Admission to
the Religious Life
James E. Risk, S.J.
ADMISSION to membership in any organization generally presupposes a
preliminary investigation to ascertain the qualifications of the
applicant. That a candidate for the religious life must meet the
exacting requirements of the Code of Canon Law and the prescriptions of
the particular institute that he wishes to join is revealed from the
examination that precedes his admission to the novitiate or, in some
cases, the postulancy. While many points to be treated in this brief
commentary on Canon 538 are equally applicable to the question of
admission to the seminary, it is our purposeto restrict our remarks to
the qualifications required in the aspirant to the religious state.
Admission into religion is a gradual procedure and the commentators on
the Code usually distinguish between admission to the probationary
stage, that is. the postulancy or the novitiate, and admission to the
profession. The canonical requirements should be met at least before
admission to the novitiate is granted. More exacting requirements are
demanded of the candidate seeking admission to the profession, since
such a candidate has, in the meantime, been subjected to the special
training given in the novitiate.
Canon 538 states that "Every Catholic who is not debarred by any
legitimate impediment and is inspired by the right intention and is fit
to bear the burdens of the religious life can be admitted into
religion." Although not intended to present a summary treatise on the
question of a religious vocation, this canon embodies a fourfold
principle which supplies superiors with a juridical norm on which they
may base their judgment in accepting or rejecting the application of the
aspirant to the religious state. The following qualifications are
required for admission into religion according to Canon 538:
a) the Catholic faith;
b) freedom from legitimate impediments;
c) a right intention;
d) the ability to fulfil obligations.
Catholic Faith
The Catholic faith is the prime requisite. While some non-catholic
take private vows and even lead some form of community life, the
religious state in a strict sense cannot exist outside the Catholic
Church. For outside the true fold the way to perfection as well as the
way to salvation is uncertain, since there is lacking the unerring
guidance, direction, and supervision of the Roman Catholic Church, the
one and only possessor and custodian of truth. Hence, apostates from the
true faith, heretics and schematics (even though individual members of
these latter two classes may be in good faith) cannot enjoy the rights
of a Catholic according to Canon 87, because externally and from the
standpoint of the social good of the faithful, they are considered as
excommunicated. One of the rights of a Catholic in good standing and
otherwise qualified is to enter religion. Even catechumens, that is,
those preparing to receive Baptism, cannot be admitted to the religious
state before first having made their way into the Church through the
gateway of sacramental Baptism.
Freedom from Impediments
Freedom from legitimate impediments is the second quality demanded.
This means that there is no obstacle established by law that would bar
the candidate's admission into religion. Some of these obstacles or
impediments to admission would render such an act null and void, while
others prohibit admission under pain of sin, without how- ever
nullifying such an admission.
Among the nullifying impediments we may enumerate a lack of the
prescribed age, that is, the fifteenth year complete; admission to
religion under the influence of grave fear or violence, or when the
candidate has substantially deceived those empowered to receive him; the
bond of matrimony; judicial condemnation following the commission of a
crime. The second group of impediments preventing lawful admission into
religion include major orders, insolvency, the grave obligation of
supporting dependents. In the case of a candidate for the priesthood
there may exist special obstacles to the reception or the exercise of
orders. To the foregoing should be added other particular impediments
established by the individual institute.
We may likewise add that some persons are ineligible for life in the
cloister for reasons arising from the natural law. Such would be infants
and mental defectives, especially if the latter class is habitually so.
As far as the natural law is concerned, even children might enter
religion, a practice not unknown in past ages of the Church. Without
parental consent, it would be unlawful and parents could recall them. As
stated above, however, the Church has now established the completion of
the fifteenth year as the minimum age for valid admission. During their
stay in religion, parental power over minors is suspended. One bound to
repair the serious damage inflicted on another would be excluded from
religion until reparation had been made. For such reparation is due from
the natural law. Then too, in many cases those who have lost their
reputation will be barred from the religious state in virtue of the
natural law.
Some impediments of a less serious nature can be remedied by various
means. A relative or friend might assume the care of a candidate's
dependents, thus making it possible to enter religion; the impediment
arising from a lack of the prescribed age is remedied quite obviously by
the passage of time; debts preventing the entrance of a candidate may be
duly discharged. But other impediments such as mental or moral
deficiency are generally considered as forming a permanent barrier to
the cloister.
Right Intention
A right intention is the third prescription of Canon 538. The call to
the religious life is not made manifest by the mere absence of
impediments or by the physical and moral capacity to carry successfully
the burdens of community life. A resolution built on far stronger
foundations than purely human motives must inspire the soul of the
candidate. Motives arising from a desire of economic security; of
freedom from domestic anxieties; of the consolation of having devoted
and charitable care during times of sickness and in old age—all these,
while providing in some cases, perhaps, a point of departure to more
spiritual motives, can scarcely lead one to suspect a vocation of divine
origin. But should the soul desire to distil its love of God in a life
of service exclusively devoted to Him; if it wishes to win other souls
to Him; if it desires to pray habitually with greater fervor or to lead
a life of reparation; if these and like intentions are serious, profound
and persistent; if they are not confused with passing reveries or
feast-day fervors; then the candidate may feel assured that his
intention is certainly right in the sense understood by the Code.
Such an unearthly intention or purpose, needless to say, cannot take
root in a soul without the aid of divine grace. The aims of the
individual order or congregation make a very definite appeal to many of
the faithful. The response of the individual soul to so noble an appeal
constitutes in many cases the required fight intention. Zeal for souls
must motivate the aspirant to a missionary institute; the desire to
exercise Christ-like charity must fill the soul of the girl who proposes
to join a congregation devoted to the instruction of the young or to the
care of the sick.
Vocation
Intimately connected with the question of the right intention is that
of vocation as such. The Code does not treat of it in so many words, yet
the right intention may, in a sense, include it, since the right
intention adequately understood includes the notion of a vocation.
Without a right intention, the true vocation does not exist. A religious
vocation may be considered as an act by which God calls one to follow
the way of the counsels by entering some definite form of the religious
life; from the standpoint of the recipient of the vocation, it may be
considered as the acceptance in given circumstances of the invitation
extended to him. Since the religious life is a juridical state,
established by the authority and under the protection of the Church, it
is that same Church that gives legitimate superiors the right to admit
or to reject candidates to the religious state.
While uniform terminology is to be desired in this matter,
theologians generally distinguish two kinds of vocation, the ordinary
and the extraordinary. An ordinary vocation to the religious life is so
called because it is offered to all men who, with the aid of divine
grace, are able and willing to tend to Christian perfection in the
religious state. These are the ordinary ways of manifesting the divine
will. Of the ordinary vocation, Suarez, in his treatise on the Religious
State, says:
"Very often it is better to enter religion without any special desire
or inclination given from on high, on the strength of a free choice made
by mature judgment after due consideration. For experience and reason
make it evident that since it is often proper, nay sometimes necessary
to act thus in other virtuous works, the same can be said of this one.
For there is no reason why in this matter we must always await an
extraordinary grace or call from the Holy Spirit."
On the other hand, a special or extraordinary vocation is one offered
to a comparatively few chosen souls. Besides a sufficient corporal and
spiritual ability to fulfil with satisfaction the duties of religion, it
includes a certain illumination of mind and a strong internal attraction
to the religious state. Such for example was the vocation of St. Therese
of Lisieux, who, while speaking of her vocation to Carmel, tells us that
she "felt it so strongly that there was no room for doubt. It was not
the dream of an impressionable child, but the certainty of a divine
call." The importance of those signs which manifest a special or
extraordinary call to religion should not be exaggerated, if the
candidate measures up to the requirements exacted by Church law. While
extraordinary signs bring an added consolation, the signs recognized by
the Church as indicating a true vocation from God should give the
candidate no small reason for consolation.
Theologians do not hesitate to declare that a vocation is not
incompatible with a natural repugnance arising from too great an
attachment to sensible things. In the selfsame person the
counter-attractions of the heart can raise a painful protest against the
divine will. This suggests another question. Given the normal
indications of a genuine vocation, is one obliged to respond to that
call and follow the way of the evangelical counsels in the cloister?
The strict obligation to heed such a divine call cannot be imposed on
anyone, for it is not a matter that is necessary for salvation. In a
given case, where one had bound himself by vow to enter religion, the
obligation would exist. Moreover, if unmistakable signs were given an
individual that his only way to eternal life lay through the cloister,
he would be obliged to follow such a call. A near-revelation of this
sort will be made very rarely, and the favored soul would hardly act
without the counsel of a competent spiritual guide.
Fitness
Fitness to bear the burdens of the religious life is the fourth
element mentioned in Canon 538. A basic aptitude, embracing the
qualities without which it would be imprudent to enrol in any religious
institute whatever, is demanded by this principle. As organized by the
Church, the religious life demands a striving for perfection, a life
regulated by the obligations of the vows and community life. The
applicant, then, must give promise of being able to obey without too
much difficulty; to remain chaste with the assistance of divine grace;
to endure the limitations imposed on the exercise of proprietorship by
the vow of poverty; to have enough energy to maintain the struggle
against one's habitual faults and to fulfill the appropriate duties or
tasks imposed. Uncertain health without prospects of improvement,
habitual fault-finding, intractability, excessive moodiness or
melancholy and similar antisocial propensities, softness of character,
an incurable restlessness, dissipation of mind, and a lack of judgment
are unerring symptoms of ineptitude for the burdens of the religious
life. They are positive indications that the admission of a candidate
handicapped in any of these ways would promise a cross to the community
and a great deal of unhappiness to the religious himself. The acceptance
and more so the profession of such a misfit would be a liability to any
organization.
These symptoms of ineptitude may not appear in the candidate who
presents himself for the pre-admission examination, but sooner or later
manifest their presence in the soul of the postulant or novice. A
carefully conducted novitiate training should rarely fail to disclose
them. The nature of the institute will demand special aptitudes over and
above those outlined in the Code. The restless or the exceedingly active
type may find the boredom of a contemplative order insuperable; a
delicate constitution will be sadly overtaxed by the rigorous practices
of penitential orders; a retarded intelligence will find itself in an
unsympathetic atmosphere in a teaching institute, unless the candidate
be willing to fill the role of a lay-religious devoted to domestic
duties. It is not unknown that a longing for the religious life may
exist in a soul scarcely capable of sustaining the burdens proper
thereto. In practical life, the presence of impediments not easily
removed is a sufficient indication that the soul in question lacks a
religious vocation.
Acceptance by Superior
Acceptance on the part of the superior is the crowning requisite for
admission into the religious state. An aspirant otherwise qualified "can
be admitted" says Canon 538. The Code tells us as well in Canon 543 that
the right to admit a candidate belongs to the major superior and again
in Canon 572, 2° that the profession will be invalid unless received by
the legitimate superior. Hence, even though a candidate were convinced
of the genuinity of his vocation, he would not enjoy, on that account, a
strict right to admittance to any particular institute; he could not
insist on his admission. The rejection of a highly qualified candidate,
however, would be an extremely rare occurrence.
Role of the Confessor
The Code is silent on the role played by the confessor in the matter
of a religious vocation, since it is taken for granted that his training
in Moral and Ascetical Theology provides the priest with ample equipment
for the practical direction of souls. In many cases the advice of a
confessor as such is not necessary for one to know that he can enter the
religious life for supernatural motives, that he is prevented by no
canonical impediment, and that he is able to fulfill the obligations
imposed on religious; in a word, that he is juridically qualified to
enter the life he has chosen. Religious superiors, relying on the
information given them by the candidates and further confirmed or in
some cases disproved by the experiments of the petulancy or the
novitiate, are generally qualified to judge whether or not all the
elements of a religious vocation have been realized. However, the
judgment of a truly spiritual and well-informed confessor, who is
thoroughly acquainted with his penitent and the type of life to which he
aspires, merits full consideration. But his approbation by no means
constitutes admission to religion any more than his disapproval would
close the door of the convent to a candidate seeking admission.
Conclusion
How this doctrine embodied in Canon 538 affords a secure and
practical norm for superiors may be pointed out in a few words. As far
as it is possible, the superior, relying on the assistance of grace in
such an important matter, is put at his ease in admitting subjects. He
has been given very definite guides which he may follow without
hesitation, for they are norms supplied him by the Church. Extraordinary
signs or sensible attractions are often difficult to appreciate
exteriorly; they remain more in the hidden recesses of the soul; they
lend themselves more easily to illusion. But the norms supplied by the
Church, namely, absence of impediments, a right intention, and aptitude
manifest themselves quite readily and can be verified the more easily in
a given candidate examined by a superior of normal discernment. Fidelity
to such an authoritative norm will prevent the extremes of leniency in
allowing the yoke of religious obligations to be placed upon faltering
shoulders, and of excessive scrupulosity in rejecting any candidate who
has not manifested signs of an extraordinary call. The novitiate,
properly conducted, will often vindicate the judgment of the superior
whose duty it is to receive candidates. The superior who uses all human
means to arrive at a correct decision in these all important matters and
is mindful of an ever-operating providence may rest assured that the
religious life will not suffer from a lack of worthy recruits.
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