I am glad that there appear to be processes place for dismissal of candidates from formation.
That is not what I said. I said there are processes to dismiss those who have made perpetual vows. If they are diocesan clergy, there are processes for them too.
As far as those who are in formation, there are no prescribed processes. There are impediments. These are not the same as processes. An impediment can be: you’re divorced, mental health, physical health, have not been living a celibate life long enough, age.
Processes are left up to each diocese and each religious institute to decide that for themselves. There is a scrutinium when the person is up for renewing vows, if he or she is a religious. The community meets, discusses the person’s fitness, votes and the result is sent to the major superior. The major superior then decides what to do. The decision is his alone, unless he delegates it to someone else. If you belong to a diocese, the result of the scrutinium is sent to the bishop. He alone decides or can delegate it.
Modern women’s communitites do not encourage blind obedience. I remember reading some years ago about the Maryknoll missionary sisters’ response to questions about encouraging blind obedience in the novitiate by commanding novices to do silly pointless things, that Maryknoll was teaching its candidates to be responsible thinking missioners, not unthinking automatons.
That’s not quite true. This depends on the religious community and the rule they follow. If the rule demands blind obedience, then it is so.
The Maryknoll Sisters and many other communities of siters are in a very unique position. They DO NOT HAVE A RULE OF LIFE. They are governed by constitutions that they write, they vote on and they can change at any time, with the approval of the Sacred Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Orders, HAVE A RULE OF LIFE. They cannot change the rule. They must obey it as it is. They can only write statutes or constitutions to address points that are not addressed in the rule. If the rule says that they must obey blindly, they are bound, under pain of very grave sin, to do so. It’s up to what the founder put into the rule.
For example, Benedict and Francis both put into their rules that obedience is absolute, unquestioning and without regrets. There is no room for negotiating once an order is given, no matter how silly it may sound.
This does not make us “unthinking automatons”. We are very cognizant of what we’re doing. In my case (as a member of the Franciscan family), I am aware that I am obeying Francis, because he is the master on the Gospel Life. When I obey, even the silliest command, I do think about Christ’s obedience, because this is what the rule commands me to think about. This is what I promised to do until death. If I find myself in an internal conflict, I know that the problem is not with the order that the superior has given me, the problem is within me. I have not become detached from my own point of view, my deisres, my opinions, my goals, my sense of self-importance. You may want to read what Fr. Vincent wrote in Ask An Apologist about obedience.
I was under the impression that once one was baptized one is a member of the Catholic church. Ie Anglican baptized converts don’t have to be re-baptized. Benedictine said that he was leaving the "Roman" Catholic church.
There is only one baptism. Everyone who is validly baptized is a member of the Church. However, not every baptized person is a member of the physical Church.
JR, you say that ''You also have to obey. It’s not a monarchy. It’s a family."
It sounds like a monarchy.
In a monarchy, the monarch has no one over him. In religious life, the superior has a superior. The Superior General has the brothers or sisters who decide in a chapter what he must do and how he must do it. He also has Church law that he must obey. In addition, he is in office for a few years and then returns to the rank and file. A monarch does not become a peasant.
In the diocesan priesthood, the bishop is under the authority of the pope. Eventually, he must retire. Also, the pope can transfer him to another diocese or to the Roman Curia. You don’t retire monarchs or reasign them to different posts. Again, they have no one above them.
It is very much a family, where everyone has a role, rights and duties. Because most sisters DO NOT belong to religious orders, they do not have a rule. This does not make them modern. It makes them a congregation, which means that Church law allows them more flexibility. But the Church still has to approve their constitutions. If the constitutions say that the superior can ask you to stand on your head and the Holy See approves it, then you must stand on your head when asked to do so. If the constitution says that the superior must ask your opinion on things, then he or she must do that. But there is always someone who is bound to absolute obedience.
What has happened in some communities of women is that they have deviated to the point where they have become democracies instead of families with an authority figure. This is why they are under investigation. That’s not allowed. There must always be an authority figure. The founder decides who that is to be.
I call these, well organized families where there are clear lines of authority and clear limits
The only monarch is the pope himself.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
