The evolution of new forms of consecrated life

• Published in: Studia canonica Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 463 - 486
• Main Author: CASEY, Maria
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ottawa, ON Université Saint-Paul, Faculté de droit canonique 01.07.2002; Studia Canonica
• Subjects: 19th-20th century; Catholic church; Christianity; Communities. Monachism; History; History and sciences of religions; Modern period; Religious organizations; Desert Fathers; Hermit; Hospitallers; Monasticism; Military order; History of Church; Consecrated life; Institute of consecrated life; Mendicant order; Vatican Council II; Templars
• ISSN: 0039-310X

The flowering of the gifts of the Spirit has given rise to "new forms" of consecrated life down through the centuries and continues to do so to-day, as individuals are called and respond in appropriate ways to the exigencies of their times. They concretise their response to God and to the promoting of his Kingdom in a form of life which expresses it and favours it.(12) The 1983 Code recognises religious institutes, secular institutes, hermits and consecrated virgins as the "forms" of consecrated life currently approved by the Church authority.(13) Thus, "consecrated life" could be regarded as the genus and the others as species. However, in the lineamenta for the 1994 Synod of Bishops: IX Ordinary General Assembly, the concept of "form" includes what we could call sub-species of religious institutes. In quoting the decree, Perfectae caritatis,(14) the authors of the lineamenta refer to "many forms of consecrated life" including "institutes of canonical and monastic life, the mendicant orders, lay institutes and secular institutes (PC, 7-11)," (L, 18). The lineamenta continues to assert that The canonical status of consecrated life was further examined during the Second Vatican Council where the most significant pronouncement came in Chapter Six of Lumen gentium. This chapter definitively sets consecrated life(73) in the context of the Church and, consequently, in a relationship to the world. Neither exists in a vacuum but in a sociocultural setting with all its relationships, privileges, problems, questions and challenges. Lumen gentium 43 situates consecrated life precisely as a structure in the Church with its "own place in relation to the divine and hierarchical structure of the Church."(74) However, LG 44 stresses that, while consecrated life does not enter into the hierarchical structure of the Church, it belongs undeniably to its life and holiness.(75) It is an intimate part of the mystery of the Church (PC, 1), and has been part of it since the beginning, following the example of Christ. While the different forms of consecrated life have their origins in history, consecrated life as such had its origins with the Lord.(76) This tracing of the origins to the Lord is reiterated in PC, 1. Thus consecrated life, which the Church, by virtue of its authority, gladly accepted and approved (PC, 1), will always be present in the Church even if different institutes, or even different forms, come and go. (5) [B. Secondin], "La theologie de la vie consacree," in Vie consacree, 66 (1994), p. 240. "Il s'agit d'une radicalisation de la consecration baptismale, destinee a en tirer des fruits encore plus grands de conversion permanente et de sequela significative," p. 240. See J. AUBRY, "La consacrazione nella vita religiosa," in AA. VV., La teologia della vita consacrata, Roma, Centro Studi USMI-Roma, 1990, pp. 99-100. See also E. GAMBARI, Religious Life: According to Vatican II and the New Code of Canon Law, English translation, Daughters of St Paul, Boston, St Paul Editions, 1986, p. 92, where he says that religious consecration "drives its roots into the baptismal consecration and is its most precious fruit in the sense that it is a development or maturation of this consecration to which not all the faithful are called. Religious consecration is the continuation or fuller expression of that of Baptism" (p. 92). Another school of thought believes that the consecration through the vows is a new consecration different from that of baptism. M. PASINI, "[Vita] consacrata e consigli evangelici (II): La distinzione tra "consacrazione" e "professione," in Commentarium pro religiosis, 77 (1996), p. 349, footnote 10, where the author summarises very briefly the opinions of P.R. Regamey, J. Galot, J. Beyer and P. Molinari. See also COUNCIL OF THE GENERAL SECRETARIAT OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS, De vita consecrata deque eius munere in [Ecclesia] et in mundo: Instrumentum laboris, (= IL), Roma, Libreria editrice Vaticana; English translation, The Consecrated Life and Its Role in the Church and in the World, Instrumentum laboris, Ottawa, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1994, n. 50. Here is summarised and reinforced the Council's understanding of consecration in consecrated life in relation to baptismal consecration and its demands. See too [John Paul II], Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita consecrata, (= VC), 25 March 1996, in AAS, 88 (1996), pp. 377-486; English translation, Consecrated Life, Sherbrooke, QC, Mediaspaul, 1996, 208 p. In VC 30, the Holy Father refers to a "New and Special Consecration" -- one that is separate from that of baptism.