Today`s Catholic asks: What's wrong with Religious Orders in America?
source: Blog Unam Sanctam Catholicam
The Apostolic Visitation to American female religious orders - begun under Benedict XVI - has just been wrapped up with the issuance of a Vatican document. The tone of the document leaves one wondering what the problem was to begin with. All of the original problems identified under the Benedictine pontificate (pantheism, paganism, spiritualized environmentalist earth worship, rampant lesbianism, dissent, etc) are simply omitted in the new document, which almost goes as far as to apologize to the nuns for bothering them for the past few years. Nothing to see here folks, move along. To those who love our Church's monastic-religious tradition, this is obviously a huge disappointment. The Vatican has chosen to ignore the real problems in American religious life, which really are the same problems endemic throughout the west. Since the Vatican has failed to act, we present our own assessment of what is wrong with religious life in America and what ought to be done about it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special thanks to friend and fellow blogger Kevin Tierney for the substance of the following commentary.
What's the problem with religious life in America? It's mostly the same problem with the overwhelming majority of Catholic life in America: it isn't really Catholic. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That doesn't mean it's "bad" per se. A lot of religious orders do a lot of great charitable work, and a lot of contemporary Churches do a lot of good social ministry (pro-life stuff, food banks, etc.) Yet there's no distinctly religious character about it; it is not ordered to any supernatural end. This makes it no different than any other charitable NGO. But why devote your life to a religious order that is so characterized? When a religious order becomes essentially just an NGO, there are better places to put your skills to use. Sometimes you might get paid more, you might get better benefits, social stature, etc. doing the same thing for another organization. The Catholic Church can't offer a competitive benefits package that most secular do-gooders can. So if we try to make ourself just another secular do-gooder, we aren't going to get a lot of people. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another problem is there doesn't seem to be any discernible mission to religious life nowadays. It's mostly "Do holy stuff. Do charity." The Church has always mandated charity; there was a time when this kind of work was mostly understood as the work of the religious. But the religious mission was always more specific. All are called to do Holy Stuff and charity is not optional. So understanding the religious vocation simply in terms of "doing charity" leaves one wondering in what way the religious mission is particularly different from the mission of any Catholic lay person serious about their faith. What is the particular mission of Catholic religious as distinct from the laity? The NGO approach obviously makes it impossible to answer this question.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally there is an attitude that views monastic life a waste of time, even amongst the religious. It's viewed as "retreating from the world" and meditating, rather than doing social action. While all religious orders have suffered decline, the monastic orders have suffered the worst devastation. Monks are much more of a rarity than nuns. If history teaches us anything, you can't rebuild religious life as a whole without a proper understanding and embracing of the monastic life by the Church.
What to do? That is a policy for the Vatican decide. We are no experts here. But we do know what we should believe, and it honestly seems a lot of religious communities in the Church DON'T believe the following:
St Michael the Archangel Defend us in Battle. "O Glorious Prince of the heavenly host, St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle and in the terrible warfare that we are waging against the principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the evil spirits. Come to the aid of man, whom Almighty God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and …More
St Michael the Archangel Defend us in Battle.
"O Glorious Prince of the heavenly host, St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle and in the terrible warfare that we are waging against the principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the evil spirits. Come to the aid of man, whom Almighty God created immortal, made in His own image and likeness, and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of Satan.
“Fight this day the battle of the Lord, together with the holy angels, as already thou hast fought the leader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostate host, who were powerless to resist thee, nor was there place for them any longer in Heaven. That cruel, ancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan who seduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss with his angels. Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage. Transformed into an angel of light, he wanders about with all the multitude of wicked spirits, invading the earth in order to blot out the name of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay and cast into eternal perdition souls destined for the crown of eternal glory. This wicked dragon pours out, as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice on men of depraved mind and corrupt heart, the spirit of lying, of impiety, of blasphemy, and the pestilent breath of impurity, and of every vice and iniquity.
“These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with gall and bitterness the Church, the spouse of the immaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on her most sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself, where the See of Holy Peter and the Chair of Truth has been set up as the light of the world, they have raised the throne of their abominable impiety, with the iniquitous design that when the Pastor has been struck, the sheep may be.
“Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help against the attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God, and give them the victory. They venerate thee as their protector and patron; in thee holy Church glories as her defense against the malicious power of hell; to thee has God entrusted the souls of men to be established in heavenly beatitude. Oh, pray to the God of peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so far conquered that he may no longer be able to hold men in captivity and harm the Church. Offer our prayers in the sight of the Most High, so that they may quickly find mercy in the sight of the Lord; and vanquishing the dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, do thou again make him captive in the abyss, that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen. V. Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered ye hostile powers. R. The Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered the root of David. V. Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord. R. As we have hoped in Thee. V. O Lord, hear my prayer. R. And let my cry come unto Thee.
Let us pray. O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call upon Thy holy Name, and as supplicants, we implore Thy clemency, that by the intercession of Mary, ever Virgin Immaculate and our Mother, and of the glorious St. Michael the Archangel, Thou wouldst deign to help us against Satan and all the other unclean spirits who wander about the world for the injury of the human race and the ruin of souls. Amen.”
