 at the Wayback Machine Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 7 March 2023 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Walsh, Reginald. "Abbey and Diocese of Bobbio." The Catholic Encyclopedia Archived 2023-02-19 at the Wayback Machine Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Philip Hughes, A History of the Church (Sheed and Ward 1935), vol. 2, pp. 206-207
- ^ Hughes 1935, pp. 258-266
- ^ a b "Religious Orders - Historical Development". www.globalsecurity.org. Archived from the original on 2022-12-06. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
- ^ "Mendicant | Definition, History, Orders, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Archived from the original on 2022-12-19. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
- ISBN 978-0-521-77007-1), p. 105
- ^ Pope Leo XIII's Constitution "Conditae a Christo", 8 December 1900
- ISBN 978-0-86012-006-3.
- ^ Quanto fructuosius (1-2-1583) and Ascendente Domino (5-24-1584).
- ^ History of Religious Life, Vol. 3, Jesús Álvarez Gómez, CMF, 1990 (Spanish)
- ^ "Code of Canon Law: Table of Contents". www.vatican.va. Archived from the original on 2021-08-22. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
- ^ Giancarlo Rocca, "Il ciclo della vita: Qual è la durata di un istituto religioso?" in L'Osservatore Romano, 12 March 2015, p. 7]
External links
- The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
- Lumen gentium, Chapter VI: Religious
- Perfectae Caritatis
- Code of Canon Law
- Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
- Differences Between Religious Orders (gone) A comparison of the religious orders
- Institute on Religious Life