Bringing About the Renewal of Women's Religious Life
by Fr. Roger Landry - April 24, 2009
Last September, Stonehill College and the Diocese of Fall River sponsored an important symposium entitled, "Apostolic Religious Life since Vatican II Reclaiming the Treasure: Bishops, Theologians and Religious in Conversation." The fruits of the day extended far beyond the 600 in attendance, as several of the addresses quickly made their way around the world on account of the candor with which several of the speakers addressed the challenges many religious communities are facing.
The most significant address of all was given by Cardinal Franc Rodé, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which exercises for the Pope supervision of religious communities throughout the world. After having discussed the great history of religious communities in the United States — responsible, among other things, for the incredible growth of the Catholic school and hospital systems in our country, which were the greatest of any country in the history of the Church — the Slovenian Cardinal forthrightly said:
"Despite this past greatness and present vitality, we know — and it is one of the major reasons we are gathered here today — that all is not well with religious life in America. The sheer decline in the numbers of consecrated men and women, the abandoning of many corporate apostolates and ministries, the closing of communities, the invisibility of corporate witness to consecrated life, amalgamations of provinces, mergers of different institutes, the graying of religious, the death of entire congregations — these realities are all familiar to us."
He said that religious life in the states falls into four different categories. The first two categories, he said, are healthy, and involve "many new communities which are thriving" and "older communities that have taken action to preserve and reform genuine religious life in their own charism." About these first two groups, Cardinal Rodé said, "The future looks promising if they continue to be what they are and as they are."
A third group consisted of "those who accept the present situation of decline as a sign of a new direction to be followed. Among this group there those who have simply acquiesced to the disappearance of religious life or at least of their community, and seek to do so in the most peaceful manner possible, thanking God for past benefits." But he also added that some communities are in decline because of an obvious and ongoing crisis of faith. "There are those who have opted for ways that take them outside communion with Christ in the Catholic Church, although they themselves may have opted to 'stay' in the Church physically." In other words, these are certain communities that think they have "moved beyond the Church" yet remain within it in invisible schism. "Surely, such an ambivalent existence cannot bring forth fruits of joy and peace, neither for themselves nor for the Church," the Cardinal added.
The fourth category involves "those who fervently believe in their own personal vocation and the charism of their community, and are seeking ways to reverse the trend [and] achieve authentic renewal." Cardinal Rodé stressed that for these sisters to effect real renewal of their communities, they must be helped to implement what has worked in the reform of the first two categories of communities and avoid the fatal mistakes of those in the third.
Why have so many religious communities in the states been experiencing such a decline? Cardinal Rodé said that one of the most fundamental reasons has to do with a false and fatal misinterpretation of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. The second two categories of communities looked at the Council as a rupture with what came before and often separated themselves, not merely from the faith of the Church but their foundational charisms.
A religious himself, Cardinal Rodé described with prophetic frankness why this "hermeunetic of rupture" was so destructive. "Religious life, being a gift from the Holy Spirit to the individual religious and the Church, depends especially on fidelity to its origins, fidelity to the founder, fidelity to the particular charism. Fidelity to that charism is essential, for God blesses fidelity while he 'opposes the proud.' The complete rupture of some with the past, then, goes against the nature of a religious congregation, and essentially it provokes God's rejection. Obedience was an early casualty, for obedience without faith and trust cannot survive. Prayer, especially community prayer, and the sacramental liturgy were minimized or abandoned. Penance, asceticism and what was referred to as 'negative spirituality' became a thing of the past. Many religious were uncomfortable with wearing the habit. Social and political agitation became for them the acme of apostolic action. The New Theology shaped the understanding and the dilution of the faith. Everything became a problem for discussion. The results came swiftly in the form of an exodus of members. As a consequence, apostolates and ministries that were essential for the life of the Catholic community and its charitable outreach quickly disappeared — schools especially. Vocations quickly dried up. Even as the results began to speak for themselves, there were still those who said that things were bad because there hadn't been enough change, because the project was not complete. And so the damage was further compounded." About women's religious communities in particular, Cardinal Rodé said that many were infected with a "certain strain of feminism by now outmoded but which still nevertheless continues to exert much influence in certain circles."
Cardinal Rodé noted that there are groups of sisters in the vast majority of the third and fourth categories of communities who do wish to seek genuine reform according to the mind of the Church, but, he implies, have not yet been able to achieve that desire because of the leadership within their communities. That may be one of the reasons why the Vatican has recently announced two interventions to try to help these sisters bring about that genuine renewal.
The first intervention was announced at the end of January. It's an unprecedented visitation of all 400 active religious institutes in the United States to be led by Mother Clare Millea of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Much like the recently-completed visitation of U.S. seminaries authorized by Pope John Paul II in response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis, this two-year study is being undertaken, according to the decree from Cardinal Rodé, to "look into the quality of the life" of the various institutes.
The second intervention is described on page 15 of this edition. Last week it was made public that the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has appointed Toledo, Ohio Bishop Leonard Blair to conduct a doctrinal assessment of the activities and initiatives of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the Maryland-based association whose members include the vast majority of institutes to which U.S. sisters belong. He is said to be charged with investigating the LCWR on fidelity to the Catholic faith on Christ's role in salvation, on the sinfulness of same-sex sexual activity and on the inadmissibility of women to priestly ordination, three seminal issues on which some sisters and female religious communities have separated themselves from the teaching of the Church.
While the visitation and assessment are technically independent, both seem to be coming from a common motivation to assist those religious who wish to reform their communities in accordance with the mind of the Church and in continuity with the fidelity of their foundresses' charisms. Such reform cannot easily occur, however, if the present leadership of these communities, or the association representing the vast majority of them, are not with the Church's program. Both the visitation and assessment are attempts to ensure that they are, so that our country may "reclaim the treasure" of women's religious life, and, as is happening with the ongoing reform of seminaries, lead to a new flourishing of the Catholic faith in our country.
Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.
