Leaving Vows

[HailHolyQueen90]

What if, let’s say, an individual joins a religious order, moves on to become a Priest in this order… but later in life feels a calling to a different order, or to diocesan Priesthood. This being after taking permanent vows.

What would be the options for this individual?

 

[OraLabora]

There have been a couple of priests of our abbey who have done this. It’s called exclaustration, and it is covered by the Code of Canon Law:

Can. 691 §1. A perpetually professed religious is not to request an indult of departure from an institute except for the gravest of causes considered before the Lord. The religious is to present a petition to the supreme moderator of the institute who is to transmit it along with a personal opinion and the opinion of the council to the competent authority.

§2. In institutes of pontifical right, an indult of this type is reserved to the Apostolic See. In institutes of diocesan right, however, the bishop of the diocese in which the house of assignment is situated can also grant it.

Can. 692 Unless it has been rejected by the member in the act of notification, an indult of departure granted legitimately and made known to the member entails by the law itself dispensation from the vows and from all the obligations arising from profession.

Can. 693 If a member is a cleric, an indult is not granted before he finds a bishop who incardinates him in the diocese or at least receives him experimentally. If he is received experimentally, he is incardinated into the diocese by the law itself after five years have passed, unless the bishop has refused him.

There’s also a formula for transfers:

CHAPTER VI.

SEPARATION OF MEMBERS FROM THE INSTITUTE

Art. 1.

TRANSFER TO ANOTHER INSTITUTE

Can. 684 §1. A member in perpetual vows cannot transfer from one religious institute to another except by a grant of the supreme moderator of each institute and with the consent of their respective councils.

§2. After completing a probation which is to last at least three years, the member can be admitted to perpetual profession in the new institute. If the member refuses to make this profession or is not admitted to make it by competent superiors, however, the member is to return to the original institute unless an indult of secularization has been obtained.

§3. For a religious to transfer from an autonomous monastery to another of the same institute or federation or confederation, the consent of the major superior of each monastery and of the chapter of the receiving monastery is required and is sufficient, without prejudice to other requirements established by proper law; a new profession is not required.

§4. Proper law is to determine the time and manner of the probation which must precede the profession of a member in the new institute.

§5. For a transfer to be made to a secular institute or a society of apostolic life or from them to a religious institute, permission of the Holy See is required, whose mandates must be observed.

Can. 685 §1. Until a person makes profession in the new institute, the rights and obligations which the member had in the former institute are suspended although the vows remain. Nevertheless, from the beginning of probation, the member is bound to the observance of the proper law of the new institute.

§2. Through profession in the new institute, the member is incorporated into it while the preceding vows, rights, and obligations cease.

I also know a monk who has done this (come into the Benedictine order).

 

[Regina_Love]

Have a frank discussion with your Superiors. What informantion they may provide, and spiritual direction would be helpful. Some times dissatisfaction means it’s time for a change. Sometimes that change needs to come from with in us. Sometimes it may need to be an exterior change. It is always wise to Seek God first!

You are in our prayers.

 

[poche]

Canon law provides for the transfer of a priest in vows from one community to another and from religous life to the diocesan priesthood.

 

[HailHolyQueen90]

Thank you all for the answers! I have never known anyone in this situation so I was curious.

May God bless all our religious!