29. Religious Congregations

RELIGIOUS CONGREGATIONS

Christ Jesus calls all of us to holiness: “You must be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”(Mt. 5:48). Thus St. Paul wrote, “It is God’s will that you grow in holiness.”(I Thes. 4:3) In pursuit of this holiness and perfect charity and influenced by the Holy Spirit, since the infancy of the church, “men and women strove to follow Christ more freely and imitate Him more nearly by the practice of the evangelical counsels”(Perfectae Caritatis [PC], 1) of chastity, poverty and obedience which become the essence of their consecrated life and founded religious congregations (PC, 8). These evangelical counsels which they professed in the church in imitation of Christ, the virgin and poor man (Cf. Mt. 8:20) and who is obedient to God the Father even unto death (Cf. Phil. 2:8), does not set them apart from other Christians but it is to express “with greater fullness” (Evangelica testificacio [ET], 4) the baptismal consecration to “the service of God”(ET, 7), a self-surrender to “achieve a greater good for the Church” (PC, 1) and like all Christians, “to serve the world and the church, to be immersed in the world even as they live as signs of the coming kingdom.” (Second Plenary Council of the Philippines [PCP II], 454). As a sign within the church as a sign and witnessing to the Gospel beatitudes (Mt 5:1ff.), religious life has a radical and distinct form of discipleship “whereby persons consecrate themselves to living Christ’s life radically, publicly and in community, in order thereby to devote themselves exclusively to the mission of Christ” (PCP II, 449). To fulfill the mission of Christ, religious congregations, like the Augustinians, Benedictines, Brigittines, Carmelites, Carthusians, Columbans, Dominicans, Franciscans, Handmaids, Jesuits, Redemptorists, Trappists, etc., are not only involved in parishes, schools, retreat centers, mass media, health centers and socio-pastoral agencies but they are also involved in new ministries and missions but with a prophetic character. Consequently, religious life as “prophecy in the manner of Christ’s own prophetic life has to be an urgent dimension in the light of our evangelizing task as a Church and in the context of our history.”(PCP II, 451).
Like all Christian groups, religious congregations are undergoing a renewal to be attuned to the times. Vatican II delineates that the “appropriate renewal of religious life involves two simultaneous processes: (1) a continuous return to the sources of all Christian life and to the original inspiration behind a given community and (2) an adjustment of the community to the changed conditions of the times.”(PC,2). The cloistered nuns and contemplative hermits or monks who are “totally dedicated to contemplation give themselves to God alone in solitude and silence and through constant prayer and ready penance.”(PC, 7) The friars, religious brothers, missionaries and religious clergy as well as religious women who are involved in active apostolate “have contributions to make which are as various as the graces given them” (PC, 8) echoing what is said in the letter to the Corinthians, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” (I Cor. 12:4). Considering their valuable endowment and contribution to the Church, religious congregations and communities “should faithfully maintain and fulfill their proper activities. Yet, they should make adjustments in them according to the needs of time and place and in favor of what will benefit the universal Church and individual dioceses.”(PC, 20). In our Diocese of San Carlos we need not only the revitalization of the ARMWID (Association of Religious Men and Women in the Diocese) but also more religious congregations to spread the good news of Christ and make manifest their witness to their faith and love of God.

Questions for small group discussions:
Are you aware of the existence of Religious Congregations and missionaries in our Diocese of San Carlos? If you do, who are they and what do you think are their contribution to the Church?
Would you want to have more religious congregations in our diocese? If yes, why?; if no, why not?