Apostolic Religious Life in America Today: A Response to the Crisis

Preface

ix Preface Religious life in the United States in the first decade of the twentyfirst century stands at a critical point for its future. Since the close of the Second Vatican Council, consecrated life in the United States has experienced profound and wide-ranging changes. These changes have resulted in a situation that the authors of this volume consider to be a crisis. The significant decline in numbers of religious priests, brothers, and sisters is only one factor in a much larger picture. The substantial and rapid changes in the life of the Church after Vatican II affected the consecrated life as well. Religious communities implemented broad experiments and changes in the form of their life. Many communities experimented with new procedures for daily living, eschewed the daily wearing of religious habits, altered traditional routines, and adopted new apostolates. Greater personal autonomy reshaped traditional community life and led to increased economic prosperity, as members adopted new directions and beliefs about how to live their vows. Together, these kinds of changes led in large measure to the point where the consecrated life finds itself today. Vatican II is the event that separates religious life from its pre1965 existence, but the Council itself did not generate the changes that led to the crisis. Rather, religious congregations interpreted the Council’s teachings in a manner that the authors believe includes some serious flaws. In short, the idea of the “Spirit of Vatican II” was used as a rationale on both the personal and institutional levels to x Preface transform religious life in a manner that reflected the culture of the day more than it did the Council’s call for an updating (aggiornamento ) in a manner faithful to, and rooted in, 1500 years of tradition (ressourcement). As a response to this situation a Symposium on Apostolic Religious Life was held at Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts , on September 27, 2008. I attended the symposium and, while listening to the presentations, came to conclude that the message communicated so clearly and consistently by the presenters needed to be heard by a wider audience. Thus, the symposium became the catalyst for the preparation of this book. The essays in this volume have been organized in two categories: (1) those that define the crisis and articulate its origins and (2) those that propose, in various ways, an answer rooted in a proper understanding and living of Vatican II, centered in love. The message of these essays is clear and consistent: their authors believe that many individual religious and congregations have moved away from their roots and the teaching of the magisterium, leading in large measure to the present crisis. There is now a need, therefore, to return to the center, to re-anchor religious life in the magisterium of the post-conciliar era and to end the period of experimentation in which it has been incorrectly believed that the consecrated life can be lived on terms dictated by the individual. These essays are published as a historic Apostolic Visitation to communities of women religious in the United States has recently been completed. Ordered in the fall of 2008 by Cardinal Franc Rodé, C.M., prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life, and a contributor to this volume, with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, the visitation was highly controversial. Speaking at the time of the visitation’s call, Sister Eva-Marie Ackerman, representing Mother Mary Clare, A.S.C.J., superior general of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who was appointed as apostolic visitator , emphasized how the visitation could strengthen communities of women religious in the United States: “The goal of the study is to ‘look into the quality of the life’ of women religious in the United States. In doing so, we hope to discover and share the vibrancy and Preface xi purpose that continue to accomplish so much, as well as to understand the obstacles and challenges that inhibit those individuals and institutions, thus limiting their growth and/or re-directing their resources and outreach.”1 On the other side of the aisle, Sister Sandra Schneiders, I.H.M., rejected the visitation as a ploy to undermine the position of progressive women religious: “I don’t put any credence at all in the claim that this [visitation] is friendly, transparent, [or] aimed to be helpful. It is a hostile move and the conclusions are already in...