When an illegitimate absence irreparably damages communion: an analysis of the motu proprio Communis Vita
The common life is a constitutive element of the religious life. It is no less optional than the profession of the evangelical counsels. A member’s illegitimate absence from the religious house violates his/her obligation to the common life (c. 665 §1). It is precisely this intolerable situation tha...
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
2022
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| In: |
Angelicum
Year: 2022, Volume: 99, Issue: 2, Pages: 231-251 |
| Summary: | The common life is a constitutive element of the religious life. It is no less optional than the profession of the evangelical counsels. A member’s illegitimate absence from the religious house violates his/her obligation to the common life (c. 665 §1). It is precisely this intolerable situation that Pope Francis addresses in the motu proprio Communis vita, by which he adds two provisions to canon 694. The first provides for the unreachable member’s ipso facto dismissal from the institute if he/she is illegitimately absent from the religious house for 12 uninterrupted months (c. 694 §1, 3º). The second provision concerns the juridical establishment of this ipso facto dismissal (c. 694 §3). By all appearances, it seems that the unreachable member no longer wants to be a religious, or at least a member of his/her institute. With these modifications, canon 694, under the specific conditions to be explored in this article, effectively ratifies a member’s free and deliberate choice against the religious life. To put it differently, with the new motu proprio it seems that, under specific conditions, a member’s free and deliberate choice against the common life irreparably damages communion with the institute and its membership since the consequence of that choice is the member’s ipso facto dismissal from the institute. To better understand Communis vita’s impact, this article will consider the following topics: the member’s obligation to live in the religious house, the 1983 code’s measures for responding to a member’s illegitimate absence pre-Communis vita, all of which remain in force, canon 694 as originally promulgated, and Communis vita’s modifications to canon 694. |
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| ISSN: | 1123-5772 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Angelicum
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