Turn that frown upside down, Brother.
For all you do, this thread’s for all of you.
It’s funny that you mention this. There is a turning of attention on the part of the Church, especially the Vatican and some bishops too. The Vatican and the bishops have been so focussed on the shortage of priests, that the local Catholic communities have not really spent much time promoting vocations to the brothers.
As a result, no one mentions them in prayer. When people speak they usually say “priests and nuns”. And some people discourage their sons from becoming brothers. The focus has been on getting more priests.
However, in a recent report that the Sacred Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life issued to the Holy Father, I believe it was in 2004
, the number of brothers around the world was about 50,000. This caused Pope John Paul grave concerns. Now Pope Benedict has picked up on the concerns and has passed them on to the bishops.
The concern of the Curia and the popes is that if all male religious are ordained, the purity of the consecrated life for men is lost forever. What people will see is not a religious. People will see a priest. The laity has not idea how a Salesian, Dominican, Marist, Carmelite or Trinitarian differ from one another. It’s only when you see the non-ordained members of these communities that you can see the differences in gifts that the Holy Spirit has poured on the Church.
Here is the point. The sacraments are the same whether the person celebrating them is a consecrated religious or a secular man. You don’t see the difference between a Selesian and a Diocesan in the confessional. However, if you you a non-ordained Salesian and a non-ordained Marist in your community, you will see the differences in the way they work, the kind of work that they do, their priorities, how they pray, how often they pray, how they relate to each other and their duties toward their respective communities and even how they live the vows.
The Church has already established that the consecrated life, without the priesthood is essential not accidental, to her existence. To the horror of Pope John Paul and now to the horror of Pope Benedict, they is a strong movement to encourage vocations of men to the religious life. Religious communities are being told to focus on recruiting for their way of life, not for the priesthood. If you visit any Franciscan site on the net, it will speak about St. Francis and the Franciscan life and about the ministry of that particular branch of the order. Then somewhere in there, they will say that there are friars who are priests. But the pitch is “Become a Franciscan”. This is true of many religious communities of men now.
Also of interest and to keep in prayer, the Holy See is now allowing the larger orders, such as Franciscans, to break-off groups of men to form smaller orders of brothers without priests. It is also allowing communities of brothers to be founded, but not ordaining any of them or only enough so they can celebrate the community mass. For example, the Missionaries of the Poor ordain 10% of their brothers. They may not be identifiable as priests. They must retain the brother’s habit and way of life. The only thing is that they are called Father. But they do the same work, wear the same habit, share the same duties and have the same rights.
In an interview, the Archbishop of NY said to Raymond Arroyo, “I always insist that the brothers be mentioned in the prayer of the faithful at the mass when I celebrate, because it’s the ‘forgotten vocation’.”
Think about the brothers. In several documents now, the last two popes have insisted that religious life is essential to the life of the Church, but it must be both, male and female and not all the males can be ordained. There must be a signficant number of them who are not ordained to preserve the charism of the religious community without blurring the lines between religious life and priesthood. Otherwise the Church will lose something that is essential to her life of grace.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
