Why are religious orders limiting?

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fin

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i heard about Sr. Faustina veing refused into an order because she is poor.
also about St. Gerard paying dowries for poor girls entering convent.
why is it that people who want to become religious have to have money? :confused:
i thought nayone could join, as long as they really want to and could stay???
 
In “the olden days” it was sometimes assumed that you had to kind of “pay your own way” to help the order afford their costs of taking you on into and continuing their way of life.
 
fin said:
oh i see. but isn’t St. Faustina from the recent times?
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She is from the mid to early 20th century right? Anyways, I think for female religious , perhaps it had a connection to dowries? I think women still had to pay those when they got married up until not too long ago in the western world, the female religious in the old days would wear wedding dresses when taking their vows. So perhaps , just guessing, it was connected to that. Of course I think that having to pay a dowry to a religious community seems kind of silly, most likely a small t tradition to get rid of. Though perhaps they should bring the wedding dresses back for female religious orders.
 
Orders can also be a little elitist at times. “Who’s wants this poor peasant? What good can they be?”
 
It is not exactly the same thing, but possibly it is to discourage those who want a free ride.

If you want to be a priest in my diocese usually it costs money, but if you are ordained they forgive the debt.
This was explained that they do this to discourage those who join just to get an education then quit.

So usually it is for the costs involved in joining and they housing and feeding you but this all depends on what you are joining.

I am sure you can join an order without money, you just need to ask around.

In Christ
Scylla
 
I betcha the custom still exists in third world nations. Who there wouldn’t want to get out of the cardboard slums and into a place where “poverty” consists of three square meals a day (except fasting days) and a dry, warm place to sleep?

You have to have some way of separating the devout from the slackers. Even back then, I bet there were ways of working your way in via what we’d call ‘sweat equity’ today.

Also remember that back then, orders depended on begging for their income. Catholics could afford catholic schools because the schools paid the nuns virtually nothing for salary. Today, orders often charge market value for the services of their members, but the salary goes to the order instead of the individual. That’s a big difference in money and is the difference between a new sister being another mouth to feed versus another source of income!
 
“Dowries” per se, don’t exist today. Every order I’ve spoken with has said to bring enough money with you to get you back home–and possibly set up housekeeping. Used to be, everything was sold before entering, and the former sister had nothing to go back to.

Dowries were to help defray the cost of maintenance, but that was when women had the choice of either the convent or a husband. Women didn’t have a lot of say in the matter, and were sometimes sent to the convent for really ridiculous reasons.

HTH.

Blessings,
Cloisters
 
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