New Church Document on Contemplative Religious Life

[katherineH]

For all of you who get excited about Church documents, Pope Francis just released a 21 page document to guide contemplative religious communities in their prayer life and formal organization. It is currently only available in Italian and Spanish but hopefully it will be in English soon! 

[Sr Mary Catharine OP]

It's available in English. More documents to come to further explicate it.

http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2016/07/22/160722a.html

I'm happy to say that my own community made some concrete contributions to this document. I'm sure they were echoed by other monastic communities.
Of interest is that Verbi Sponsa is abrogated by Vultum Dei. Don't know when the new norms for enclosure will be out, though!

[Chiquitunga]

Thanks for posting the link Sister MC! 

Quick question, which I'm sure will be explained by documents following it, but do you know, does that part about formation being no less than 9 years and no more than 12 mean no Solemn Vows until 9 years, or does this include ongoing formation after Solemn Vows? 

In some communities you can still reach Solemn Profession in 4.5 years (6 months postulancy, 1 year novitiate, 3 years temporary vows) In others, a couple years have been added to that, but not too many more. But 9 years as a minimum, that would be a huge change. It was a big change in 1917 with temporary profession of 3 years (I think that's the right year and time, correct me if I'm wrong) I think St. Therese made final profession 1.5 years after entrance.

[truthfinder]

Chiqui beat me to it, but I have the same question, too. 

 

[Sponsa-Christi]

My big question is: what the new focus on joining federations all about? 

[truthfinder]

11 minutes ago, Sponsa-Christi said:

My big question is: what the new focus on joining federations all about? 

That's another thing that struck me, and without trying to be dramatic, I think there might be a small bit of blacklash in some quarters.  There have definitely been some Carms who do not want a federation - others who have formed a federation which never meets in person. And particularly the insistance that that federations are the de facto option needing to go to Rome for the exception. There's certainly a couple newer communities that would be affected by this - they are the only community of their 'style' (the Children of Mary pop into mind). 

[Sr Mary Catharine OP]

51 minutes ago, Sponsa-Christi said:

My big question is: what the new focus on joining federations all about? 

Hugely important and our monastery specifically suggested this. There are too many monasteries that are isolated by their autonomy and fragile in existence. Being federated helps us be in communion and especially in formation. And when a monastery is really struggling there is a sisterly awareness that can provide a means to help that monastery if only to help them toward taking steps to decide their future.
Yes, some monasteries will not like it but the Holy See has been emphasizing this for years so it isn't a surprise. The Holy See has made it clear that it communicates through the federations.
(Probably the Children of Mary are in a different category since they are still in the beginnings of the canonical erection and not Papal, etc.)
Our own Association is not very structured compared to others, especially in Europe. It's really up to the Federation/Association how much they want to be meeting, etc.
Don't forget, these norms are made for the whole world, not just the USA.
 

1 hour ago, Chiquitunga said:

Thanks for posting the link Sister MC! 

Quick question, which I'm sure will be explained by documents following it, but do you know, does that part about formation being no less than 9 years and no more than 12 mean no Solemn Vows until 9 years, or does this include ongoing formation after Solemn Vows? 

In some communities you can still reach Solemn Profession in 4.5 years (6 months postulancy, 1 year novitiate, 3 years temporary vows) In others, a couple years have been added to that, but not too many more. But 9 years as a minimum, that would be a huge change. It was a big change in 1917 with temporary profession of 3 years (I think that's the right year and time, correct me if I'm wrong) I think St. Therese made final profession 1.5 years after entrance.

We noticed that, too. It's not in the norms part but stating a fact as though it is already the case. The "no less" may be a poor translation. Trying to find the official document which I presume is in Latin.
Our own constitutions have no more than 9 years of vows. Canon Law has 12 years max.
Ongoing formation after Solemn Vows continues until death!
 

[Chiquitunga]

Here's a pdf of it a priest sent me, with the footnotes, and yes that line on the 9 years is referencing current Canon Law, so yeah, I wonder what's up with the wording.

Apostolic Constitution VULTUM DEI QUAERE (July 22, 2016).pdf

[Gabriela]

I hoped someone would start a thread on this in here and that Sr. Mary Catharine in particular would comment. What would be wonderful is if we could get an enumerated list of each concrete, practical thing that's changing, with an explanation of how it was before, what it's like now, and why the change was/may have been made.

Is anyone up to (and qualified to ) do a thing like that?

[Nunsuch]

Gabriella, I look forward to such discussion, and hope to be able to contribute something to it. However, as you know, not all contemplative communities have the same rules, customs, and spirituality now, so to discuss "how it was before, what it's like now," etc., will vary considerably. Sister Mary Catharine has already alluded to that, in saying that her monastery was very supportive of the idea of federations, but others are neutral or even opposed. So in whatever discussion occurs, let's be mindful of when and how we can really generalize.

[truthfinder]

3 hours ago, Gabriela said:

I hoped someone would start a thread on this in here and that Sr. Mary Catharine in particular would comment. What would be wonderful is if we could get an enumerated list of each concrete, practical thing that's changing, with an explanation of how it was before, what it's like now, and why the change was/may have been made.

 

Part of the thing too, as Sr Mary Catharine has pointed out, is that several documents have been abrogated but no new rules have yet been made in their wake.  It might be awhile before we know what the new rules are. 

[Sponsa-Christi]

@Gabriela I read in one of the articles that before too long Rome will also issue an instruction on Vultum Dei Quaerere, which will spell out the nuts-and-bolts practical issues. (FYI, an "instruction" is the official term for a type of secondary document that specifies how a the directives contained in a more general document are to be carried out.) Also, I imagine the practical consequences will be different for different communities, as the communities themselves are charged with modifying their constitutions. 

@truthfinder "Abrogated" just means that the previous documents are no longer considered the authoritative last word---it doesn't necessarily mean: "all the old rules are gone, everything is changing, and now we're in chaos!"  I imagine that many monasteries will probably only experience very minor changes. 

Some big potential changes that stand out to me are:

- Every monastery needing to join a federation. As Sr. Mary Catharine mentioned, there can be very good reasons for being a part of a federation, but it does strike me as very unusual that the Holy See is more or less forcing this. I would have thought they would have simply exhorted monasteries to join federations, leaving the final choice up to the individual community. 

- Cloistered Sisters who work in formation being able to leave the enclosure to attend classes to assist them in their work. This strikes me as common sense.

- Forbidding the "importation" of foreign nuns for the sole purpose of keeping the monastery from closing. I'm actually not surprised at the strong canonical language here!

- The suggestion---at least I think it was a suggestion and not a mandate---that there be special houses of formation shared by several monasteries. I can see where this is a good idea in theory, but depending on the specifics on how this is actually intended to work, I'm wondering if this could cause some unexpected complications down the line (e.g., can a novice really discern a vocation to a particular monastery if she's in a completely different house alongside novices from other communities?) 

- Requiring (again, I think it was a requirement rather than a suggestion) times for Eucharistic Adoration. I'm all for adoration, but not every monastic tradition has Adoration per se as part of their spirituality. Are communities that historically never had a strong focus on adoration now going to have to add this? If so, this would also be surprising, since post-Vatican II it seems the Church has strongly avoided "cutting and pasting" spiritualities and traditions like this.

Also, it was also suggested/maybe required that there be times of adoration open to the public. I think it's wonderful to inspire and exhort cloistered nuns to participate in this kind of evangelization of the local Church, but I wonder how this would work for Orders like the Carthusians or more eremitically-focused Carmelites. 

- This wasn't in the document, but in I think a commentary elsewhere, but I think the Prefect of the Congregation for Consecrated Life made a comment that women's religious life is different from men's religious life. Obviously this has always been the case de facto, but since 1983 a major canonical principal is that, all other things being equal, religious life for men and women is canonically the same. (I.e., apart from things that were necessarily gender-specific, like ordination to the priesthood, the canons on religious communities applied equally to men and women religious.) It would be VERY interesting if the Vatican was now indeed acknowledging an actual theological or canonical distinction between masculine and feminine religious life. 

[Antigonos]

- The suggestion---at least I think it was a suggestion and not a mandate---that there be special houses of formation shared by several monasteries.

Wasn't this the common form before Vatican II, that the "mother house" of an order would receive all postulants and sisters would only disperse to other convents or foundations after first vows?

[truthfinder]

@Sponsa-Christi Thanks Sponsa for the clarification - I didn't intend to evoke images of chaos, rather just underline that it may be hard for now to establish a list of changes as Gabriela had suggested. I think you've made a great list. You're a canonist, right? Could you perhaps explain the bit about the nuns possibly deciding to change their level of cloister.  I can understand making you're cloister stricter, but to move to a less strict form of cloister, while perhaps allowing more evengelization, is sort of contrary to the past history of allowing a move towards more strict means of life, but not the other (sisters could move into cloistered communities; but it was much harder for cloistered nuns to change to an active community).

@Antigonos While mother houses were very common for active communities, most contemplative communities were autonomous.  Most contemplatives today will say that you are not only called to a specific order, but to a monastery itself (this seems to be a sentiment most prevalent amongst Carmelites).  There are a few communities that were contemplative that had mother houses but I'm not sure how many of them are still around. I think there's one in Spain right now that may work on this model (it has a Carmelite spirit but is not part of that order). 

[Sr Mary Catharine OP]

There is no way I could make a list of changes, etc. because as Sponsa Christi said we are waiting for the instructions to come which will be giving the monasteries the "game plan" of how we are to respond to the Apostolic Constitution.

The Holy See seems to be finally making a real effort to respect the individual charisms and the changing reality of the world in which we live in. They have made it clear that they respect the Nuns as adult women who are to make decisions about the way of life we have chosen They also seem to be putting the NORMS for enclosure to a more balanced place in the life of contemplative communities. Enclosure is just one part of our life and the NORMS aren't what make enclosure. It is first of all an observance as are the vows, prayer, study, work, etc. This isn't about strict, less strict, or even a level of enclosure. The document makes this very clear. Different forms of enclosure aren't about providing for some form of apostolate but about what works better for that community where they are. Again, we are waiting for the norms to define what is Papal, Constitutional and monastic enclosure. 

Don't forget, this document is for all the monasteries of the world, not just the western world. There are many, many issues going on that the Congregation has been dealing with. Many things mentioned have been done anyway. Common novitiates are not unusual for most Federations in Spain, South America, Italy. They have been in place for decades. Again, it was a suggestion not a command. Some charisms would benefit by a common novitiate in order to ensure even the most basic of formation.

Good, solid formation is one of the main threads of this document because it is a big concern by the Congregation.

The part about Eucharistic Adoration is actually quite vague. It just says something like appropriate times for Eucharistic adoration. That doesn't even mean exposition. 

Going out for formation for formators isn't new! I've been doing it for 12 years! Granted, most of it has been at another monastery but we have also had classes at the House of Studies in DC.

The encouragement of the association with the men's communities of a respective charism was a huge relief for us because that has been a problem for Dominican Nuns as we are juridically united with the brethren in a common profession of obedient to the Master. This has been hard for the Congregation to deal with. So, it was good that it was actually in the document! 

There is going to be a lot going on "behind the scenes" as we all adapt to this new Constitution and new norms. Some of it might not be made public. It's good to remember that the Congregation deals with a lot of issues about contemplative life that we might not be aware of. For example, until a few years ago we didn't know what was going on with the monasteries in places like Spain recruiting young women from places like India and African. It was an abuse that needed to be stopped. 

The Holy See has made a decision about Federations and made it clear that it is through the Federations that they will communicate with the monasteries. In the 1800's they decided that all OSB houses had to be in some form of a Congregation. They didn't necessarily like it but they did it and it's part of life.