Suchergebnisse

'HISTORIC', 'MOMENTOUS' AND 'REVOLUTIONARY' ARE ONLY A FEW OF the epithets freely bestowed upon the case of Baker v. Carr. By that justly celebrated judgment of 26 March 1962 the US Supreme Court implied for the first time that the weight of an American's vote might no longer depend on whereabouts in the country he lived. It did so by ruling that a scheme of apportionment which permitted inequalities of population between electoral districts represented in a state's legislature could be challenged in federal (not merely state) courts, which had competence to protect the right in question. The tide of ensuing litigation attained a new level on I7 February 1964, when the Court in Wesberry v. Sanders held that a like symmetry must prevail among US Congressional districts also. High-water mark was reached on 15 June of that year with Reynolds v. Sims, where the constitution was held to requirethat the seats of both houses of a bicameral state legislature must be apportioned on a population basis. Simply stated, an individual's right to vote for state legislators is unconstitutionally impaired when its weight is in a substantial fashion diluted when compared with votes of citizens living in other parts of the State.

The Advisory Opinion handed down by the World Court on July 20, 1962, concerning Certain Expenses of the United Nations has become a political cause célèbre in so far as the majority judicial position in it was backed up by the Western-sponsored action, in terms of Article 19 of the United Nations Charter, to deprive the Soviet Union and France of their vote in the General Assembly. The Advisory Opinion of the World Court has, however, its own intrinsic interest in terms of juristic method and of basic Soviet and Western differences in scientific approach to law. In his dissenting, judicial opinion in that case, the then President of the Court, the Polish jurist, Judge Winiarski, formulated principles of interpretation which reveal, very dramatically, the basic doctrinal differences between Soviet bloc and Western jurists as to the nature and character of the Charter. As President Winiarski commented:The Charter has set forth the purposes of the United Nations in very wide, and for that reason too indefinite, terms. But… it does not follow, far from it, that the Organisation is entitled to seek to achieve those purposes by no matter what means. The fact that an organ of the United Nations is seeking to achieve one of those purposes does not suffice to render its action lawful. The Charter, a multilateral treaty which was the result of prolonged and laborious negotiations, carefully created organs and determined their competence and means of action.

Issue 26.3 of the Review for Religious, 1967. ; Decree on Religious Life by Vatican Council H 391 Vatican II and Religious Life by Edward O'Connor, C.S.C. 404 A Point of Departure by J. M. R. Tillard, O.P. 424 Interindwelling by Thomas Dubay, S.M. 441 Preparing for a General Chapter by Mother M. Romua!d, O.S.F. 461 Selectin~ Seminary Applicants by Mark E. Niemann, S.J. 470 Seminary Adjustment Patterns by Allen F. Greenwald 483 Marriage 'Program for Religious by Dr. and Mrs. J. C. Willke 489 New Morality, New Asceticism by Quentin Hakenewerth, S.M. 496 Chastity and Consecration ¯ by Robert L. Faricy, S.J. 503 Differences in Constitutions by Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. 507 Poems 517 Survey of Roman Documents 520 Views, News, Previews 523 Questions and Answers 531 Book Reviews 554 VOLUME 26 NUMBER 3 May 1967 VATICAN COUNCIL II Decree on. Religious PAUL, BISHOP THE SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD TOGETHER WITH THE FATHERS OF THE COUNCIL FOR A PERPETUAL .RECORD OF THE MATTER 1. The pursuit of perf~c~ charity* by means of the evangelical dounsels has been 'previbusly shown by the Council in the constitution which begins with ther words Lumen gentium to derive its origin from the teaching an'd examples of the divine Teacher and to serve as a striking sign of the kingdom of heaven. Now, however, the Council intends to consider the life and discipline of the institutes whosd members profess chastity, poverty, and obedience and to provide for their needs as the con-ditions of our age suggest. From the very beginnings of the Church there existed men and women who strove through the practice of the evangelical counsels to follow Christ with a greater free-dom and to imitate Him in a closer fashion, each in his own way leading a life dedicated to God. Under the in-spiration of the Holy Spirit .ifi'any of these persons lived a solitary life or founded religious families which the Church gladly accepted and approved with her author-ity. Accordingly, through the divine plan there has grown up a remarkable '~variety of religious groups, a ¢ariety which is of great help to the Church not only in making her equipped for every kind of good work (see 2 Tim 3:17) and ready for, the work of the ministry for the building up of the Body of Christ (see Eph 4:12) but also in making her appear adorned with the various gifts of her children, like a bride adorned for her hus- ¯ This is a translation of the official Latin text, entitled Per]ectae caritatis, as given in ~qcta ,qpos'tolicae Sedis, v. '58 (1966), pp. 702-12. Translation Copyright (g) 1967 Review for Religions Religious Li]e ' ~ VOLUME 26, 1967 4" 4. Vatican Council I1 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS band (see Ap 21:2), so that through her there may be revealed the multiform wisdom of God (see Eph 3:10). In all this great variety of gifts, however, all who are called by God to the practice of the evangelical counsels and who conscientiously profess them dedicate them-selves to the Lord in a special way since they follow Christ who, a virgin and a poor man (see Mt 8:20; Lk 9:58), redeemed and sanctified men by His obedience even to the death of the cross (Phil 2:8). Being thus im-pelled by the charity which the Holy Spirit pours into their hearts, they live more and more for Christ and for His Body which is the Church (see Col 1:24). Accord-ingly, the more fervently they are espoused to Christ by this self-gift that includes all of life, the richer the life of the Church becomes while her apostolate grows in greater productiveness. In order, however, that the great worth of life con-secrated by the profession of the counsels and its neces-sary role may yield greater good for the Church in the circumstances of the present time, this Council enacts the following matters; these are concerned only with general principles for the adaptation and renewal of the life and discipline of religious institutes and also, their own characteristics being respected, of societies of common life without vows and of secular institutes. However, particular norms for the proper interpreta-tion and application of these principles are to be enacted after the Council by the competent authority. 2. The adaptation and renewal of religious include both a constant return to the som:ces of all Christian life and to the original inspiration of the institutes as well as an adaptation of the institutes to the changed conditions of our times. This renewal must be achieved under the impulse of the Holy Spirit and the leader-ship of the Church in accord with the following prin-ciples: ¯ a)Since the ultimate norm of religious life is the fol-lowing of Christ set forth in the gospel, this is to be considered by all institutes as the supreme rule. b) It is for the good of the Church that institutes have their own special characteristics and work. Therefore, there should be a loyal acknowledgment and preserva-tion of their founders' spirit and special aims as well as of their sound traditions--all of which constitute the patrimony of each institute. c) All institutes should share in the life of the Church; and, in accord with their own characteristic structure, they should identify themselves with its undertakings and goals in biblical, liturgical, dogmatic, pastoral, ecu-menical, missionary, and social matters and foster these as much as they can. d) Institutes should foster in their members an ade-quate knowledge of the modern condition of men and of the needs of the Church so that they may correctly eviduate in the light of faith the drcumstances of to-day's world and, burning with apostolic zeal, may be able to give men a more effective assistance. e) Since the primary goal of religious life is that its members should follow Christ and be united to God through the profession of the evangelical counsels, seri-ous consideration must be given to the fact that the best of adaptations made in accord with today's needs will be ineffectual unless they are animated by a spiritual renewal which must always be given precedence .even in the matter of external works. 3. Everywhere and especially in mission territories, th6 way of living', praying, and working should be suit-ably adapted to the modern physical and psychic con-ditions of the members and, as required by the nature of each institute," to the needs of the apostolate, to the re-quirements of culture, and to social and economic con-ditions. The manner of governing in institutes should also be examined according to the same criteria. Therefore, constitutions, directories, prayer and cere-mony books, and other similar collections should be suitably revised and, obsolete prescriptions being elimi-nated, be adapted to the documents of this Council. 4. An effective renewal arid a due adaptation cannot be achieved except through the cooperation of all the members of the institute. However, to establish the norm of adaptation and re-newal, to enact legislation in the matter, and to provide for adequate and prudent experimentation belongs 0nly to the competent authority, especially to general chapters, without prejudice, where required, to the ap- 15robation of the Holy See or of local ordinaries accord-ing to th~ norm of law. But in matters involving the future condition of the entire institute superiors should in an "appropriate way consult and listen to the mem-bers. Fdr the adaptation and renewal of monasteries of nuns, suggestions and advice may also be obtained from federation sessions or from other lawfully convoked meetings. :All, however, should remember that hope for renewal is to be basdd, more on a careful observance of the rule and the constitutions than on a multiplication of laws. .5. The members of each institute should first of all recall to~ mind the fact that by the profession of the evangelical counsels they have responded to a divine call in guch a way that they live for God alone nbt onl~ ÷ + ÷ Religious Li]e ¯ VOLUME 26, 1967 39~, ÷ ÷ ÷ Vatican Council I1 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 394 by being dead to sin (see Rom 6:11) but also by re-nouncing the world. They have committed their en-tire life to His service, a fact that constitutes a kind of special consecration which has its inmost roots in the consecration of baptism and which expresses the latter consecration in a fuller way. Moreover, since this self-gift of theirs has been ac-cepted by the Church, they should realize that they are also dedicated to th~ service of the Church. This service of God should inspire and foster in them the exercise of the virtues, especially humility and obedience, courage and chastity, by which Christ's self-emptying (see Phil 2:7-8) as well as His life in the spirit (see Rom 8:1-13) is shared by them. Being faithful to their profession, then, and leaving all things for the sake of Christ (see Mk 10:28), religious should follow Him as the one thing necessary (see Lk 10:42); and they should listen to His words (see Lk 10:39) and be solicitous for the things that are His (see 1 Cor 7:32). Since, therefore, they are seeking first and foremost God alone, the members of each institute must join the contemplation by which they are united to Him in mind and heart with the apostolic love by which they strive to spread the kingdom of God by associating themselves with the work of redemption. 6. Those who 'profess the evangelical counsels should before all else seek and love God who has first loved us (see 1 Jn 4:10), and in all circumstances they should strive to foster a life hidden with Christ in God (see Col 3:3); these attitudes will begin and incite the love of neighbor which is directed to the salvation of the world and to the building up of the Church and which in addition animates and orientates the actual living of the evangelical counsels. Therefore, drawing upon the authentic sources of Christian spirituality, the members of institutes should steadfastly develop the spirit and practice of prayer. Moreover, it is of foremost importance that they have recourse every day to Sacred Scripture so that by read-ing and meditating the divine writings they may learn the "surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ" (Phil 3:8). In accord with the mind of the Church they should take part in the sacred liturgy, especially the sacred mystery of the Eucharist, with both heart ~nd lips, thereby nourishing their spiritual life from this richest of sources. Strengthened in this way at the table of the divine law and of the sacred altar, they should love the mem-bers of Christ as brothers and should love and respect their pastors in a filial spirit; ever increasingly they should live and think in union with the Church, com-pletely dedicating themselves to its mission. 7. No matter how urgent the needs of the active apostolate, institutes which are entirely devoted to con-templation in such a way that their members, in solitude and silence, in continual prayer and joyful penance, are occupied with God alone always retain a preeminent place in the Mystical Body of Christ in which "the mem-bers do not all have the same role" (Rom 12:4). The rea-son for this is that they offer an exceptional sacrifice of praise, while with regard to the People of God they make it radiant with a rich endowment of holiness, in-spire it by their example, "and increase it by their hid-den apostolic fecundity. Accordingly, they are a glory of the Church and a fountainhead of heavenly graces. Nev-ertheless, their way of life should be revised according to the foregoing principles and criteria of adaptation and renewal, though their withdrawal from the world and the exercises proper to the contemplative life should be conscientiously safeguarded. ,8. In the Church there are a great number of insti-tutes, both clerical and lay, which are dedicated to vari-ous works of the apostolate and which, in accord with the grace given them, possess different gifts: service in those who minister, doctrine in those who teach, com-pellingness in those who exhort, sincerity in those who offer help, cheerfulness in those who do acts of mercy (see Rom 12:5-8). "There are indeed varieties of graces, but the Spirit is the same" (1 Cor 12:4). In these institutes apostolic and charitable activity belongs .to the very essence of religious life since it has been entrusted to them by the Church as a sacred service and a special work of charity to be exercised in its name. Hence, the entire religious life of the mem-bers should be imbued with an apostolic spirit while all their apostolic activity should be penetrated with a religious spirit. In order, therefore, that the members may first of all respond to their vocation to follow Christ and that they may serve Christ Himself- in His members, their apostolic acti~,ity should flow from close union with Him. In this way there is fostered the full-ness of love for God and for neighbor. These institutes, therefore, should suitably adjust their observances and customs to the needs of the apos-tolate to which they are dedicated. Since, however, there are many forms of religous life dedicated to apostolic works, it is necessary that adaptation and renewal take account of this diversity and that in the various insti-tutes the life of the members be strengthened for the service of Christ by means that are suitable and appro-priate to each institute. ÷ ÷ Religious LiJe VOLUME 26, 1967 395 Vatican oud~il II REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 396 9. In both the East and We~t the venerable iristi'(~fidn of monastic life which through the long cotirse of cen-turies has earned for itself great respect in the Church and in h.uman ~ociety should be preserved with Care and should shin~ forth in all the brilliance of its genuine spirit. The principal duty of monks is to offer to the divine majesty within the confines of the monastery a service, humble but at the same time noble, whether they com-pletely devote themselves to divine worship in ~the con-templative life or whether they have legitimately under-taken some work of the apostolate or of Christian charity: Therefore, ~having safeguarded the characteristic nature of their institution, they should renew their ancient tradi-tions of doing good and adapt them to the contemporary needs of souls in such a'way that monasteries' may be vital-izing sources of edification for the Christian people." ~Similarly, those religious bodies who by rule or by their institute closely join an apostolic life to the choral Office and to monastic observances should adjusf their way of life to the needs of the apostolate appr6priate to them in suck/ a way that they faithfully preserve their form of life as one which contributes in an outstanding way to the good of the Church. '~ 10. Lay religious life, .both for men and women, con': stitutes ifi itself a complete state of' the professiqn of/,he evangelical counsels. Therefore, in a spirit of great es-teem for that life and its contribution to the pastora! work of the Church in the education of youth, in the care of the sick, and in the fulfillrhent of other serv-ices, this Council confirms these religibus in their voca-tion and urges them to adapt their life to modern needs. " This° Council declares that in religious institutes brothers, providing that their: lay character remains un-changed, there is" nothing to prevent some 'members according to the" derision of the general chapter, ~om being admitted to' sacred orders in order to meet the need for priestly ministration within the h~uses of their own institute. 11. Although they are not religious institutes, secular institutes nevertheless involve a tri~e and full profe.ssion of (he e~angelical counsels in the world, a profes.sion that has been recognized by the Church,. This pr6~.es-sion confers a consecration on ,men and wom~n, lay as 'well as clerical, living in the world. Accor .dingly, th~ members should have as their principal goal a total ded= ication of themselves to God in perfedt charit.y; and the institutes themselves shbuld preserve the.it ,special' and characteristic secular nattire so' tliat, in the world and~ as it were, from the world, they may everywhere be able to carry out in an effective way the apostolate for which they were founded. These institutes, however, should fully realize that they will not be able to execute so great a work unless their members are so thoroughly trained in divine and human matters that they are truly a leaven in the midst of the world for the strengthening and growth of the Body of Christ. Their superiors, therefore, should give serious attention to the training, especially the spiritual one, to be given to the members; and they should make provision for its later development. 19. Chastity "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" (Mr 19:12) which religious profess should be regarded as an outstanding gift of grace. The reason for this is that it liberates :the heart of man in a unique way (see 1 Cot 7:32-5) so that it can bemore greatly inflamed with love for God and for all men; consequently, it is a special sign of heavenly realities and the most suitable means by which religious fullheartedly dedicate them-selves to the' divine service and to works of the apos-tolate. In this way they recall to the minds of all Christ's faithful that wondrous espousal by which the Church has Christ as its only spouse--an espousal that has been instituted by God and that is to be fully revealed in the age to come. Religious, therefore, in their eagerness to carry out their profession faithfully, should believe the words of the Lord; and, having put their trust in God's help, they should practice mortification and restraint of their senses lest they overestimate their own strength. More-over, they should not neglect the natural means that promote health of mind and body. In this way they will not be influenced by the false doctrines which char-acterize perfect continence as impossible or as harmful to human development, and by a kind of spiritual in-stinct they will reject everything which endangers their chastity. All, especially superiors, should furthermore remember that chastity is safeguarded with greater se-curity when true fraternal love among religious flour-ishes in the life they lead in common. Since the observance of perfect continence touches in an intimate way the deepest inclinations of human nature, candidates should not make nor be allowed to make profession of chastity except after they have been tested in a truly sufficient way and except when they pos-sess the required psychological and affective maturity. They should not only be warned of the dangers to which chastity is exposed but they should also he instructed in such a manner that they may assume celibacy dedicated to God in a way that contributes to the benefit of their entire personality. ÷ + + Religious LiJe VOLUME ~'~, 1967 397 Vatican Coundl I! REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 398 ~" 13. Voluntary poverty for the sake of the following of Christ, since it is highly regarded, especially today, as sign of that following, should be carefully practiced by religious and, if necessary, should even be expressed in new forms. Through it is acquired a sharing in the poverty of Christ who, though He was ,rich, became poor for our sake in order that by His poverty we might be-come rich (see 2 Cor 8:9; Mt 8:20). With regard to religious poverty, it is not sufficient to ¯ be subject to superiors in the use of. things, but it is nec-essary that the members be poor in fact and in spirit, having their treasures in heaven (see Mt fi:20). In the matter of their ,employment all religious should realize that they are subject to the common law of work; and while they procure in this way the things necessary for their sustenance and works, they should in addition cast off all undue solicitude and entrust themselves to the providence of the heavenly Father (see Mt fi:25). By their constitutions religious congregations can per-mit their members to renounce their patrimonial goods, both those already acquired and those to be acquired. Taldng. into account the circumstances of individual places, institutes should themselves strive ~to give a kind of collective witness of poverty; and they should gladly contribute from their own goods to the other needs of the Church and to the support of the poor whom all re-ligious should love in closest union with Christ .(see Mt 19:21; 25:34-46; Jas 2:15-6; 1 Jn 3:17). Provinces and houses of institutes should share their temporal goods with one another so that those who have more .help the others who are experiencing need. Although institutes, without prejudice to rules and constitutions, have the right of possessing everything necessary for their temporal life and for their works, yet they should avoid all appearance of luxury, of excessive wealth, and of accumulation of goods. 14. Through profession of obedience religious offer the fuII dedication of their own will as a sacrifice of themselves to God, and through this sacrifice they are united to God's saving will in a more constant and secure way, Hence, after the example of °Jesus Christ who came to,do the will of the Father (see Jn 4:34; 5:30; Heb 10:7; Ps ~39:9) and who, "taking the form of a servant" (Phil 2:7) learned obedience from what He suffered (see Heb 5:8), religious under the impulse of the Holy Spirit sub-mit themselves in a spirit of faith to superiors who act as representatives of God; and through superiors they are led to serve all their brothers in Christ as Christ Himself on account of His submission to the Father served the brethren and laid down His life as a ransom for many (see Mt 20:28; Jn 10:14-8). In this way they are more closely bound to the service of the Church and strive to attain to the measure of the mature manhood and full-ness of Christ (see Eph 4:13). In a spirit of faith, therefore, and of love for the will of God religious should give a humble obedience to su-periors according to the norms of the-rule and of the constitutions. In executing what is commanded and in fulfilling the work assigned them, they should apply the forces of their intellect and will as well as their gifts of nature and grace in the knowledge that they are contrib-uting according to God's plan to the building up of the Body of Christ. In this way religious obedience, far from diminishing the dignity of the human person, leads, it to maturity by extending the freedom of the sons of God,. For their part, superiors, as oneswho will give an ac-count of the souls entrusted to them (see Heb 13:17), should be responsive to the will of God in the fulfill-ment of their office and should exercise their authority in a spirit of service to their brothers in such a way that they express the charity with ,:which God loves them. They should ~govern their subjects as children of God and with respect for the human persons, thereby facili-tating their voluntary submission. Accordingly, they should take special care to leave them adequate freedom with regard to the sacrament of penance and direction of conscience. They should lead their subjects to the point that they cooperate by an active and responsible obedience in fulfilling their duties and in undertaking new tasks. Hence, superiors should gladly listen to their religious and should foster union among them for the good of the institute and of' the Church, without preju-dice, however, to their own authority to decide and order what is to be done. Chapters'~ and councils should conscientiously dis-charge the role assigned them in government; and both of these groups, each in its own way, should be an expres-sion of the common concern of all the religious for the good of the entire community. 15. After the example of the primitive Church in which the body of believers was one heart and one soul (see Acts 4:32), common life, being strengthened by the teaching of the gospel, by the sacred liturgy, and es-pecially by the Eucharist, should be continued in a spirit of prayer and of communion in the same spirit (see Acts 2:42). As befits members of Christ, religious in their living together as brothers should outdo each other in given honor (see Rom 19:10); and they should bear each other's burdens (see Gal 6:2). For" the love, of God has been poured into their hearts by .the Holy: Spirit (see Rom 5:5); consequently,,thegcommunity is like.a true family gathered' together in the nam~ of ,the Lord and Religious" Li]e. ~ . VOLUME 26, 1967' 399 Vatican Council I1 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 400 enriched by His presence (see Mt .18:20); Moreover, love is the fulfilling of the law (see Rom 13:10) and the per-fect bond of union (see Col 3:14), and through it we know that we have made our exodus from death to life (see 1 Jn 3:14). In addition, the unity of the brethren is a manifestation of the coming of Christ (see Jn 13:35; 17:21) and a source of great apostolic vigor. In order that the bond of brotherhood be greater among the members, those who are called lay brothers, assistants, or some other name should be closely joined to the life and activity of the community. Unless circum-stances genuinely indicate a different course of action, steps should be taken that there be only one class of sisters in institutes of women. The onlydistinction of persons to be retained is that which is required by the different works for which the members are destined either by special vocation from God or by reason of spe-cial aptitude. In accord with their nature and with the norms of their constitutions monasteries and institutes of men can admit both clerics and laymen .on an equal status with the same rights and obligations except for those which result from holy orders. 16. Papal cloister should be retained for nuns of the purely contemplative life;, but, after the monasteries themselves have expressed' their desires, it should be adapted to the circumstances of time and place, obsolete practices being abolished. 17. The habit of ,religious, as an outward mark of their consecration, should be simple and modest, poor yet fitting; moreover, it should meet the requirements of health and should be adapted to circumstances of time and place and to the needs of the ministry. The habits of both men and women which do nbt meet these norms must be changed. 18. Adaptation and renewal of institutes depend to the highest degree on the training of the members. Con-sequently, non-clerical men religious and religious women should not be assigned immediately after the no-vitiate to works of the apostolate; but their .religious, apostolic, academic, and professional training, involving also the securing of appropriate degrees, should be con-tinued in an adequate way in houses adapted to this purpose. In order that the adaptation of religious life to the needs of today may not be merely external and in order that those engaged according to their institute in the ex-ternal apostolate may not be unequal to their task, suit-able instruction on current practices and ways of think-ing and feeling in society today should be given to religious according to each one's intellectual capacity and personal ability. The training of religious should be accomplished by a balanced blending of its components so that it contributes to their personal unity, Moreover, throughout their entire life religious should consciously strive to perfect their spiritual, academic, and professional culture; opportunity, .means, and time for this should be provided by superiors as far as possible. It is also the duty of superiors.to see that the directors, spiritual fathers, and professors are.carefully chosen and thoroughly trained . ~ 19. In the matter of the founding of new institutes, need or at least great usefulness as well as the possibility of their growth, must be seriously weighed lest there come into~.existence institutes that are useless or not suffi-ciently vigorous. Where the .Church ~has been but re, cently established special consideration should be given to developing and fostering forms of religious life which take account of the'inhabitants' characteristic way of life and and. of the customs and ~onditions of the region. 20. Institutes should faithfully retain and carry on the works proper to them; and, having considered the welfare of the entire Church and of the dioceses; they should adapt them to the needs of time ~and place, using suitable and even new means and abandoning ,those works which today, fit in less well with the spirit and genuine characteristic of the institute. The missionary spirit must by all means be preserved in institutes, and it must be adapted to modern con-ditions in accord with the nature of each institute so that the preaching of the gospel to all the nations may be more effective. 21. Institutes and monasteries which in the judgment of the Holy See after consultation with the interested local ordinaries do not'provide reasonable hope of even-tually flourishing should be forbidden to receive novices in the future; and, if it can be done, they should be united to another, more vigorous institute or monastery which is not very different in purpose and spirit. 22. As opportunity permits and with the approval of the Holy See, indep~endent institutes and monasteries should promote among themselves federations (if they in some way belong to the same religious family) or unions (if~ especially when they are too small, they have almost equivalent constitutions and usages and are im-bued with the same spirit) or associations (if they are engaged in the same .or similar external works). 23. A davorable attitude should be shown to con-ferences or councils of major superiors that are estab-lished by the Holy See; these can make a significant ÷ ÷ ÷ Rel~gious VOLUME 26, 1967 40! ÷ ÷ ÷ contribution to the fuller achievement of the purpose of the individual institutes, to a more effective cooper-ative work for the good of the Church, to a more equi-table distribution of. the laborers of the gospel in a given territory, as well as to the transaction of matters of common interest to religious. Coordination and coop-eration with episcopal conferences should be established with regard to the exercise of the apostolate. Such conferences can also be established for secular institutes. 24. Priests and Christian educators should make serious efforts to see that by religious vocations that have been suitably and carefully selected there be given to the Church a new growth that clearly corresponds to its needs. The evangelical counsels and the choosing of religious life should often be treated even in ordinary preaching. By educating their children along Christian ways of life, parents should nurture and foster religious vocations in their hearts. Institutes have the right to make themselves known in order to foster vocations as well as the right to seek candidates provided this is done with due prudence and with observance of the norms set down by the Holy See and the local ordinary. For their part, members should remember that the example of their own life is the best recommendation of their institute and the most effective invitation to choose religious 'life. 25. Institutes for whom these' norms of adaptation and renewal are established should respond with eager-ness to their divine vocation and to their role in the Church of these times. This Council has a great esteem for their way of life, a virginal, poor, and obedient one of which the model is Christ the Lord Himself; and the Council puts great hope in the productiveness of their works whether these be little publicized or well known. All religious, therefore, by integrity of faith, by charity for God and neighbor, by love of the cross, and by hope in the glory to come, should spread the good news of Christ throughout the entire world so that their wit-nessing may be seen by all and that our Father who is in heaven may be glorified (see Mt 5:16). Accordingly, through the prayer and interest of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, "whose life is a source of instruction for all,''1 may they daily experience a greater growth as well as a greater salvific effectiveness. Vatican Coundl I! REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS ,t02 Each and every one of the matters contained in this Decree was decided by the fathers of this Council. And St. Ambrose, De virginitate, bk. 2, c. 2, n. 15. We, by the apostolic power given to Us by Christ, to-gether with the venerable fathers, approve in the Holy Spirit, decree, enact, and order to be promulgated what has been decided in this Synod for the glory of God. Given in Rome at St. Peter's on October 28, 1965. I, PAUL, Bishop of the Catholic Church Religious Li]e, VOLUME 26, 1967 EDWARD O'CONNO.R, C.S:C. Vatican II and the Renewal of Religious, Edward O'Con-nor, C.S.C., on the faculty of Notre Dame University, may be reached at Box 514; Notre Dame, Ifidiana. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS The Vatican Council was designed to bring about an aggiornamento in the Church; not surprisingly, it also took up the renewal of religious life. But perhaps the most important things which the Council had to say about religious life are not to be found in the chapters devoted specifically to this subject but in those con-cerned with the Church as a whole. For a man is a Christian before he is a religious; and, even in his religious life, that which is most fundamental is not the set of observances that distinguish religious from others, but the same mystery of grace and sacra-mental economy that defines every Christian life. The reason is that the religious life is not peripheral to Christianity (as Leslie Dewart imagines) but an effort to live the Christian life in its fullest and most authentic expression, as Pope John declared. Neither is it created by the ambition to be better than the Church but by a humble and sincere aspiration to "live the life of the Church as deeply and unqualifiedly as possible and thereby to participate as plentifully as possible in the Church's spiritual resources. Such an attitude towards the religious life pervades the Council's teaching. It appears in the way the chapter on the religious life is inserted into the Constitution on the Church and still more in the persistent care taken to expound the religious life in ecclesiological terms. Thus, after declaring that the vows commit a person to the service of God by a special title, the Council adds at once that by baptism we are already consecrated to God. Hence it becomes necessary to explain how the religious vows relate to those of baptism: In order to derive more abundant fruit from this baptismal grace, [the religious] intends, by the profession of the evangeli- cal counsels in the Church, to free himself from those obstacles which might draw him away from the fervor of charity and the perfection of divine worship. Thus he is more intimately consecrated to divine service (LG 44; see PC 5)? The religious state is sometimes menaced by a kind of sectarianism which tends to cut it off in part from the mainstream of the Church's life and action. Religious are tempted to take for granted the common sources of spirituality in the Church, such as prayer and the sacra-ments, and to regard their community rule with its special practices of piety and asceticism as the chief form and source of their distinctive spiritual life. Likewise, the fact that religious are accustomed to the fi:equent use o{ the sacraments and daily attendance at Mass can induce a kind of familiarity and routine that cause them to take these things for granted and so to profit little by them. The Vatican Council has drawn up a magnificent statement of the meaning and value of the great sources of Christian spirituality: the liturgy culminating in the sacraments and above all the Eucharist; Scripture seen not just as a relic to be venerated but as the living God's living word to His people; and finally the Church it-self, that all-embracing mystery in which the Word and the sacraments are contained. Besides its theoretical statements about these sacred mysteries, the Council has set in motion a number o{ reforms, especially in regard to the Eucharistic liturgy, designed to make their mean-ing and grace more accessible. The acts of the Council regarding the liturgy have also been supplemented by the encyclical letter of Pope Paul, Mysterium fidei (Aug-ust, 1965), giving important practical directives for Eu-charistic piety during these times of theoretical con-fusion. Religious above all ought to profit by the new passageways opened into these spiritual riches. Probably the first point which those concerned with renewal of the religious life ought to examine is whether the Scrip-ture, the Eucharist, and the liturgy as a whole have be-come for them the source of living contact with God en-visaged by the Council. The lethargy regarding these spiritual riches with which the whole Church has been afflicted has not left religious unaffected, and they would be rejecting the peculiar grace of the Council if they were now to abide complacently in a pharisaic security that the instructions addressed to "the rest of men" had no rele-x In this paper I will use two abbreviations for the two Council documents that will be most often cited: LG = Lumen gentium, the Constitution on the Church; PC = PerIectae caritatis, on the adapta-tion and renewal of the religious life. Translations will be taken from W. Abbott, The Documents of Fatican H (New York: 1966), but with occasional modifications. ÷ ÷ ÷ Religious Li/e VOLUME 26; 1967 405 4. 4. Edward O'Connor, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS vance for them. If the. religious life is to experience a i:enewal, it is chiefly in the great mysteries of the Word, the sacraments, and the Church that it must tap its sources (see PC 6). A second way in which religious are in danger of cutting themselves off from the Church as a whole con-sistso in their becoming so engro_ssed in the enterprises of their own community as to lose concern for the greater interests of the Church. For. example, they can .promote recruitment to their community in a way that dis-courages vocations to others. They can pursue funds in a manner that hurts the religious sensibilities of the people, making. Catholicism obnoxious. They can strive for excellence in their schools and journals but fail in theeffort required to give them a truly Christian spirit~ Such seeking of their own true or imagined interests can lead particular communities to neglect or even injure the body of the Church In truth, however, a community within the Church can have genuine vitality only in the measure that it espouses the aims of the Church and subordinates it, self to them. History shows that most religious com-munities have come into being in response to some need of the ChurCh and that they have retained their vital-ity precisely in the measure that they continued to re-spond generously to the need that called them into existence. When they begin to protect their particular interests, their dynamism fails and they decline. In mod-ern times, most of the older communities have been losing ground in Europe and, more recently, in America. But the Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus in France and the Maryknoll Missionaries in America have ex-perienced a spectacular growth; and both have been communities inspired by the will to give of themselves to the need of the Church, the one by way of presence and contemplation, the other by ~missionary endeavor zeal. The Council therefore summons each religious com-munity, according to its own peculiar character, "to make its own and foster in every possible way the enter-prises and objectives, of the Church in such fields as the following: Scriptural, liturgical, doctrinal pastoral, ecu-menical, missionary, social" (PC 2). The areas.named are evidently those in which the needs of the Church are particularly acute today. All religious can take to heart all of these needs and respond to them by prayer; no service to ,the Church is more proper to the religious life than this. But the prayer must be an earnest plea that pierces heaven to get help,, not a perfunctory routine that serves.as a pretext for doing nothing real. And if a community has really taken the. Church's needs to heart, it will also be generous in responding to them with its manpower and human energies when-ever such service accords with its nature and falls within its capabilities. This qualification is important; the Church does not want any community to lose sight of its proper finality or to neglect the prudent limits and moderation necessary to conserve the strength of an organization (PC 2b and 20). Several communities have already become concerned over the harm suffered by their own works because so many of their members want to abandon them for something new. Some sisters' schools report that the quality of their instruction is threatened because too many of the sisters now~ want to spend their time making home visits instead of correcting papers. But there is also a false prudence that will ven-ture nothing unless hedged bya security that leaves little. place for the trust inculcated~by the Gospels. Right de-cisions in such matters are possible only where humble fidelity to the purpose of one's own community is joined with lively zeal for the Church. Incidentally, it should be ,noted that espousing the interests of the Church can itself be a source of renewal of the religious life. The Church evolves as it undergoes new experiences and undertakes new works in each age; a community deeply attached to the Church will be thereby tarried forward with it. II The Council treats the religious life in two main texts. The Constitution on the Church, Lumen !gentium, de-votes Chapter 6 to this subject, after preparing for it, by an important statement ~on the evangelical counsels in Chapter 5, paragraph 42, On the basis there established, the decree, Perfectae ca¥itatis? gives directives for the renewal of the religious life in our time. (The essence of 'this decree is to be found in paragraphs 2 and 3.) As the two documents overlap and supplement one another, it will be advantageous to synthesize them rather than to treat them separately? Renewal of the religious life, says the decree, calls for two somewhat opposite movements: one consists in bringing traditional religious practices up to date, the ~ The title, The Appropriate Renewal o] the Religious Li[e, which is given to this document in Abbott's edition, is a poor translation of the phrase, De accommodata renovatione . The true sense of the Council's expression is surely that which the editor himself suggests in a footnote on page 466: "The adaptation and renewal." (literally, "The renewal brought about through, or involving, adapta-tion. ")., a Note should' also be taken of the paragraphs de~oted to religious in the Decree on Bishops, nn. 33-35, and in the Decree on the Mis-sions, nn. 18 and 40. ÷ ÷ ÷ 407 + 4. Edward O'Connor, C$.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS other in a return to the perennial sources of religious vitality. The renewal and adaptation of religious life involves two simultaneous processes: (1) a continuous return to the source of all Christian life and to the original inspiration behind a given institute and (2) an adjustment of the institute to the changed conditions of the times (PC 2). It is the latter process which has monopolized the atten-tion given to this decree, but it is clear that in the mind of the Council Fathers adjusting to the times is not so nrgent a matter as renewing contact with the sources. Since the religious life is intended above all else to lead those who embrace it to an imitation of Christ and to union with God through the profession of the evangelical counsels, the fact must be honestly faced that even the most desirable changes .made on behalf of contemp.o.ra~ needs will fail of their pur-pose unless a renewal of spent g~ves life to them. Indeed such an interior renewal must always be accorded the leading role even in the promotion of exterior works (PC 2e). Ever since the religious life began, periodic renewals have been necessary in order to recall flagging spirits back to the high ideal that originally inspired them; and the renewal to which the Council summons us is basi-cally of this same sort. However, the adjustments made necessary by the conditions peculiar to our age, although of lesser importance, are really necessary. It will be con-venient to consider them first. The ways of life in religious communities have re-mained pretty much the same down through the ages, little affected by the fashions and manners of the chang-ing world. This is only natural in a life that involves leaving the secular world behind and focusing attention on the eternal. A community that kept up to date in every way would be suspect of having forgotten its essen-tial purpose. Furthermore, each religious community is a school of spirituality created through the inspiration of a founder who is almost invariably a saint. The wis-dom of its rule has been confirmed and enriched by the experience of many members and guaranteed by the approval of the Church. One goes to it in order to be formed by it to a life and mentality that do not come naturally. Hence, it is entirely reasonable for religious to hold as sacred those rules, customs, and practices that have become a tradition in their community and, still more, those which also belong to the common tra-ditions of all religious communities. However, each community is in some measure the child of the age which engendered it. Among its ob-servances there are liable to be elements which are not integral to its proper spirituality but merely the deposits of a contingent culture. Some old monasteries of Europe and the Near East still regard bathing as a sensual in-dulgence. The discalced orders reflect an age in which shoes were considered a superfluity. The Capuchins long regarded shaving as a mark of vanity. Maintenance of such idiosyncrasies is in no way bound up with the pursuit of holiness and sometimes becomes a hindrance to the apostolate. It engenders an atmos-phere of weirdness that may make the religious.life seem irrelevant and unreal to modern man. Even truly mean-ingful elements of religious asceticism may, because of changed circumstances, become a burden so grievous as to'absorb energies that are needed elsewhere. Hence the needs, of adaptations affecting "the m~nner of living, pra~iing and working" (PC 3). Perfectae caritatis names three categories of reasons which may make adaptation; necessary: (I) the physical and psychological conditions.of today's religious; (2) the needs of the apostolate; and (3) the requirements of a given culture, including the social and economic con-. ditions it.imposes. The decree does not give any examples, but it is easy to suggest a few. Qne of the physical conditions affecting many. religious today is the fact that their houses are in the midst of cities or otherwise affected by the bustle of modern civilization, making recollection more difficult than it used to be in secluded monasteries. Psychological conditions include the nervousness and tension, also the much-discussed ,alienation, 6f mddern man, and the in-dependence and skepticism of the youth from among whom new recruits for the religious life must be drawn. The needs of the apostolate often make it difficult to practice the externals of the religious life in the form anticipated by the older rules. Thus, the need to be in contact with students in a college, or with classes of society that have been alienated from the Church, or with colleagues in professional societies, interferes with the observance of common exercises of piety and also with the more obvious .forms of separation from the world which have traditionally characterized the reli-gious life. There is also the need to possess books or scientific equipment, or to employ the most modern means and techniques of communication, or to travel for the sake of education or contacts. The reference to the "requirements of a given culture" reminds us that the religious life in the Church has received its forms predominantly from European Ca-tholicism. When it is transplanted to America or Africa or the Far East, it rightly divests itself of peculiarly European (or Americanl) forms in order to penetrate more purely and effectively into die new culture. Other cultural factors to be considered are the: high level of ÷ + + VOLUME 26, .).967 409 ÷ ÷ ÷ l~dward O'Connor, C.S.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS education of most people today (at least in Europe and America) compared to those of past centuries and. the resultant fact that few young people, in America at. least, are willing to embrace a life of manual or domestic labor. In trying to make the categories of Perfectae caritatis more specific, one should not overlook the priceless illumination which the constitution Gaudiurn et spes (The Church in the Modern World) sheds, on the char-acteristic traits of our times. Some of the features noted there which are particularly relevant to the religious life are: (1) the progressive socialization of human activities due to the growing interdependence of men, (2) the in-fluence of scientific studies and technological achieve-ments (especially in the field of communications) on the popular mentality, and (3) the increase of respon-sible participation, both in theory and in fact, by the members of a community in its common activities. The same constitution also points out some of the leading ideas of modern thought which the Church has to assess according to its own light. The dominant tone of the Council's assessments is one of generous approval (to such a degree that some Protestant commentators objected that it was neglecting its role of critic--an ob-jection that has not often been lodged against the mod-ern Churchl). Among the ideas which the Council sin-gles out, that of the dignity of man is central (nn. 12 ft.). Associated with it are the value of liberty (n. 17) and of interpersonal relationships (n. 23) and the inviolability of conscience (nn. 16 ff.). The latter includes the right to religious freedom expounded in the declaration sig-nificantly entitled Dignitatis humanae. These conditions and inspirations of modern culture affect the mentality of those who become religious as well as that of the world to which many of them are sent as apostles or to which, in any case, they must relate themselves. Religious communities are urged to foster among their members a "suitable awareness" of these conditions (PC 2 and 18). The Council clearly rejects the attitude which has at times had some currency that it is wrong for religious to have any thought whatsoever about the world they have left behind. Those who are sent to evangelize the world must know it. On the other hand, however, the Council does not recommend the indiscriminate seek-ing of knowledge and experience but only that which is "suitable." For not all knowledge of the world is useful for the apostolate. It would even be detrimental if the knowledge of the world were secured at the expense of that knowledge of God which it is the apostle's mission to bring to the world. There is a true sense in which the religious ought not to be concerned with the world he has left behind, and the Council says nothing to dis-credit this principle but rather confirms it. Contem-platives, devoted to a life of prayer and penance in an atmosphere of solitude and silence, are expressly en-joined to maintain "sacredly" their withdrawal from the world (PC 7). The same principle would apply in vary-ing degrees to all other religious also, although no specifications are given. In adapting to the conditions of modern times, com-munities need to reexamine the way they are governed and the official documents that fix the structure of their life: constitutions, directories, books of customs and ceremonies, of prayers, and so forth (PC 3). As to the mode of government, the Council adopted a view---one might almost say, a "mood"--that has been widely expressed in recent literature. Principles that Lumen gentium had previously applied to the hierarchy are here applied to religious superiors. Authority should be used in a spirit of service and charity with respect for both human personality and the dignity of divine sonship in those who are subject to it. This means that the views of the latter be listened to willingly and that they beencouraged to make a personal contribution to the welfare of the community and the Church through an obedience that is active and responsible.' But these recommendations have to do with the mode in which the superior exercises his office and do not imply any diminution of his authority to decide what is to be done and to require that his decisions be followed (PC 14). A list of recommended adaptations for community practice is given in Per[ectae caritatis: elimination of needless class divisions (n. 15), modification of the papal cloister of nuns (n. 16), simplification of the religious habit (n. 17), fuller education to prepare religious for their work and their life, hence also "the careful selection of competent educators and directors for them (n. 18), the federation of monasteries and communities which have a similar spirit or engage in similar work (n. 22), conferences among major superiors of different com-munities (n. 23), and so forth. All of these recommendations are familiar, and most of them have already been adopted by many of the com-munities for which they are relevant. Otherwise, the Council makes no specific recommendations but calls upon each community to determine for itself what adap-tations it needs. This is not due to pusillanimity but ¯ "Successful renewal and proper adaptation cannot be achieved unless every member of a community cooperates . In decisions which involve the future ol~ an institute as a whole, superiors should in an appropriate manner consult the members and ~ve them a hearing" (PC 4). + 4- 4- 4- 4- Edward O'Connor, C,$.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS to realism. "l-he adaptations needed cannot be deter: mined by the universal nature of religious comm_unities; they are a function of the peculiar aims, spirit, and cir-cumstances of each (PC 8). Furthermore, we have just seen that it is a cardinal principle of'the Council's whole philosophy-of renewal that all the members of a com-munity ought to have an active and responsible part in its deliberations; it is simply consistent .with that prin-ciple to leave to each community the responsibility for determining what changes it needs. Incidentally, it ought not to be overlooked that this very readiness to leave responsibility to the men in the ranks already represents a major adaptation to the democratic temper of modern culture (~ven while being at the same time a return to a more evangelical spirit). III Besides the sources of spiritual.ity common to the en~ tire Church, each community has a special inspiration of its own, which also is a source of vitality for 'it. The Council wants this, too, to be kept in full vigor: Loyal recognition and safekeeping should be accorded to the spirit of founders, as also to all the particular goals and wholesom, e traditions .which constitute the heritage of each commumty (PC 2). As a result, there is comiderable variation in the fo~ms of religious life, which the Church treasures as coming about from a divine plan and adding to her bea~uty as well as expediting her capacity for good works (PC 1). There was a time when the differences between the orders.were the cause of animosity~ and jealousy. That day is, thank God, largely past; it has been succeeded, however, by an age in which it is more and more difficult to discern the distinctive purpose °and spirit of any but a few of them. In America, especially, as the communities transplanted from Europe have been. severed~om their roots, they have tended to enter into the sa.me works-- schools, parishes, mission bands, journ.als~and to adopt the same spirit. Franciscans and Dominicans, J,esuit,s and Benedictines, if the.y dropped their habits and initials, would be scarcely distinguishable° f_rp~m one another. Without denying the good aspects bf,.this development, the Council nevertheless declares that "it serves the best interests of the Church for communities to have their own special character and purpose." As park of the religious renewal, it calls for "a continuot~s return to. the original inspiration behind a given institute." In practice, this,means that: Communities should faithfully malnt~in and fulfill their proper activities., and abandon whatever activities are, today less in keeping with the spirit of the community and its authentic character (PC 20). While espousing the interests of the whole Church, they must do so in a way that accords with their individual character (PC 2). This is no permit for an inertial perpetuation of the status quo. Continuous effort is required to keep in view the authentic inspiration of a community, and a selfless fidelity and generosity are necessary to make its activities conform to this standard. For example, a contemplative community may be obliged to renounce types of social service that distract too much.from its life of prayer, even though this service is needed by the Church and a source of support for the community. A missionary com-munity may have to give up parochial establishments which were once undertaken as missions but meanwhile l{ave become comfortable sources of revenue. A com-munity devoted to the poor may need to have second thoughts if in fact its schools and other works have be-come chiefly a service of the well-to-do. However, the right decision in such matters cannot always be settled simply by an appeal to the original constitution of the institute. The actual history and achievements of a community are factors that modify as well as manifest its character; divine providence is at work in the unexpected turns of its development as well as in the vision that inspired its founder. Who would advise the Jesuits to give up their schools and go back to the unique intention of working in the Holy Land? Furthermore, the human involvements, both of religious and of those to whom they minister, are so complex that to drop an unwanted work might sometimes do more harm than to continue with it. Thus fidelity to the spirit of the founder is neither an easy rule to apply nor a pretext for indifference. It is a difficult virtue, requiring vitality, discrimination, objectivity, and adaptability, not to mention patience and perseverance. Nevertheless, it is a condition sine qua non of au-thentic renewal. For a religious community is the work of God more than of man. Even though it has not the same sacred and unchangeable character that are attrib-uted to the Church, it is still the product of an inspira-tion of the Holy Spirit by whom the founder was im-bued with the vision not only to recognize a new need but also to await the moment and adopt the means prepared by God. He could not otherwise have fitted together a plan of life that would constitute an authen-tic school of Christian spirituality (see LG 43) in which souls could advance in identification with the one Christ while yet fulfilling the functions distinctive of this com-munity. ÷ ÷ ÷ ~llglous rite VOLUME 26, 1967 413 ÷ ÷ ÷ Edward. O'Connor, ,C.S;C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS Not every~ religious receives the charism of a founde;'. Most are called to be formed by the Holy Spirit in the mold of a community alreadyestablished and to transmit the spirit of this community faithfully to others. But the fact that the Church has summoned us to make ad-justments in our traditional way of life can become for many a temptation to a kind of spiritual adven-turism. We need therefore to remember that the Church's summons does not give us the grace of a founder or qualify us to attempt a re-creation. The pur-pose of adaptations is to bring out more effectively the spirit of an existing community, not to lay the founda-tions of a new one. Finally, we must take note of the concept of the religious life which emerges from the documents of Vatican II. This is relevant both to the process of adapting to modern conditions and to that of returning to the sources. Wise adaptations have to be directed by an accurate awareness of the nature and purpose of a religious community: some of the reforms that are occa-sionally proposed today make one wonder what notion, of the religious life has inspired them. On the other hand, the spirit and practices of the religious life .are themselves important sources of spirituality. What the Council has to say about the nature of the religious life will be summarized here rather succinctly. Most of it will be familiar to religious acquainted with the traditional literature. However, it would be a mis-take to dismiss this doctrine as banal and common-place. The traditional teachings, distilled down to some of their finest elements, take on new authority .and holi-ness when they issue from the pondered judgment of the pastors of the Church assembled together as a college, This is no slight recommendation for a body' of princi-ples intended to govern a way of life. Even more, the statements of the Council testify to the substantial correctness of a doctrine which has been as-saulted by many challenges and questionings in recent years. The literature on the religious life, which used to be so conventional (and so dull), began to be quickened only a few years ago with a certain freshness and novelty as new interpretations and recommendations were pro-posed,: by authors drawing inspiration from modern psy-chology and philosophy as well as (or instead of)tra-ditional sources. The word aggiornamento ~uttered by Pope John and the open and inquiring attitude of the" Council did not engenddr this new trend but helped to ignite it into a conflagration that radically challenges almost every element of the traditional ideas of the religious life trom things as basic as poverty, chastity, and obedience to things as superficial as the daily ho-rarium; from externals such as the religious habit to the interior spirit of recollection and renunciation. Some of the new views undoubtedly represent a gen-uine contribution of modern culture to the religious life (though often only in the form of keys that enable the tradition to open doors into its own profound re-cesses and draw more deeply on. its authentic sources). In. other cases, however, the true meaning of the reli-gious life seems to have been lost sight of in some meas-ure by people whose main inspiration comes from mod-ern humanism or existentialism or personalism .rather than from that spirit which engendered the religious life in the first place and which must always be the mainspring of its vitality, however much it may be strengthened by other tributaries. And in some cases, the taste of experimentation and innovation seems to have excited an appetite to make drastic changes simply for the thrill of it. Against such a background, the teachings of Vatican II come as a discriminating and authoritative judgment upon th~ new theology of religious life. Tha~ the Council was aware of the new views and even assimilated some of them is manifest in the documents, as the points re-viewed above indicate. It could hardly have been other-wise 'when theologians such as l~ahner, Congar, Schille-beeckx, and others were involved in the Council as periti and consultants. When, therefore, the Council reiterates traditional teachings, even in the very document in which it calls for adaptation, its action is clearly not a perfunctory repetition of doctrines inherited {rom the past but a deliberate and meaningful affirmation of the enduring validity of things which may not be altered under the pretext of modernization. The fathers saw that for a deep and lasting renewal of the religious life as well as for an intelligent adaptation it is indispensable that the authentic meaning of this life be unambiguously grasped and its essential practices faithfully maintained. (1) What does Vatican II regard as the essence of the religious life? The documents generally avoid speaking in the form of definitions,5 preferring simply to point out those 'values which are of chief importance and furnish the religious life with its raison d'dtre. The dom-inant accent is Christocentric. The opening paragraph of Perfectae caritatis describes religious as men and women who strive "to follow Christ more freely and imitate Him more exactly," and thus "unite themselves 6LG 44 does, however,, declare that "the religious state is consti-tuted by the profession of the evangelical counsels." Religious Life VOLUME 26, 1967 415 Edward O'Ctmnor~ C~S.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS to Christ 'through a self-surrender involving their entire lives," and who "devote themselves to the Lord in a special way." 6 Hence, in laying down principles for renewal, the decree begins with the following: Since the fundamental norm of the religious life is a follow-i, ng of Christ as proposed by the Gospel, such is to be regarded by all communities as their supreme law (PC 2a). The following of Christ consists in listening to His word and doing His work (PC 5). The imitation, on the other hand, is realized especially in the counsels: They imitate Christ the virgin and the poor man, who redeemed men by an obedience which carried Him even to death on the cross. (PC 1). Because of this likeness to Christ which ought to char-acterize their state, religious are Counted on by the Church to manifest Christ to the world: Through them Christ should be shown contemplating on the mountain, announcing God's kingdom to the multitude, heal-ing the sick and the maimed; turning sinners to wholesome fruit, blessing children, doing good to all, and always obeying the will of the Father who sent Him (LG 46).' (2) There is a widespread tendency in the new literao tur~ to explain the religious life chiefly in terms of service of neighbor as i{ God were attained only in-directly and implicitly. The Council squarely contradicts this view and repeatedly declares that the religious life is defined essentially by its relationship to .God. The ~elationship to men is important but secondary and consequent upon the theological reference. LG calls the religious life "a state consecrated to God" (n. 45) and describes those who embrace it as "totally dedicated to God . more intimately consecrated to di-vine worship," and as referred to His honor and service by a new and special title (.n. 44). PC declares expressly: The religious life is intended above all else to lead those who embrade it to an imitation of Christ and union with God (n. 2).8 It goes on to add (n. 6): Those who profess the evangelical counsels love and seek before all else that God who took the initiative in loving us; in every circumstance they aim to develop a life hidden with Christ in God. This prior dedication to the things of God is, to be sure, profitable to the Church even apart from any ac- ~ PC 2 and LG 44 speak ~n the same vein. ~ This idea is developed further in LG 42. s See also n. 1, which desdribes the religious life as one "dedicated to God." tive apostolate which the ~reiigious may undertake as the following statement declares; but it is not the motive of helping the Church but rather the intrinsic value of dedication to God which constitutes the primary motive for the religious life. The religious life, by giving its members greater freedom from earthly cares, manifests., the presence of heavenly goods al-ready here below, bears witness to the new and eternal life ac-quired by Christ's redemption, and foretells the coming resur-rection and the glory of the heavenly kingdom (LG. (3) On the other hand, however, dedication to God does not exempt religious from a practical concern for men, but rather "gives rise and urgency to the love of one's:~neighbor for the salvation of the world and the upbui!ding of the, Church" (PC 6). ThErefore, even while i's~eking.Go.d before all things and, only Him," religious should also seek to unite apostolic love with their con-templation (PC 5). Their interior life itself ought to be permeated with devotion to the welfare of the whole Church (LG 44). The conciliar documents are alive with a sense of apostolic urgency. "The missionary spirit is b~ all means to be,maintained in religious communities" declares PC 20. . Mgreover, in those communities dedicated specifically to the apostolic ministry or to works of mercy, these activities are not to he regarded as accidental to the religious life: . In such communities, the very nature of the religious life requires apostolic action and services, since a sacred ministry and a special work of charity have been consigned to them by the Church'~nd must be discharged in her name (PC 8). (4) Although the religious life ~as a meaning that is chiefly positive, it also has a negative side that is indis, pens~ible:, renunciation. The crucified character of this life h~is from the beginning given scandal and provoked 9 ;Fhe terms of this statement ought to be noted 9arefu~ly.It is often heard today that the religious is an eschatological witness, a sign for the faithful of the kingdom that is to come. The Council has not failed to take note of this'aspect of the life. But it puts ih first place ~he witnessing "to the presence of heavenly goods already here below.'; The divine life to which the religious witnesses is not merely a future one that has been promised, bu~ a present one that is given already by grace. Religious are not thos~ who live in a spiritual "desert, buoyed up solel~ by the expectation of the Prom-ised Land; ,they are supported already by a "hidden manna," and have already present within themselves the source and wellspring of life. It is true that all Christians living the life of grace possess this same uncreated Source; but it is the special Vocation and mis-sion of religious to manifest its presence and reality by the joy and peace of their lives amid renunciations wl~ich would otherwise be depressing. The apostolic value and obligations of the religious "life is still furthe'r develoi~ed in the Decree on the Missions, nn. 18 and 40. + + + Religious Lite VOLUME 26, 1967 417 ÷ ÷ Edward O'Conno~ C.S.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS ,t18 attack, and a certain modern humanism tries by every possible means to eliminate it, for example, by reinter-. preting renunciation to mean simply the rejection of sin, without any positive mortification. This view is firmly rejected by the Council as it declares: The members of each community should recall above every. thing else that by their profession of the evangelical counsels they have given answer to a divine call to live for God alone, not only by dying to sin (see Rom 6:11) but also by renouncing the world . Therefore in fidelity to their profession and ~n renunciation of all things for the sake of Christ (see Mk 10:28), let religious follow Him (see Mt 19:21) as their one necessity (see Lk 10:42) (PC 5). There is no contradiction between the stand taken here and the positive, appreciative and friendly attitude towards the world expressed in the constitution Gau. dium et spes. The Council is simply recognizing the validity of the traditional distinction between the re-. ligious and secular orders. The world is good in itself; that is why there can be good secular Christians, as LG shows in devoting a full chapter to "the universal call to holinesS." But the religious is called to renounce the world in witness to a good that transcends it. Likewise, the Council recognizes and even insists on the need of a Christian renewal of the secular or temporal order. But. this renewal is the proper responsibility of seculars, not of religious. "The laity must take on the renewal of the temporal order as their own special obligation," declares the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity (n. 7).1° The specific attention given to the role of the laymen in the Church is one of the distinctive features of the Council. LG devoted a full chapter to the subject, while the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity spelled out. its practical implications. One of the dominant notes of. the Council's teaching was an affirmation of the laity's genuine responsibility for the work of the Church with. the strong recommendation that in those things thai: belong to their competence this responsibility be re. spected. This doctrine is not without significance for the religious state. Since the Middle Ages, the religious and clergy have tended to preempt the role of judgment and decision in the Church. This came about by necessity for want of a sufficiently educated laity. It was also a defensive reaction against a series of unorthodox tendencies of lay origin. But however just and under. standable the cause, the result was the involvement of both clergy and religious in business that was naturally alien to their state. For the past fifty years or more, there has been a growing consciousness of the need to rectify 1o Note that laity, ~s the term is used in this document, denote.~ seculars. this condition. The documents of Vatican II represent a decisive step by the Church in eschewing the excessive clericalism and "religiosity" (if the term may so be used) of past centuries. The purpose of this step is to restore to the laity a more vigorous and healthy function in the Church, but it should also have the important side effect of making it easier for priests and religious to be more simply and authentically priests and religious. (5) The fundamental renunciations of the religious state consist in the evangelical counsels of poverty, chas-tity, and obedience. Not that the primary meaning of these counsels is the negative one of renunciation, but that a renunciation constitutes the material basis of each. In the name of modern psychology, all three counsels, but especially chastity and obedience, are under attack as impeding the maturation and fulfillment of the per-sonality. The Council replies that the very opposite is the case; the counsels make a positive and precious con-tribution to the humane development of the individual person: The profession of the evangelical counsels, though entail-ing the renunciation of certain values which undoubtedly merit high esteem, does not detract from a genuine development of the human person. Rather by its very nature it is most benefi-cial to that development. For the counsels, voluntarily under-taken according to each one's personal vocation, contribute greatly to purification of heart and spiritual liberty. They continually enkindle the fervor of charity (LG 46). (6) Vatican II was not content with a blanket en-dorsement of the counsels as "fostering the holiness of the Church in a special way" (LG 42) but touched deftly and luminously on the special contribution made by each. Both LG and PC give primary attention to virgin-ity and celibacy as more representative of the religious life than either poverty or obedience. This corresponds both to the common sense instinct of the Christian peo-ple at large and to the actual history of the religious life in the Church which began with consecrated vir-ginity and was supplemented subsequently by the other two counsels. Moreover, all Christians must imitate and witness to the self-emptying of the poor and obedient Christ, but celibacy is "a precious gift of divine grace to some" (LG 42). In declaring the value of religious celibacy, the Coun-cil scarcely alludes to the practical advantages often played up by modern writers who see the vow as freeing a man or woman from the cares of a particular family in order to devote himself or herself to the People of God at large. This value is not denied; but the Council stresses rather the properly religious value already pointed out by St. Paul that celibacy frees a person "to ÷ Religious Li]e VOLUME 26, 1967 419 + + 4, Edward O'Connor, C,S.C. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 420 devote his ,.entire self to God with ~undivided heart" (LG 42). It is both a sign and a stimulus of charity, "causing the human heart to burn with greater love for God and men" (PC 12)~ The notion that the Christian virgin is an eschatological witness, while not specifically mentioned by the Council, is cerk~inl~ implicit in °its general commendation of the religious state, which we have seen. Finally, the consecrated virgin is, in a unique' way, a witness to the marriage of Christ and the Church (PC 12), a living sign of the Church's vocation as Bride of Christ. '~ ~ ' (7) Poverty is (unlil(e chastity and obedience) a forrfi of witness especially esteemed by the modern world (PC 13). This gives it a kind of strategic importance in an age in which it is so difficult for the religious life to win appreciation. In a very practical vein, the Cotincil byP othinet sm oeuret tfhaactt tthhea tp ar ascutpiceeri oofr ,sp poevremrtiys siiso nno hta ssa bties.f~iend obtained for the use of material goods. The religiou~ must be poor in fact as well as in spirit, and communities must practice corporate as well as individual poverty. And while repeating the fundamental biblical admon.~- tion to trust in the heavenly Father and to put aside undue concern for material provisions, the Council also recognizes that some of the traditional expressions 'of religious poverty may need to be replaced by more sui~:~ able ones today (PC 13). (8) On the religious meaning of obedience, the Coun-cil is emphatic in its recourse to traditional lahguage to describe the directly theological values involved~ Religious obedience is a "renunciation of 6ne's will," (LG 42) and a total dedication to God whereby one's own self is offered in ~acrifice (PC 14). By sub-mitring to superiors as God's representatives and by being guided by,them in the service of others, one als6 unites himself more firmly to the savin~ will of God and puts his ~ictivity more securel); under the inspirati.on 'of the Holy Spirit (PC 14). In this way religious obedience makes a man a firmer and surer instrument of Cod'in all his undertakings; and only in the measure that hei.~ so can his apostolic activity be effective; Finally, religioui~ obedience commits a man more firmly to die ministry of the Church (PC 14). I~LG 42 gives the following ca~efuliy 'construct~ed deflnidon~of the obedience of religious: "In order to be more ~ully conformed to the obedient Christ, they submtt themselves to men .for the sake of: God in the matter of perfection~ be~orid what is required by pre-cept." Monsignor Gallagher's translatioh~ in The, Documents Vatican H is, in my judgm.ent, quite erroneous. The original., text reads: "illi sdlicet sese h0mini propter Deum in re perfectionis 'ultra mensu~am praecepti subiciunt, ut Christo 0boedienti sese., plenitF~ con formen t Y Thus, the Council sees religious obedience as having the twofold value (1) of sacrifice by which God is directly glorified and (2) of apostolic fruitfulness, by making the would-be apostle the instrument of the interior move-ment of the Holy Spirit and of the external and sacra-mental movement of the Church's ministry. This super-natural vision of the value of obedience has no room for the minimizing tendencies of a closed humanism which looks upon obedience merely as a source of guid-ance for the immature and a means of order in the organization. The Council is, however, ,attentive to .the anxieties of those who fear that a regime of obedience will hamper the development of personal maturity. To avert such a danger, it recommends, not that obedience be diminished in any way, but rather that it be made more personal and radical: Let [religiousi bring to the execution of commands and to the discharge of assignments entrusted to them the resources of their minds and wills, their gifts of nature and grace. Religious obedi-ence lived in this manner will not diminish the dignity of the human person but will rather lead it to maturity, in consequence of that enlarged freedom which belongs to the children of God (PC 14). Obedience does indeed degrade the person when it is merely a passive submission, and still more when it is an unwilling compliance submitted to only reluctantly and under compulsion. But free and spontaneous conformity to the decisions of a competent authority is a genuinely personal and ennobling act, even (and perhaps espe-cially) when disagreement with the judgment of au-thority turns conformity into a crucifying purification of self-will. (9) Finally, the Council makes it clear that religious life is not just a way chosen by men in which to serve God and neighbor on the same plane with any secular profession. It is in the proper sense a vocation; that is, a response to a personal call from God which is not given to everyone: The members of each community should recall above every-thing else that by their profession of the evangelical counsels they have given answer to a divine call (PC 5; see also n.1). Let each one who has been called to profess the counsels take care to remain in the vocation to which he has been called by God (LG 47). Consequently, the religious life is not primarily man's enterprise or man's achievement, but his response in love and fidelity to the personal and loving invitation of the Lord to follow Him in a privileged way. Hence, it is also a special gift of grace. "The evangelical counsels are a divine gift from the Lord to His Church," above all in the case of chastity, "a precious gift of divine grace, ÷ ÷ Religious Lile VOLUME 26, 1967 421 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS which the Father has given to certain ones (see Mt 19:11, 1 Cor 7:7)" (LG 42). Some modern writers, concerned with defending the freedom with which religious profession is made, have tended to:minimize or even deny, in effect, the reality of the special, call from God which this "vocation" origi-nates. The Council is quite sensitive to the exigencies of human, liberty, as we have. already seen; but it will not concede that the freedom of God in "calling whom He wills" 12 detracts from the freedom of man. Rather, the very idea of a call presupposes freedom in the one who is to respond,la (10) In attempting to represent the distinctive holiness of the religious state corresponding to the divine call on which it. is based, popular expositions sometimes give the impression that only religious are seeking perfection whereas seculars are content merely to save their souls. Vatican II energetically opposes such a view by insisting over and over that "all the faithful of Christ, of what-ever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life" '(LG.40).x4 This emphasis has led some readers to suppose that the Council intended to revoke the long-standing teaching of the Church that the reli-gious life is .in itself a holier state and more conducive to union with God than secular life.x5 Close reading of the documents, however, makes it clear that Vatican II's emphasis on the real holiness accessible in the secular life is not meant as a denial of the special holiness att~cl~ing to religious profession. The latter is presented as a real consecration of the person to the service of God which provides genuine and powerful helps to union with God and as a way of life that manifests with special clarity even that holines~ common to the entire People of God. In addition to the ~See Mk 3:13. This text is not cited by the Constitution but per-tains simply to my commentary. ~ Thus, even though it is God who first calls a man to make p~o- [ession of the counsels, poverty is said to have been embraced by the free choice of the children of God (LG 42). Moreover, as has already been noted, LG teaches that the effect of the counsels' is to enhance inan's interior liberty. l~This' doctrine is developed throughout chapters 5 ("The Laity') and° 6 ("The Universal Call to Holiness") of Lumen gentium as well as in the decree on the apostolate of the laity (Apostolicam actuositatem, where note especially n. 4). ~ Such a doctrine had been defended by the Council of Trent, for example, when it anathematized those who deny that "it is better and more blessed to observe virginity or celibacy than to contract marriage" (Session 24, can. 11; DS 1810). It should go with-out saying that this comparison of states is not a comparison of per-sons. One who is called to a holier state of life is not for that reason clmer to God than someone else in a lower state; and for each per-son the best and holiest flay of life is that to which God calls him, which may not be in itself the highest. texts already, cited above, the following may be noted." The religious life is one "of surpassing value" (PC 1), "fosters the perfection of charity in a unique way" (LG 45). It can be characterized appropriately as "the pursuit of perfect charity through the :exercise of the evangelical counsels" (PC 1) which enable a person to "follow Christ more freely and imitate Him more closely" (PC, 1 and also LG 44). Hence, the holiness of the Church is "fostered in a special way by the observ-ance of the counsels" (LG 42) and "appears in an espe-cially appropriate way" in them (LG 39). As a conse-quence, the religious state "more adequately manifests the presence of heavenly goods here below," foretells the resurrected state, and shows to all the world the power of Christ and His Spirit (LG 44). These teachings do not give religious, grounds for self-esteem and complacency; to take them in that sense would be to ignore the spirit of humility, charity, service and dedication which pervades the Council statements. But they come as a needed tonic in an era of vocation shortage and crises. For given the ditficult renunciations entailed by the religious life, how can anyone be ex-pected to embrace it if other easier and more human ways of life are equally ,good? And how can anyone tempted to discouragement over his vocation be ex-pected to persevere without a strong conviction of the excellence of that to which his life is dedicated? In summary, the renewal envisaged by Vatican II in-volves two simultaneous processes: adaptation to new circumstances and recovery of that which is perennial. It would hardly be just to say that adaptation has to do only with external and superficial aspects of the reli-gious life, since it is to be based on a generous apprecia-tion and assimilation of the qualities of the modern spirit and can even lead to modification in the manner of government of the community. Nevertheless, the Council" clearly .teaches that the es-sential purpose, spirit, and methods of the religious life must remain unaltered; and it insists that the chief proc-ess of renewal will be a return to those sources from which the religious life always has and always will'.draw its vitality. These ar~ of three types: those common to all Christians (~hich~ are the most important of all), those characteristic of the religious life, and finally the dis-tinctive spirit and end of each community. It is to these that religious.must look for the grace to become ir~ fullest fact what they .hlready profess to be. In the religious and Christianlife,. renewal cishsists less in inventing some-thii~ g new than in .becoming something very VOLUME 26, 1967 423 J. M. R. TILLARD, A Point O.P. of Departure J. M. R. Tillard, O,P., is a faculty member of the Do-minican College of Theology; 96 Em-press Avenue; Ot-tawa 4, Canada. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS The conciliar decree on the adaptation and renewal of religious life does not seem Iikely to go down in history as one of the great documents of the Council. It will be judged with a degree of severity; and it will be charac-terized as being somewhat routine and uninspired. If it is compared with the texts on ecumenism, on the apostol-ate of the laity, or on the missions, it is soon seen that th~ authors of the decree did not succeed in deeply penetrat-ing into the implications of the dogmatic constitution, Lumen gentium, which is the doctrinal charter of the Council, nor in drawing from it a strongly structt.~red synthesis of the exigencies ,demanded by the present status of the world's salvation from all forms of the re-' ligious life. There was too much readiness to graft the new perspectives onto the old stock---one that has been deeply enrooted for several centuries. This lack of profundity seems to us to be a serious matter. For religious life is not situated on the periphery of the mystery of the Church but at its heart's center. Hence, it is above all in religious life that there should appear the work of renewal that has been accomplished ¯ by the Spirit of God for the total fidelity of the Church to the salvific plan of the Father. At the heart of the People of God religious should become--and precisely by reason of their vocation--a sort of visible signboard on which the~'e can be clearly read the appeals and in-spirations of Him who d'irects all things to the achieve-ment of the paschal work of Jesus. History shows us how in the course of the centuries the great impulses that have stirred up the life of the Church have most often sprung forth from religious communities: missionary en-thusiasm contributed by the monks and then in modern times by communities of men and women founded speci-ally for this purpose; the movement of conversion to evangelical simplicity initiated in the Middle Ages by the mendicant orders and in our own day by fraternities of the type of the Little Brothers and the Little Sisters of Jesus; the apostolate of the milieux of the poor and the evangelization of the working class or of the rural areas stemming from undertakings such as those of Vin-cent de Paul, of P~re Anizan, and of Jeanne Jugan. This overview shows that the institution of religious life has as its vocation to be a privileged instrument of the Spirit for the perpetual renewal of the People of God. While the hierarchy possesses a charism of pastoral leadership chiefly directed to giving the faithful the essential gifts of life in the kingdom (the word and the Eucharist), the religious institution in its multiple forms seems on the other hand to be destined to welcome and to fructify to the highest degree possible all the different charisms be-stowed on the Church in view of. its constant conversion to the fullness of the gospel. This is the reason why all reform of any depth in the Church should base itself on a renewal both of the pastoral element and of the re-ligious ~ life. P(~$ITIVE ELEMENTS When one finishes reading the few pages that contain the twenty-five numbers of the Decree on Religious Life, it is difficult to keep back a certain feeling of disappoint-ment. Does it really go to the heart of the matter, placing religious life in confrontati~)n not with an abstract Church but with the exigencies of the present status, of the divine plan of salvation? Has religious life been genuinely rethought in a basic way in order to bring it into full harmony with the call of the Spirit in the 'world of today as it actually is? Of what value are the numerous practical counsels which are given in the document and which seem"to be overimpregnated with a kind of men-tality that is still juridical? Is there not at times a tend-ency to be contented with minutiae when from all sides is heard the cry of human beings who are thirsty for sal-vation? The mighty wind of Pentecost which blows through the other texts of the Council has not sufficiently penetrated the lines of this decree. Once this has been ackno,~,ledged and admitted~ how-ever, there must not be any lapse into a pessimism that would relegate this text to the limbo of those ecclesial de-crees destined to remain dead letters by reason of their inadaptation. As it stands with all its considerable limita-tions, the decree still contains essential elements that can enable the different religious families to gradually enter upon an authentic movement of renewal. It even seems to us that the decree, in spite of its limitations, can inspire all religious communities to a large-scale examination of conscience--and this is the necessary prelude to conver-sion. For the degree is presented as an official invitation --often categorical in its expression (see, for example, nn. 3, 18)--that the Council directs to religiohs to refuse to be smugly satisfied but to apply themselves as speedily, ÷ ÷ ÷ Point o] Departure VOLUME 26, 1967 425 + ÷ ÷ ~. M. R. Tillard, O.P. REVIEW F.OR RELIGIOUS 426 as possible to a reform of everything that concerns their life of community as such. To be sure--and this is a matter of regret--it gives only the initial call to this, the perspectives which it opens with regard to this difficult task being lacking in a certain degree of profundity. But it has made the call, and this is what is important. It is true that movements of renewal have appeared here and there in religious life. But they have been chiefly expressed by the appearance of new communities that wish to be fully adapted to the actual circumstances of our times. Outside of rare exceptions, the older congrega-tions have not renewed themselves in depth in order t6 respond better to the concrete needs of the.present time but have continued blissfnlly on their way with their constitutions (often dating from their founder or found-tess), their customs books, their manuals of prayer--all of which have been adorned by the weight of time with an aureole of holy veneration. Hence, there exists a pro-liferation of orders, congregations, and institutes whose numbers are perhaps better explained by a lack of sup-pleness in the older communities in face of the need for a real "conversion" rather than~ by a multiplicity of char-isms. Every reform is made almost exclusively by refer; ence to the primitive rule without sufficient account be-ing taken of the calls that God daily directs to His Church by the events and stirrings of human history. It is for-gotten that the People of God lives its mystery in time, that its members are shaped from within by their social context. Moreover, up until the last years, the advice and coun-sel of the hierarchy as well as the exhortations of preachers and spiritual writers have invariably been di-rected to the personal renewal of each religious. He was asked to seek his sanctification with ardor; one or other method of the interior life was proposed to him. First consideration was not given to the community as such in its entirety, in its profound mystery as a cell of the Church called by the Lord to giv.e the world a common witness of evangelical life. For it was not yet realistically grasped that if the Church is essentially communion of life of all the faithful with the Father and ~mong them, selves in Christ Jesus and that if religious life is inscribed in the heart of this mystery of communion, then religious life must first of all be considered in° its dimension as community, as brotherly communion. The quest for p~rsonal perfection (and this is essential for all religious life) can be situated only in a climate of quest for ec-clesial perfection. The great innovation of the decree on religiou~ life is its insistence on the renewal and adaptation of corn-' munities as such. Even though the section explicitly, con- cerned with common life (n. 15) does not sufficiently express the specific quality of religious-common-life (what is said applies indifferently to every cell of the Church), still the text is penetrated throughout by the intention of promoting first of all the renewal of communities as communities in the light of the renovation of the Church which the Council desired. This is why with its authority as a conciliar document it requires "a reconsideration of the way .of governing religious institutes. Therefore, constitutions, directories, books of customs, of prayers, and of ceremonies, and similar documents should be suitably revised and adapted to the decrees of this Coun-cil, obsolete prescriptions being removed" (n~ 3). This way of speaking seems to us to have important implica-tions. It does not demand merely a simple dusting off of institutions, nor is it satisfied with the removal of certain customs that are outmoded. Rather, it demands that everything be revised in the spirit of the Council itself: this is what has priority. Henceforth, general chapters must orientate themselves towards the Council before occupying themselves with the specific problems of their order or congregation. Conversion to the Gospel But the decree goes further. It makes appear---quietly and at times somewhat disappointingly--the great princi-ple which should serve as the basis for the renewal of religious life. First of all, there must be conversion to the gospel itself (n. 2) which is "the supreme rule for all institutes." This statement needs to be well understood. It does not mean simply that everything (the constitu. tions, customs, and so forth) must be judged in the light of the gospel and that nothing should be retained unless it is found to be conformed to the thought of the Lord. Its principal meaning is that everything ought to be established and structured beginning from the gospel. The nuance here is very important. The gospel is the first and fundamental rule. All the rest, even the constitu-tions, have as their purpose and raison d'etre the applica-tion of the content of the gospel to the special .mode of life demanded by the specific purpose of the community. The constitutions do not add ~to the gospel, they are not alongside the gospel; they are only its commentary for the concrete situation of the institute. Whether a person is a Jesuit, a Carmelite, a Dominican, a Sister of Charity, or a Christian Brother, there is fundamentally the same rule, the gospel. It is necessary that this should become more perceptible; especially in the formation of novices where the study of Scripture should take precedence-- qualitatively and quantitatively--over that of particular rules. The conciliar decree demands in the name of the 4. 4. 4. Point ot Departure VOLUME 26, 1967 + + ]. M. R. Tillard, O.P~ REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS Church that henceforth beginning be made from the gospel in establishing the norms regulating the. life of all communities .Jof all types, including "their way of governing" (n. 3). It must not be thought that this applies solely to congregations that will be founded in the future. All institutes without exception must enter into the move-; ment of profound renewal thatthe Spirit Himself is initiating today in the Church. All, therefore, must turn to the gospel as their supreme rule. Conversion to the Eccl~sial Dimension of Religious Life The foregoing leads to a secohd principle of renewal that is equally present in the decree though it is affirmed in an even less clear way: Religious communities must be ~onverted to the ecclesial dimension of their mystery. This statement must not be interpreted only'in the sense that religious should strive to put themselves more gen-erously and completely at the service of the Church (see nn. 5, 6,. 14)or that they should ende~ivor to share the. Church's outlook (n. 2). That this should be done goes without saying, and for many religious families it will demand a radical change in their methods. When the text is read, the impression is left that the relationship of religious to the Church is situated solely on this .level of service: religious institutes represent a considerable grouping of apostolic energies which should not refuse to let themselves be "utilized"; and anxiety is felt lest there be a.certain deflection of these energies to the profit of overly particularized interests. This danger certainly exists; and at times communities yield to the temptation to close, in upon themselves--a situation that quickly turns into a c0unterwitness to the g6spel. Nevertheless, let us note on the other hand that the hierarchical au-thbrity does not always endeavor to integrate religious in a vital way into past6ral 'effort, too often considering them as being apart. From all this arises a tension which should be resolved at any¯ cost. But the problem of the conversion of religious to the ecclesial dimension of their life is situated on a completely different level, that of sign. The decree makes an allusion to this in its inspiring presentation of the three tradi-tional vows. The religious does not make his profession of obedience, poverty, and chastity for the sole purpose of thereby finding his personal perfection nor simply to make himself more available for the needs of the Church. By his vows and the life which they encompass he seeks to express, to signify, to mal~e more strikingly perceptible to the world, to reveal the inmost nature of the very mystery of the Church. Within the' entir"e People of God the religious community thus represents the p~ivileged place where the Church expresses to herself her deepest being. Religious life is like a living preannouncement of that to which the pilgrim Church is slowly marching. It is from this that there is derived the supreme value of contemplative orders of which the decree speaks one-sidedly when it seeks to justify them on the plane of "service" whereas they are completely orientated to the perfection of "sign." By chastity, for example, the com-munity announces and in a certain way mysteriously actualizes the union of Christ Jesus and His Church. By its poverty, the community proclaims the absoluteness of God, that the possession of the love of the Father is for the Church the one thing necessary. By its obedience, it evokes and actualizes the profound communion between the will of Christ and that of the Father, a communion that is prolonged in actuality in the Church, "the servant of God." Finally, by the law of fraternal charity which bonds together all the members and does so in a zealous quest for perfection, the community as such reveals what the Church seeks to become: the total communion of all those whom Christ has made to pass over in the act of fraternal love of His Pasch. Hence, to say that all re-ligious families should be converted to the dcclesial di-mension of their life is to affirm that they should seek to become in the presence of the world a living and true sign of the mystery of the Church and consequently a con-crete sign of what the gospel seeks to produce in the hearts of men. Therefore, 'the religious community is fundamentally and by its very being apostolic and .missionary. It is use-less, then, to get lost in a maze of many details. It is regrettable that when it sets forth the general principles of renewal, the decree neglects this perspective and limits itself to the level of "ecclesial service" and that even this it places after the return to the spirit of the founder; for what the founder desired could have no sense except as situated in the light of the Church. It is by reason of this inattention to the importance of "ecclesial sign" that the directives of the decree possess a somewhat moralizing perspective lacking in theologal inspiration. A single example will clarify this: in place of saying that participa-tion m the Eucharist immerses the religiot,s daily in the very Source that builds up the Church, the text (n. 6) limits itself to the statement that he thereby sustains his spiritual life. The constitution, Lumen gentiurn, and the constitution on the liturgy were less shortsighted in their presentation. Conversion to Attention to the World Another principle of renewal, often and constantly invoked by the decree, is that of a conversion to attention ÷ ÷ Point o] Departure VOLUME 26, 1967 429 ÷ ]. M. R. Tillard, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS to ,the world. The Church of God, in whose heart is found religious life, does not float about over and beyond the world; on the contrary it plunges i~s roots into the very flesh of humanity. For it is a Church of concrete human beings, and it has been sent by the Father to welcome and save all men and everything that is in man. Now man is not simply soul and body; he is also the intersection point of any number of lines of relationship that link him with his surroundings, his milieu, the past of his race: he is essentially social. In a mysterious way he carries in him-self the world in which he lives--the world which daily shapes him and which in turn he fashions by his labor and his thought. It is all this that th~ gospel redeems and divinizes. Hence, the Church cannot compel Christians to deny or ignore this belonging to the world; it is the con-trary that is true. Somewhat as the Son, of God has fully assumed the conditions of His humanity (even death), of His race, of His epoch, of His geographical context-- otherwise He would not be entirely human--so the Church of God little by little assumes everything human that it encounters on its journey from Pentecost to the Parousia. It is in .this way, moreover, that it truly realizes the mystery of its catholicity. For it is not catholic simply because it ought to extend to all nations and to all pe-riods of history. It is catholic above all because it ought to bring into Christ all human values, all the needs of men, all their efforts, all their sufferings and joys. Strictly speaking, the Church does not adapt herself to history: she assumes it. All the many variations and reforms that the course of the centuries imposes on it are positive acts by which it discards what is humanly finished with in order to welcome and "Christify" the new flowering of the human. Hence, they are essentially acts of its cath-olicity; they are not measures of opportunism--the yield-ing to this would spite the very nature of the Church. Religious life as the living heart of the Church can clearly not remain a stranger to this mystery of the pro-gressive entry of the Church of God into the weft and woof of humanity. As is said nowadays (the expression is .displeasing to us), it too must "adapt itself." A com-munity that refuses to adapt itself sins against catholicity and thereby disfigures the appearance of the Church. The decree is inclined to see this adaptation solely from the angle of apostolic productiveness: "in order that the institutes be able to bring men more effective help" (n. 2); "in order that those dedicated to the active apostolate be not unequal to their work" (n. 18). At times it. even gives the impression of simply seeking to make religious life more conformed "to the actual physical and psychical conditions of the religious., to social and economic circumstances" (n. 3). All of this is important and even radically necessary; it is necessary to open the windows wide and to air out our communities that are still so stiffly bound up in outmoded forms which n9 .longer. fit in with the actual state of health and the attrition of nerves that the agitated life of today tends to cause every-where. Religious life is not to be taken as an enterprise for the destruction of bodies and of intelligences: it is an institution of the mercy of God. But to see adaptation only in these perspectives of the practical order seems in-sufficient to us. Adaptation is above all-a duty of catholicity: If religious life has the function of signify-ing the true appearance of the Church and of showing forth the ideal to which all the baptized tend, then it should feel gravely bound to. this duty. To refuse this duty, or to carry it out without enthusiasm would be to sin against the Church. Conversion to Respect for Persons But perhaps the newest point made by the decree, one that is pregnant with hope for the future, is its emphasis on the necessity of communities experiencing a con-version to respect for the dignity of persons. When the decree asks who is responsible for the realization of re-newal, it answers (n. 4): "In matters that are of interest to the entire institute, superior should in a suitable way consult their subjects and listen tO their opinion." When treating of obedience, it says: "Docile to the will of God in carrying out their charge, superiors should exercise authority in a spirit of service to their brothers in order to express the charity which the Lord has for them. They should govern their subjects by regarding them :as sons of God by respecting them as human persons in order to lead them to a voluntary submission . They should in-spire their subjects to cooperate in the accomplishment of their tasks and the acceptance of projects by an active and responsible obedience. Hence, they should willingly lis-ten to them and encourage their common effort for the good of the institute and the Church, keeping intact, however, their right to decide and prescribe what is to be done . Chapters and councils should faithfully fulfill the mission confided to them; each in its own manner should express the participation and concern of all the subjects with regard to the welfare of the entire com-munity" (n. 14). Since the Church is a communion of wills and lives in the will and life of the Father and since the religious community is in the Church as a cell in ardent quest for perfection, it becomes evident that theexistence of the community should take place completely within a cli-mate of real communion. In a hierarchical society the word, "communion," suggests in fact a double movement, + + Point ot Departure VOLUME 26, 1967 43! 4. 4. 4. 1. M. R. Tillard~ O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS one going from the members to the head, the other from the head to the members. Communion is never unilateral. It must be admitted that until these recent years the tendency has been to recognize in religious life only one of these relations and to refuse to ordinary religious a real right to participate actively in the conduct of the life of the institute. From this came serious defects and a certain note of autocratism discernible above all in com-munities of brothers and of religious women. In fact, however, obedience, that pivot of the religious institu-tion, cannot be fully comprehended except in the light of the Christian mystery of communion. The superior is not placed at the head of the community for the primary purpose of giving orders and of imposing submission to his personal views. On the contrary he is chosen to serve as a "sacrament," as intermediary between the will of the Lord and the concrete community he is charged to direct. His vocation is suspended between two services: that of the Lord and that of his brothers. For each religious has a precise call from God which normally ought to be ac-tualized for the benefit of the gospel. He has joined him-self to other Christians under a given rule precisely in order to find the means of not leaving this vocation under a bushel. The superior is there to permit this call to blos-som forth in all fullness. His is an entirely evangelical charge. Through the decisions he makes and the orders he gives there should be transmitted not his own arbitrary personal decision but the will of the Lord impelling the religious to a generous response. He is to be the instru-ment of a more perfect communion between God and the baptized person whom He calls. Hence and in the x~ery name of obedience, the superior has the imperative duty of taking scrupulous account of each person in his community and of his talents and charisms. He cannot yield to the temptation (this is easy and, let us admit, frequent) of himself framing the ideal of the religious--a standard to which all must conform at whatever cost. Neither can he consider his community merely from a juridical and abstract angle, taking no account of the concrete human beings who compose it just as they are. His first concern must be the divine plan imprinted on each religious, the realization of which he should permit. This requires him to see even the n~itural talents of all his brothers as a primary gift of God. Here we are touching on a delicate problem for which it does not seem that accord will soon be realized but which nevertheless seems to us to be essential. A purely ascetical conception of religious life--a view that still prevails al-most everywhere--does not fear to talk about a renuncia-tion of natural talents considered as often being a source of self-love and an obstacle to a total gift of the will: "It is necessary to die to one's whole self." A more ecclesial view--the essential themes of which are assumed by the decree--reasons in an entirely different way. Instead of first looking at man, it first looks at God. In the divine plan nature is ordered to grace. In spite of sin nature still preserves its deep-seated quality of being a gift of love from the Father. Accordingly, its values must be welcomed with respect and immersed in the purificatory mystery of the cross in order to be drawn out again-not destroyed but divinized and exalted. A religious life built on this conviction realizes to the full its vocation as a total sign of the agapd of God--aia. agap~ already actu-alized in the creative work of the Lord Jesus and brought through the Pasch to its unexpected and disconcerting peak. Are not creation and Pasch united in the person of Him by whom and for whom all has been made, Jesus, Lord of the universe and Head of the Church (Col 1:13- 20)? As the decree vigorously points out, to respect per-sons does not simply mean to keep from hurting them, from tyrannizing them, from considering them as slaves; it means above all that in dialog with them it is necessary to discern their particular gifts, their personal charisms, and finally to render them a hundredfold. In this way the religious community truly becomes the image of the kingdom. The same thing holds on the level of the major deci-sions which regulate the life of the institute. Each reli-gious, even the least, carries within him the vocation of the institute. Daily he actualizes his ideal of it in the very concrete conditions in which his apostolic action is immersed. He pertains to the community just as much as the superior; and the life of the community depends on him just as much as it does on the superior, though in a different way. Accordingly,. in the name of the common good of the entirety and for the sake of a greater faith-fulness of all to the gospel, he has the right to be heard when there is a question of reform and adaptation. This is all the more so since ordinarily superiors by the very force of their situation are led to judge everything from the angle of authority with its specific problems--often de~ply engrossing in nature. To refuse a religious the right to express himself, to give his opinion, to explain his. point of view comes to sinning against the institute itself, against its correspondence to the divine plan. The superior is bound in conscience to reflect on the opinion of his subjects, to take account of it as a word that God addresses to him from his brothers. An autocratic con-ception of obedience sees in this an attack on the very virtue of submission, on the humility of the religious, and a danger that risks undermining authority. An ecclesial conception of obedience, attentive above all to faithful-÷ + ÷ Point o] Departure VOLUME 26, 1957 + ÷ ÷ 1. M. R. Tillard, O.P. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS ness to the institute of its vocation, sees it on the con-trary as a powerful support. By the communion of the superior and the entire community the structure of the Church is seen more clearly in one of its cells, the plan of the Father is better served, the gospel radiates out its influence. Conversion to Encounter with God in Apostolic Action A final aspect of the decree should be emphasized even though it is touched upon only in a single number (n. 8). The Council asks members of so-called active institutes to convert themselves to a close union between their apostolic activity and their quest for perfection .so that "their entire religious life may be imbued with an apos-tolic spirit and. all their apostolic action impregnated with a religious spirit." On this point a kind of tension and uneasiness exists at the present time. The spirituality given to men and women religious of the active life does not seem adapted to the exigencies of the apostolic life. There has been preserved and transmitted a type of spirituality, of prayer, of common life--the heritage 6f the monastic tradition-- without making sufficient effort at an authentic transpo-sition. From this there results for many a break between the "religious exercises" destined to promote °a living union with God and concrete activity which often ap-pears as the simple radiation of this previously realized union. Hence there are two phases: a phase of contempla-tion characterized as a phase of unitive life with the Lord and a phase of action characterized as a phase of the gift of self to neighbor. The one is a phase in which a person returns to his source; the otfier is one in which he pours out on others the results of this contact with God. From this results the sharp crisis of conscience for innumerable religious whose apostolic task is so absorbing that they reach the point of no longer giving to the time of con-templation all the attention they desire, being exhausted when the hour of prayer or of common adoration comes. Certainly, contemplative prayer is a necessity of reli-gious life; at whatever cost it.is necessary to assure this for all. But we must not refuse to apostolic action its fundamental value as encounter with the Lord; and it is important to introduce religious to the modalities and forms of this encounter in order to teach them to make it an immediate source of praise and adoration. For if it is true that "apostolic activity flows from intimate union with Christ" (n. 8), it is necessary to add that this intimate union is brought to completion in and by apos-tolic action itself. This action is not primarily a danger of distraction from the presence of God ~but on the con- trary is a privileged source of contact with this presence-- on condition that it is a matter of genuine apostolic ac-tion and not one of empty activism. The Christian who is sensitively alert to his faith dis-covers Christ Jesus Himself in the human being whom he loves and serves in the name of the gospel. The short phrase of Matthew, Chapter 25: "What you did to one of the least of my brethren, you did to me," applies not only to love for the poor but to all gift of .self in the service of human beings. Moreover, since every human being is an image of God, to serve him is to serve God in His image. On another level, a religious should be aware that his action is not simply the occasion of gaining merit and of acquiring an ample reward. He is a minister of the gospel; he gives God his labor, his fatigue, and his time in order that the love of the Father may be spread and extended by means of this action. What he day by day accomplishes in the name of his religious profession becomes an instrument of the divine action. There is ample material here for intensifying his deep union with the Lord, andthere is equally present the occasion of genuine and spontaneous acts of thanksgiving. All of this is true, however, on the condition that he has been in-teriorly sensitized to this specific form of encounter with God differing as it doe~ from the encounter afforded by peaceful and silent prayer. Conversion to encounter with God in the heat of action: this is very hard; and it de-mands from theologians, from religious, and from spiri-tual writers an effort of common research in order to establish its principles with precision. And this effort seems to us to be absolutely required for the profound renewal of religious life which the Council wishes. Two SERIOUS LIMITATIONS Thus far we have set in relief the postive elements of the conciliar decree on religious life] In the course of our exposition we have pointed out the deficiencies in the text, its lack of theological amplitude, but ~ill the while indicating the ways that it opens and the possibilities that it offers. ~¥e now would like to conclude this article by noting two limitations (one doctrinal, the other practi-cal) which seem to us to be important. Absence of a Pneumatic Dimension The first limitation is the absence of a genuinely pneu- ¯matic perspective, an absence which explains the little attention given to the ecclesial foundations of religious life which we have already pointed out. To be sure, the Holy Spirit is mentioned: once in the introductory para-graph, seqeral quick references in the second number, in the section that treats obedience (n. 14), and in the one + + + Point o] Departure VOLUME 26, 1967 435 ~. M. R. Tilla~d~ O.P, REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS that concerns common life (n. 15). But these allusions are not really integrated into the very substance of the text. They are but slight additions inserted to satisfy the demands of a number of the fathers who were surprised at the radical absence of any mention o~ the Holy Spirit in the schema of the decree. It was thought sufficient to insert here and there stereotyped expressions such as "moved by the Spirit," "impelled by the Spirit," and "under the inspiration of the Spirit." But to sew new pieces on old cloth achieves nothing:, the document re-mains deprived of a real pneumatic vision. From this is derived the impression of juridicism, that the text.still has despite the wonderful gospel overtures that have already been noted and studied, It is entirely centered on the effort of man and is not sufficiently based on the primordial fact that religious life comes from God who by the Holy Spirit daily gives it to the Church. The religious institution represents an original flowering of the Spirit, a permanent charism granted by God to His people. It is a gift of God before being an effort of man towards perfection. And the quest for perfection en-visions more than the individual: its purpose is to mani-fest the Spirit, to achieve a view o[ Him in the flesh of humanity. The profound law of ~His apostolic activity and of His insertion into the world of today (and this is sought for by the decree) can be expressed in. this way: the Holy Spirit Himself wishes to be there where the community lives and to become perceptible by means o1~ it. Our text refers to "the example of the primitive Church" (n. 15). It would have been good to note that this Church was seen by its contemporaries as a semeion, a sign of the power of the Spirit, of Pentecost. For the community exists in reference to the gospel and not to the personal value of its members.: these latter are "filled with the Spirit," and their grandeur comes precisely from the fact that~ they re~pond generously to the mysterious ca/is of His presence among them, Themselves poor-- and here is the foundation of our vows, especially that of obedience--the Christians of the Apostolic community as ideally presented in Acts endeavored before all else to dispose themselves to the impulses of the Spirit and to the difficult work of personal conversion which this demands. Seen in this light, personal perfection and apostolic witnessing become radically inseparable;, and their point of unification i~ found to be the Holy Spirit. At the mo-ment when the Church is welcoming with enthusiasm the apostolic function of the laity and is finding there an essential factor in its renewal, it is necessary to point out to religious the pneumatic dimension of their vocation and to motivate their quest for evangelical perfection by an awareness of th~ rooting of their call in the mission of the Holy Spirit. Their sanctification enters in an es-sential way into the heart of their apostolate because God gives them to the world as signs and witnesses of the Spirit. They are not just apostles in possibility who can be "utilized" because they burn with zeal or are spiritu-ally well trained. They, by their very quest for perfection, are in reality a proclamation in act of the presence of the Spirit in the People of God. A religious is not judged by his productivity but essentially by 'his transparence to the Spirit--a point that explains the apostolic value of the contemplative life. Every authentic movement of renewal should be centered on this transparency. Moreover, in this way there is clearly seen why (with rare exceptions such as those mentioned in the decree) a religious cannot fidly respond to his vocation except in community. It is necessary to stop presenting common life as a means, a support; it pertains to the religious wit-ness as such. For the religious is always in the state of appeal and of openness to his brothers, incapable of truly responding to the Lord if he is cut of[ from them; and here is one of the foundations of religious poverty that theology has not yet sufficiently explored in depth. The Spirit does not arouse atomized religious but reli-gious communities. The vocations which spring up in the hearts of' men He orientates towards communities. Why? Because He is the Spirit of the Church who accordingly creates the community in order that it might exist in the Church (essentially a communion) as a sign and a leaven of the ideal of communion to which He is leading the Church. In its very being the religious community--that is to say, the ecclesial cell bonded together by fraternal charity and seeking to already live in a perfect way the "for God" of its mystery--is an act of the Spirit, a gift of the Spirit tothe Ch