Posted on 02/05/2010 5:53:56 AM PST by marshmallow
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A top Vatican official said religious orders today are in a "crisis" caused in part by the adoption of a secularist mentality and the abandonment of traditional practices.
Cardinal Franc Rode, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, said the problems go deeper than the drastic drop in the numbers of religious men and women.
"The crisis experienced by certain religious communities, especially in Western Europe and North America, reflects the more profound crisis of European and American society. All this has dried up the sources that for centuries have nourished consecrated and missionary life in the church," Cardinal Rode said in a talk delivered Feb. 3 in Naples, Italy.
"The secularized culture has penetrated into the minds and hearts of some consecrated persons and some communities, where it is seen as an opening to modernity and a way of approaching the contemporary world," he said.
Cardinal Rode said the decline in the numbers of men and women religious became precipitous after the Second Vatican Council, which he described as a period "rich in experimentation but poor in robust and convincing mission."
Faced with an aging membership and fewer vocations, many religious orders have turned to "foreign vocations" in places like Africa, India and the Philippines, the cardinal said. He said the orders need to remember that quality of vocations is more important than quantity.
"It is easy, in situations of crisis, to turn to deceptive and damaging shortcuts, or attempt to lower the criteria and parameters for admission to consecrated life and the course of initial and permanent formation," he said.
In any case, he said, "big numbers are not indispensable" for religious orders to prove their validity. It's more important today, he said, that religious orders "overcome the egocentrism in which institutes are often closed, and open themselves to joint projects with other institutes, local churches and lay faithful."
Cardinal Rode, a 75-year-old Slovenian, is overseeing a Vatican-ordered apostolic visitation of institutes for women religious in the United States to find out why the numbers of their members have decreased during the past 40 years and to look at the quality of life in the communities.
He spoke Feb. 3 to a conference on religious life sponsored by the Archdiocese of Naples. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, published the main portions of his text.
Cardinal Rode said it was undoubtedly more difficult today for all religious orders to find young people who are willing to break away from the superficial contemporary culture and show a capacity for commitment and sacrifice. Unless this is dealt with in formation programs, he said, religious orders will produce members who lack dedication and are likely to drift away.
The challenge, however, should not be seen strictly in negative terms, he said. The present moment, he said, can help religious orders better define themselves as "alternatives to the dominant culture, which is a culture of death, of violence and of abuse," and make it clear that their mission is to joyfully witness life and hope, in the example of Christ.
No kidding.
A top Vatican official said religious orders today are in a “crisis” caused in part by the adoption of a secularist mentality and the abandonment of traditional practices.
Who was it that allowed Nuns to quit wearing habits, changed the Latin Mass to English, allowed Guitars on the Altar, stopped fasting before Communion and fasting on Fridays.
I am not knocking it , but the Church changed the rules.
Amen.
They too have been infiltrated...
But then Saul Alinsky knew where to start.
In the Churches.
Greetings from His Holiness,You are hereby ordered for induction into the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church, and to report at XXXXXXX on March 1 2010 at 8:30 am for forwarding to a Catholic induction seminary.
“...”crisis” caused in part by the adoption of a secularist mentality and the abandonment of traditional practices.”
Yes, and add to that an unwillingness to do anything to get back on that traditional track, and an overt and active tolerance for the activities of their sinning flock, including, but not limited to, the enabling of a culture of death (abortion)through inaction.
Other than that, no real problems here......
Militant
Ping!
At my childhood Cathoic church we have wonderful Russia born Priest who covert to Cathoicism he is cool
And at my local church I got we have wonderful Vietnesese priest
It’s really quite simple. I don’t know why they need to do a study.
Full religious habit = obedience to the Church and to the Holy Father.
There is no lack of vocations among Mother Angelica’s Poor Clares, Mother Assumpta’s Dominicans, the Benedictines of Mary Queen of Apostles, and the Augustinian Sisters of Life.
http://www.olamshrine.com/Nuns.html
http://www.benedictinesofmary.org/
What are considered the most orthodox orders/seminaries right now, other than FSSP?
Others can be found at Traditional Vocations blog.
Thank you!
Who was it that allowed Nuns to quit wearing habits, changed the Latin Mass to English, allowed Guitars on the Altar, stopped fasting before Communion and fasting on Fridays.
I am not knocking it , but the Church changed the rules.
Those who wish they had ‘theology by committee’ ignore those things that are actually set in stone. Why don’t they just go to a church with rules they DO like?
It matters not where they come from but the sincerity of the prayers of the heart.
This should come as no surprise. It was disclosed. The enemy has always been more successful working within the Church than attacking it from without.
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