Do you think my background is sufficient to become a monk?
Perhaps. Its hard to say. I would suggest speaking with the vocations director at a few different communities and perhaps arranging a visit. Most monasteries have a “monastic experience” retreat for those discerning a vocation. The community that I visit with some regularity and where I am discerning becoming an Oblate, St. Gregory’s Abbey, has them with regularity. In fact, there is one in a few weeks.
monksok.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=175&Itemid=184
Your question on faithfulness to the Magisterium is also difficult to answer. I don’t blame you for wanting to determine that, but going about it can be hard, not to mention delicate. My advice on doing so is the same as I gave above. Start making contacts with the vocations directors at various communities. Go visit the community. At the end of the day though, you would be joining them, not the other way around. Because of that, I suggest treading lightly on the issue. If you are asked the question regarding what is important to you in a community (this is almost guaranteed to come up at some point), you might mention magisterial fidelity as one item in a list of other things. That would get the question out there, but in a non-threatening and non-judgmental way. This obviously means that you would need to spend some time considering what
other aspects of the community are important to you besides that particular one. Furthermore, if you get a chance to speak with any novices, you might ask them as well. Something along the lines of “
…I really don’t know how to ask this without coming across the wrong way, but it is something which is very important to me so…” and see what response you get.
My impression over the past year or so of looking into monasticism is that magisterial fidelity is just not something which pops up in the daily life of the majority of monks. If you are a Dominican friar, a Jesuit, parish priest, etc. I can see how this is a regular and important area of discussion. However, most monks, unless they are teaching in seminary, high school, or university (which many do) or staffing a parish (which some do) are not sitting around talking doctrine on a regular basis. The monastic vow of obedience would certainly seem to encompass obedience to Church authority in the area of doctrinal assent, but I sincerely doubt that the majority of monks doing about their daily lives of work and prayer give it that much thought. Having said that, I would be lying if I did not state that this was an important issue to me also and something which I have struggled to figure out how to address in a polite, humble, and non-judgmental fashion.
