Strictly speaking it applies to priests (religious and secular) and deacons. There are several vocations including single without orders or consecration. Catechism 1699 “Life in the Holy Spirit fulfills the vocation of man”…@vico I have read this but that doesn’t specifically apply to the query. That answers the question for those looking to join an order. I’m saying assuming they can’t what is their vocation?
I’m a Third Order Dominican. There is nothing in our Rule that prohibits joining on the basis of SSA. Obviously though that person would be expected not to act on it. But otherwise there’d be no problem.but do the same restrictions apply regarding orientation?
Haha, I think that is actually a literal distinction that vocation directors tend to draw! Big V and little v.I almost feel like there should be little v vocation and big V vocation as distinctions, haha!
I truly feel for you. These issues were heavily on my mind when going through my conversion, having many close SSA friends. I can’t imagine being told I’m supposed to be left out in this way. I used to be angry about not finding a husband so I can’t even imagine being told I’m not supposed to have one. Courage does not seem capable of addressing such dynamic concerns. There is more work to be done here. I’m pretty sure many priests I know, good solid, holy men struggle with this. The irony is that for so long there has been a history of those with SSA being sent away to become religious as a remedy. The irony. Many don’t want to acknowledge that legacy.As a Catholic with SSA, it certainly can be frustrating trying to figure this out. It seems like priests especially are happy to recommend Courage and leave it at that. My experience in Courage was a mix of positive and negative.
It certainly does seem, at times, like we’re supposed to just die alone. It’s especially frustrating because I know priests with SSA, and I do believe numerous saints throughout history have suffered from it.
The vocation of lay people
898 "By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will. . . . It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and maybe to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer."431
899 The initiative of lay Christians is necessary especially when the matter involves discovering or inventing the means for permeating social, political, and economic realities with the demands of Christian doctrine and life. This initiative is a normal element of the life of the Church:
Lay believers are in the front line of Church life; for them the Church is the animating principle of human society. Therefore, they in particular ought to have an ever-clearer consciousness not only of belonging to the Church, but of being the Church, that is to say, the community of the faithful on earth under the leadership of the Pope, the common Head, and of the bishops in communion with him. They are the Church.432
900 Since, like all the faithful, lay Christians are entrusted by God with the apostolate by virtue of their Baptism and Confirmation, they have the right and duty, individually or grouped in associations, to work so that the divine message of salvation may be known and accepted by all men throughout the earth. This duty is the more pressing when it is only through them that men can hear the Gospel and know Christ. Their activity in ecclesial communities is so necessary that, for the most part, the apostolate of the pastors cannot be fully effective without it.433
Apostolicam actuositatem13.The apostolate in the social milieu, that is, the effort to infuse a Christian spirit into the mentality, customs, laws, and structures of the community in which one lives, is so much the duty and responsibility of the laity that it can never be performed properly by others. In this area the laity can exercise the apostolate of like toward like. It is here that they complement the testimony of life with the testimony of the word.(9) It is here where they work or practice their profession or study or reside or spend their leisure time or have their companionship that they are more capable of helping their brethren.
The laity fulfill this mission of the Church in the world especially by conforming their lives to their faith so that they become the light of the world as well as by practicing honesty in all their dealings so that they attract all to the love of the true and the good and finally to the Church and to Christ. They fulfill their mission also by fraternal charity which presses them to share in the living conditions, labors, sorrows, and aspirations of their brethren with the result that the hearts of all about them are quietly prepared for the workings of saving grace. Another requisite for the accomplishment of their task is a full consciousness of their role in building up society whereby they strive to perform their domestic, social, and professional duties with such Christian generosity that their manner of acting should gradually penetrate the whole world of life and labor.
This apostolate should reach out to all wherever they may be encountered; it should not exclude any spiritual or temporal benefit which they have the ability to confer. True apostles however, are not content with this activity alone but endeavor to announce Christ to their neighbors by means of the spoken word as well. For there are many persons who can hear the Gospel and recognize Christ only through the laity who live near them.
Your comment is insane and evil. “These people” are sons and daughters of God, for whom the Word of God, Jesus Christ, suffered and died on the cross.If your congregation or you is accepting those people to be around the word of god then, you’re just as wicked as they are.
Perhaps a Third Order, like the Lay Dominicans or Secular Franciscans?I don’t know how to best pose this question so forgive me for any clumsiness as it’s a sensitive topic. If we are supposed to have a vocation of holy matrimony or religious life, what is the vocation for the same-sex-attracted who are not supposed to marry but are also not supposed to be welcomed into religious life? I’m a straight single woman and it’s confusing enough for me as I don’t feel called to religious life and at this point am content if I never marry. Thinking of my own vocation less state made me think about our same-sex-attracted brothers and sisters. Is this explained anywhere? I have seen the teaching on sexual morality but nothing that addresses vocation in these instances.
Definitely not. This is a spousal vocation, not hyped up singlehood for women, and a candidate should have a measure of spousal affectivity to Christ…Consecrated Virginity,