The Apostolic Visitation of Women Religious

Lent is a season for taking stock, for examining one’s conscience personally and for looking at ourselves collectively to bring our life and actions into line with the Gospel. The visitation of religious communities of women, which begins this coming month after a long period of gathering information, has caused much dismay. Publicly taking stock of the situation of communities of consecrated life might be a wellintentioned initiative, but many see it as invasive and demeaning.

At the most recent meeting of the Presbyteral Council of the archdiocese, several priests raised the question of how they might support women religious, with whom priests here have ministered since the beginnings of the archdiocese. Priests and laity should be and are supportive of communities of women religious. The annual collection for retired religious is evidence of the love and esteem in which they are held. For centuries, and particularly in the history of the Catholic Church in this country, women religious have assured a public ecclesial feminine presence that has responded, often quietly and unpretentiously, to personal needs as no one else could possibly have responded. They have initiated and guided projects and institutions that continue to mark the life of the church. New forms of cooperation continue to be developed. Recently, the women religious superiors and the bishops of the State of Illinois together authored and signed a common letter on human trafficking. What more might be done now by those who want to support women religious?

Support requires understanding. First of all, visitations are part of the life of the church and of consecrated life in particular. Every rule of religious life provides for the oversight of individual religious and of local communities by regional superiors. The general government of religious orders, often based in Rome for large international societies, regularly visits their sisters and brothers around the world. I spent 12 years doing such visits in my own religious order, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The purpose of the visits is to examine the vitality of mission and ministries, to settle community disputes and to call individual religious to fidelity to their rule and way of life. By such visitations, the network of the religious family is supported and strengthened.

Every rule of religious life makes consecrated women and men accountable, by reason of the vow of obedience, to their own superiors and to the Holy Father. The pope is the first superior of every religious order and congregation. By the nature of religious life itself, the pope is “inside” religious communities. He has the right of visitation of each community; and each religious man or woman has the right to ask for his supervision in times of difficulty. The current visitation of religious women is “apostolic” because it is the Apostolic See, through the Congregation for Religious in Rome, which has initiated it and is conducting it.

The situation of consecrated life in this country and in most western countries has been a cause of concern for some time. The call for renewal of religious life at the time of the Second Vatican Council was not intended as a signal for its demise. Since the end of the persecutions of the early Christian centuries, the church has never lived without consecrated persons, those who witness to radical discipleship by leaving everything to follow Christ in poverty, chastity and obedience. A church without such witness will be spiritually flabby. The church needs religious not just to minister, although the works of educating and nursing and pastoral leadership and dedication to the poor are themselves a witness to Christ’s concern for the least among us, but to model a way of life that reminds all of us of the universal call to holiness. Men and women join religious orders to become saints through self-sacrifice lived publicly in the church for the sake of the world’s salvation.

The vitality of consecrated life is, therefore, a concern both for those who live it and for the entire church. Religious orders are not private clubs, able to redefine themselves at will. Every founder worked for approval from the hierarchy in order to insert his or her society into the life of the church and the fabric of her apostolates. The Catholic faith is the bedrock on which religious life is built.

Looking at members of religious institutes, it would be strange indeed if there were individual religious who no longer share the Catholic faith, who do not participate in the Eucharist or recite the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. Sisterhood, like the fraternity of a presbyterate, is secondary to discipleship, and religious who paralyze their own institutes should, with the help of their superiors, examine their lives and their sense of vocation.

Looking to the future, it would be a great tragedy if the weakening of religious orders brought their apostolates in the church to an end. Ways must be worked out with all concerned to make certain that institutions and ministries sponsored now by religious congregations can be continued, even without their physical presence. This work is well advanced in many schools, universities and hospitals; but it needs to be assured everywhere. Likewise, concrete plans for calling new members are needed and will be the subject of conversation during the visitation.

Looking at religious life itself, new ways of creating community and living the vows have been developed in recent years, but they have not always been explained to those outside consecrated life. The visitation might be a way of recognizing these developments and bringing the Code of Canon Law into conformity with the experience of religious life itself. This might be the most important long-range result of the current visitation.

If these concerns are, at least in part, the force driving the visitation, what is causing resistance to it? An examination of another’s life is a time of testing. It is welcome only if it is rooted in love and respect. The woman religious superior who is responsible for organizing the visitation has shown great love and respect for all her sisters in the church, but suspicion of church authority as such remains a problem for some. Positive resistance to church authority has been encouraged, it seems, by one or the other canon lawyer. A lawyer betrays his own calling when he uses the law to destroy the legitimate governance of the church. Finally, there are people in all walks of life who will resist as an affront or an imposition any change that is not self-initiated. Effectively, such an attitude makes conversion impossible.

The gift of vocations to consecrated life and the adequate discernment and formation of religious by their communities should be in the prayers of all Catholics this Lent. When some young religious women appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show a few weeks ago, the primary puzzlement seemed to be how they could live celibate chastity for life. A life without sexual expression in marriage challenges people to think again about the purpose of life, as does the practice of voluntary poverty and finding freedom in obedience.

We need communities of consecrated life to flourish in the church. They are signs of hope because they are places where the grace of God is particularly evident. Every Catholic has a vested interest in strengthening consecrated life. Support for women religious this Lent needs to be grounded in ardent prayer for them and for the success of this apostolic visitation.