Decreases in religious life could prompt canon law reform

[rug]

Andrea Gagliarducci

Vatican City, Nov 2, 2013 / 06:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In the context of a discussion on the exodus of religious and priests, the heads of the congregation for religious have said that Pope Francis is open to a reformation of the Code of Canon Law.

At a conference on “vocational perseverance” held at the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome Oct. 29, Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, noted that in the last five years the congregation dispensed nearly 12,000 people from religious life.

Archbishop Rodríguez discussed reasons for this vocational crisis, and lamented that “the Code of Canon Law does not allow us to have longer novitiates in order to permit a better discerning.”

According to the current code, novitiates in the religious life must last from a minimum of 12 months up to a maximum of two years.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/decreases-in-religious-life-could-prompt-canon-law-reform/

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

1. I can think of a more significant reform of Canon Law that would increase the number of priests

Canon 247 Students are to be prepared through suitable education to observe the state of celibacy and are to learn to honor it as a special gift of God.

Allowing married men would almost certainly increase the number of priests. Not to speak of allowing women into the priesthood.

[hedgehog]

2. I think the Congregation needs to start asking people why they are leaving -

and perhaps look at such factors as age of admission. Young adults can have very romantic notions of the religious life - just as too many young people have romantic notions of married life!

Instead of discouraging religious from dispensing with their vows and forbidding divorce, we need to recognize and the pain of those involved; no one enters the religious life in order to leave, no one anticipates getting a divorce on the wedding day. We need to learn from peoples' pain so we can protect and guide others.