Religious orders for non-Catholics

[schmiedlin]

I’m reading “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Catholicism” and in the section “Religious Orders” in chapter 19, the authors state: “Several groups are embracing non-Catholic members.” And that’s all that they say.

How can I find what orders are accepting non-Catholics? Are any of them contemplative rather than active?

 

[CarmeliteGirl25]

I’m reading “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Catholicism” and in the section “Religious Orders” in chapter 19, the authors state: “Several groups are embracing non-Catholic members.” And that’s all that they say.

How can I find what orders are accepting non-Catholics? Are any of them contemplative rather than active?

The only ones that I know of that are accepting Non-Catholic members are those that are ecumenical, or Anglican groups. As far as Catholic groups accepting non-Catholic members, I know that you have to have gone through RCIA before acceptance, so you can’t be a non-Catholic when you go in.

Here are some links:

orderofcharity.org/

anglicansonline.org/resources/orders.html

franciscans.com/

Here is a religious order for women called the Servants of the Sacred Cross:
thesacredcross.org/main.htm
–They are Anglican, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox

Hope this helps, but it is important to remember that if they are not Catholic, they are not recognized by the Church.

 

[Tepeyac]

I’ve heard of some Benedictine monasteries that accept non-Catholics as oblates. Writer Kathleen Norris, author of “The Cloister Walk”, is possibly the best known example of a non-Catholic oblate.

Of the ecumenical groups that accept members from different backgrounds the most famous is probably the Taize Community in France. They are very Catholic friendly however: I believe they have Catholic members, have been praised by Popes, and their founder Brother Roger attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

In the U.S. the Community of Jesus is an ecumenical group that describes itself as “a Christian community in the Benedictine monastic tradition” but I don’t know much beyond the fact they’re in Massachusetts and that their choir records some fine music. Here’s a bit from wikipedia: article on Community of Jesus.

 

[RevDrNorth]

I am not really aware of Catholic orders that accept non Catholics but there may well be some.

Of course there are a host of Anglican religious order (Franciscan, Benedictine, Dominican and so on). That is probably not a surprise. There are also some Lutheran orders.

Here is an ecumenical order based in the United Methodist tradition. They accept those of other Christian traditions and are dispersed.
saint-luke.org/index.html

and a United Church of Christ order.
orderofcorpuschristi.org/occ_pictures.htm