Are full members of Secular Institutes allowed to adopt?

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First of all, sorry for my English. It’s not my native language. Please, correct me, if I am wrong somewhere.
  1. The full members of Secular Institutes of Consecrated Life are publicly vowed to follow celibacy as their way of life; after joining the Secular Institutes and making public vows, they’re not allowed to marry and/or conceive children.
  2. Full members of Secular Institutes are always unmarried, single Christians; Secular Institutes are not the Third Orders in any way, and according to the Canonical Law their full members are effectively somewho like “monks/nuns who do not live in the community of monks/nuns”.
  3. Although there are a few Secular Institutes which allowing married couples to join, they’re only Associate Members, without public vows. Associate Members of Secular Institutes is like to be an Oblate or a member of the Third Order in a Religious Institutes. Those people are join to some degree the activities of the parental organization, accepting its charisma, but - they’re not considered to follow the path of consecrated life, and they do not give a public vows, like full members of Secular or Religious Institutes of Consecrated Life.
  4. On the other hand, the Full Members of Secular Institutes, although publicly vowed and celibate to the same degree, as monks, nuns, deacons, priests, consecrated virgins, or diocesan hermits, are indeed living in the absolutely secular environment most of their time. Almost all of them do have a job which is unrelated to the Church, they are paying their expenses, their rent, and so on, and so on.
So, my question is…

Are Full Members of Secular Institutes of the Consecrated Life allowed to adopt a child and raise a child as a single parent?

On the one hand, it would not damage their state of celibacy and vow of chastity, but on the other hand - it’s somewhat controversial. I mean, well, there are surely no monks or nuns with adopted children, right? So… What’s your opinion? Or maybe you know some people who work in the Church and can make official statement of this issue?

And thank very much for your patience to read my horrible English 🙂 It’s not my mother tongue, I’m really sorry that my level is so low. Sorry.
 
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I know of diocesan priests who have adopted children. An Oblate of St Francis de Sales priest, who used to serve our parish, apparently adopted a son, who later passed away. I remember the prayer intention for Father J’s foster son.

One would have to have recourse to the constitutions of the particular Secular Institute in regards to adoption.

Some Secular Institutes permit their members to be married.

Blessings,
Mrs Cloisters OP
Lay Dominican
http://cloisters.tripod.com/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/charity/
 
I know some sisters who have adopted. So I don’t know why members of secular institutes couldn’t. But it might depend on the particular constitutions of the institute.
 
I considered whether or not God might be calling me to join a secular institute a few years back. But because I am a single mom (I have a decree of nullity from my attempted marriage), none of the secular institutes I contacted would consider me.

On the other hand, in reading about the lives of the women who were already full members of some of these secular institutes, I came across the story of one woman who did indeed foster and then adopt at least one child.

In other words, having a child already might be an impediment. But if you feel you are called to be a fully professed member of a secular institute and later foster and/or adopt children, that might not be out of the question.

You would need to contact each institute and begin a discussion about what you think God might be asking of you. ❤️
 
Thank you very much for your reply! It was extremely helpful, so, I really appreciate.
Only one correction, if you allow:
Some Secular Institutes permit their members to be married.
Click to expand...
That’s a very popular misunderstanding. That’s true, some of the SI are allowing married couples to join, but only as a unvowed (publicly), Associate, Members. This came from the Canon Law.

Can. 721 §1. A person is admitted to initial probation invalidly:
1/ who has not yet attained the age of majority;
2/ who is bound currently by a sacred bond in some institute of consecrated life or is incorporated in a society of apostolic life;
3/ a spouse, while the marriage continues to exist.

Also you can read and official statement
CONGREGATION FOR RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR INSTITUTES (C.R.I.S.)
MARRIED PEOPLE AND
THE SECULAR INSTITUTES

Excerpts:

A. Chastity in celibacy for Secular
Institute members.
  1. The affirmation is based on:
a) Doctrinal and Canon Law Reasons
The charter of the Secular Institutes is sufficiently clear in this
matter: "Besides the exercises of piety and self denial which are a
necessary part of the search for perfection of Christian life, those
who desire to be formal members in the strict sense of the word,
of a Secular Institute, must in fact tend to this perfection in the
distinctive ways here specified:
    1. By profession made before God of celibacy and perfect
      chastity in the form of a vow, oath, or consecration binding in
      conscience, according to the norms of the Constitutions" (Provida
      Mater, Art. III, 2).
And, for married couples:

B. Married people as members of
Secular Institutes in the wider sense
  1. The Secular Institute members in the wider sense have the
    chance of remaining in their peculiar state of life–which may be
    that of married people, for example–and yet training themselves for
    evangelical perfection by participating in the spiritual advantages of
    the Institute, in its peculiar apostolate, and also in complying with
    some of the demands it makes on its members. It is only in this
    precise sense that one can speak of the admission of married people
    to membership of a Secular Institute. It also presupposes that certain
    measures of prudence should be observed in order to safeguard the
    value of marriage.
 
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Thank you very much for your response, Gertabelle 👍
I have entirely the same opinion as you. And I hope both of us are correct in our views 🙂
Best of luck!
 
The Institute of the Holy Family is a secular institute for the married, engaged, and widowed.


My organization has a letter of kinship secular institute called the Teresian Adorers of the Holy Eucharist. They have married persons in their membership. Unfortunately, I don’t have a website for them. Their foundress set up a Facebook page, but I don’t have the URL.
 
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