THE PHENOMENON OF DEPARTURES: SOME CRITICAL ISSUES (original) (raw)
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Sanyasa Journal of Consecrated Life, 2021
One of the worrying issues relating to the life of Consecrated persons today is the growing phenomenon of mediocrity and compromised integrity among some. An inquiry into why many consecrated persons end up living this way would reveal several factors such as the failure to construct a solid personal and religious identity, lack of internalization of vocational values and of any significant ideals in life, weakening of one’s life of faith, inadequate identification with the vocational project, secularization of the modern society and relativisation of absolutes and ideals, difficulty to live in the prospective of distant future, struggle experienced in the structuring of desire, a poorly formed conscience, inadequate vocational motivation, and the individual’s psychodynamics. This article is an attempt to examine the problem of mediocrity among the consecrated, examining some of its reasons and what may be done to help so that such persons can live their life of consecration with greater conviction, joy, passion, integrity, and commitment.
Sanyasa Journal of Consecrated Life, 2021
One of the worrying issues relating to the life of Consecrated persons today is the growing phenomenon of mediocrity and compromised integrity among some. An inquiry into why many consecrated persons end up living this way would reveal several factors such as the failure to construct a solid personal and religious identity, lack of internalization of vocational values and of any significant ideals in life, weakening of one’s life of faith, inadequate identification with the vocational project, the secularization of the modern society and relativisation of absolutes and ideals, difficulty to live in the prospective of distant future, struggle experienced in the structuring of desire, a poorly formed conscience, inadequate vocational motivation, and the individual’s psychodynamics. This article is an attempt to examine the problem of mediocrity among the consecrated, examining some of its reasons and what may be done to help so that such persons can live their life of consecration with greater conviction, joy, passion, integrity, and commitment.
Modification of the Sanction of Dismissal of Members Living in Social Forms of Consecrated Life
Biuletyn Stowarzyszenia Kanonistów Polskich/Biuletyn, 2024
The paper deals with the dismissal of members from religious institutes, secular institutes and societies of apostolic life (called "societies living in common without vows" in the 1917 Code of Canon Law) following its changes from the beginning of the 20th century to 2023 in the law of the Western Catholic Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches, with an emphasis on the legislation under the pontificate of Pope Francis. It deals with the changes in the legal nature of the dismissal procedure, the modifications of obligatory and optional dismissal, esp. in view of the decentralization of the procedure, and specially the modification of dismissal by the act itself (ipso facto), responding to the need to address the hitherto unsolvable situation of members who have left their community and avoid communicating with their superiors, also with analogy to the extraordinary method of dismissal from the clerical state in the case of clerics who have not exercised legitimately sacred ministry for at least five years and do not communicate with their superiors.
Fiuggi, 31 May - 2 June 2003.
I continue with the second part but with other priorities in relation to movements and communities. Thank you. We spoke of these two criteria of discernment, which are educational criteria, which are criteria for growth towards that ecclesial maturity to which the pope called the new realities on May 30, 1998. And now I will allow myself, with your benevolence, to speak of the other three, of these great criteria, priorities, directions of growth towards maturity. The third that I mentioned, which is also illuminating for the entire pontificate, is this responsibility for the truth, a greater responsibility for the truth in its integral contents, in its proposal as contents to which we refer in our Christian formation. And movements and communities also prove to be providential for this phase of implementation of the Council at the dawn of the third millennium, when they are and when they operate as places and methods of education, so that fidelity to Christ and to tradition may be sustained and comforted by an ecclesial environment truly aware of this necessary fidelity. Is it perhaps too much to say that we have experienced and are still experiencing in the Church very frequent situations of crisis of an authentic Catholic education, of increased difficulties in the formation of robust and mature personalities in the faith, of more integral adherence to the truths taught by the Church? Cardinal Ratzinger pointed out, a few years ago, the disproportion between the large investments in all kinds of catechesis, at the parish, diocesan and course levels of all kinds, and their actual results. What, too, can we say about the achievements of many of our important Catholic teaching institutions? Schools. The dominant culture of our days tends to form, to condition fragile individuals who are very lacking in truly educational references and investments. It tends to close reason in pragmatism, in skepticism, in drifting in the midst of the confusion of contemporary Babel, it promotes the trivialization of life, in short, an impoverishment of the experience of the person's conscience with respect to his own humanity. It was not in vain, after the collapse of messianic atheisms, which in the parable of modernity had claimed to take up, replace, and erase tradition and Christian hope, claiming to build the kingdom of man against God, paradises on earth that were later revealed to be authentic hells. The exhaustion of these messianic atheisms, in the collapse of the recapitulating summit that was Maxism-Leninism, the regime of atheistic socialism appears today by spreading new modes of nihilistic and libertine atheism. An apparent joy and comfortable nihilism: living without foundations, without meaning, without great ideals, without well-founded hopes, just like a tangle of sensations and impressions for the enjoyment of the day. You know in your communities how much effort it is to rebuild each person, to the rebirth of personal conscience, to the point of being able to say with awareness: I. Keeping alive, awake, the best desires, expectations that make up our heart, the desires for happiness and a sense of truth. We are as if dragged by a gigantic machine of divertissement, in a Pascalian way, of distraction that tends to atrophy our desires, to cancel or censor our most capital questions, our fundamental expectations, a patient educational effort, even in our communities, in our families. And the person grows in experience, in the awareness of his own humanity when he encounters a greater testimony of himself, an extraordinary presence, a fatherhood and a motherhood, an authoritative and friendly company, which goes as if showing him the path of his own growth, the dramatic crossroads of his own freedom, the need for his own responsibility, without replacing it, so as not to remain shrunken in his own limitations, in their passions, in their disorders, in their justifications.
International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 2021
This study explores the role of Spiritual Well-being [hereafter SWB] in the vocation-perseverance of young sisters of the Congregation of the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Go Vap [hereafter C-LHC-GV]. The research involved twelve participants, all junior sisters of the C-LHC-GV who are in temporary vows and who fall under the 25-29 age bracket. The research project adopts Fisher's fourfold model (1998) as methodological construct in ascertaining the influence and impact of SWB on the vocation-perseverance of the junior sisters of C-LHC-GV. Fisher's quadrant-model is fashioned in the spheres of the personal, the communal, the environmental, and the transcendental. The researcher employs the qualitative instrument in exploring how SWB affects the vocation-perseverance of the participants, and how each component of SWB influences the inner dispositions of the young sisters. Face-to-face interviews with the participants were conducted to gather pertinent data and information. The questionnaire of the study consists of twelve (12) questions. The findings reveal that the overall SWB of the participants is a significant predictor of their vocation-perseverance. In the sphere of the personal, SWB is experienced as peace within the person and as awareness of the inner self; in the domain of the communal, it is felt as the feeling of support of the community; in the province of the environment, it is equated with the sense of oneness with Nature; and in the realm of the transcendent, it is understood as a personal connectedness with God who is the be-all and end-all of religious commitment.
The Consecrated Life: Its Place and Role In The 21St Century
2015
This paper focuses on the place and role of the consecrated people in our time. It argues that for the consecrated life to meet up with the demands of the 21st century world, it must embrace the spirit of change ranging through the age without losing itself and essence to change itself. This spirit of change has the blessing of the Council Fathers who fathomed the need for renewal in the consecrated life. To improve in its engagement with the world, there is need to examine first the understanding and application of consecrated life purely from the evangelical counsel. How consecrated people live and apply these vows in the imitation of Christ in the 21st century world is very important. The vows as we all know are the lowest common factors among all the consecrated persons.
The challenges faced by organizations include the process of constantly adapting and updating its structures and features in order to fulfill their institutional purpose. In a context of pressure and loss of members, this study is an attempt to understand what does or doesn't motivate religious people to join, remain or leave religious institutions related to the Roman Catholic Church. Based on elements of institutional theory, the study aimed to analyze the relationship between the institutional features of religious institutions and their capacity to attract and retain people for religious life. The research method adopted a qualitative approach focusing on Catholic institutions, collecting data through documents, questionnaires responded by the institutions and a focus group with people who have left religious life in the religious institutions in the last 10 years. By analyzing the relationship between the religious institutions features and the data collected on attraction and retention of people for religious life, it was found that the systems of rules, standards, regulatory principles, beliefs, rites, symbolic universe and ideas, have a direct influence on the attraction and satisfaction or dissatisfaction of these people, depending on the degree of institutional-ization and agency capacity. These elements are part of an 'institutional script' that reveals the individuals preferences based on the scenarios , characteristics and historical processes. The study also points out a tension between the perception of the individual and the institution. Atração e permanência de pessoas em instituições religiosas católicas: o peso dos contornos institucionais Resumo As organizações são desafiadas ao processo de adaptação e atualização constante de suas estruturas e de seus contornos institucionais para que possam cumprir sua finalidade institucional. Em um contexto de pressão e esvaziamento de membros, este estudo buscou compreender o que pode motivar ou desmotivar a atração, permanência ou desistência de membros em instituições de caráter religioso, especialmente aquelas ligadas à Igreja Católica. Norteado por elementos da teoria institucional, o estudo teve como objetivo central analisar a relação entre a configuração institucional das instituições religiosas (IR) e o ingresso, permanência e/ou desistência de seus membros. A estratégia de pesquisa adotada foi o estudo qualitativo, com foco nas IR católicas, pesquisa documental e egressos (desistentes nos últimos 10 anos). Os dados foram coletados por meio de estudo de documentos, questionários e entrevistas e grupo focal. Ao analisar a relação entre a confi-guração institucional das IR e o ingresso e permanência de seus membros, constatou-se que os sistemas de regras, normas, princípios regu-latórios, crenças, ritos, universo simbólico e ideias têm influência direta em fatores de atratividade e geram satisfação ou insatisfação dos membros, dependendo do grau de institucionalização e da capacidade de agência dos atores. São os roteiros institucionais que revelam as preferências fundamentais dos indivíduos a partir dos cenários, contornos e processos históricos. O estudo aponta, ainda, uma tensão entre as percepções do indivíduo e da instituição. Palavras-chave: Instituições Religiosas. Atratividade. Teoria Institucional. Atracción y permanencia de personas en instituciones religiosas católicas: el peso de los contornos institucionales Resumen Las organizaciones son desafiadas al proceso de adaptación y actualización constante de sus estructuras y de sus contornos institucionales para que puedan cumplir con su finalidad institucional. En un contexto de presión y disminución de miembros, este estudio buscó compren-der lo que puede motivar o desmotivar la atracción, la permanencia o el desistimiento de miembros en instituciones de carácter religioso, especialmente aquellas ligadas a la Iglesia Católica. Norteado por elementos de la teoría institucional, el estudio tuvo como objetivo central analizar la relación entre la configuración institucional de las instituciones religiosas (IR) y el ingreso, la permanencia y/o el desistimiento de sus miembros. La estrategia de investigación adoptada fue el estudio cualitativo, con foco en las IR católicas, investigación documental y egresos (desertores en los últimos 10 años). Los datos fueron recogidos por medio de estudio de documentos, cuestionarios y entrevistas y grupo focal. Al analizar la relación entre la configuración institucional de las IR y el ingreso y permanencia de sus miembros, se constató que los sistemas de reglas, normas, principios regulatorios, creencias, ritos, universo simbólico e ideas tienen influencia directa sobre facto-res de atractividad y generan satisfacción o insatisfacción de los miembros, dependiendo del grado de institucionalización y de la capacidad de agencia de los actores. Son los itinerarios institucionales que revelan las preferencias fundamentales de los individuos desde los escena-rios, los contornos y los procesos históricos. El estudio también muestra una tensión entre las percepciones del individuo y de la institución. Palabras clave: Instituciones Religiosas. Atractividad. Teoría Institucional.
In: Journal of Empirical Theology 31 (pp. 137-166). Brill., 2019
In 2016 more than 350,000 Germans resigned their membership of the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Church (DBK 2017: 46; EKD 2016: 12). Although this is less than the number of people who have officially resigned their member- ship in 2014, it is the same as the average number of people who have resigned per year over the last decade. People who have quit their church affiliation have led to the membership decline of both churches in Germany (Eicken/ Schmitz-Veltin 2010). In the following paragraphs we will sketch the particular features of church membership in Germany, summarise the research on indi- viduals who leave the church and describe the theories resulting from relevant studies. This analysis will be reflected in our research question.
Bogoslovni vestnik, 2020
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