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3000 religious leave religious life each year. Why? Some reasons. [CATHOLIC CAUCUS]
WDTPRS ^ | 10/30/2013 | Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Posted on 10/30/2013 1:57:06 PM PDT by markomalley

I saw this at CWN:

Curial official: over 3,000 religious leave consecrated life each year [Makes you wonder how many enter religious life.  I'll bet not 3k!]

The secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life said in an October 29 address that over 3,000 men and women religious leave the consecrated life each year.

In the address – a portion of which was reprinted in L’Osservatore Romano [HERE] – Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo said that statistics from his Congregation, as well as the Congregation for the Clergy, indicate that over the past five years, 2,624 religious have left the religious life annually. When one takes into account additional cases handled by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the number tops 3,000.

The prelate, who led the Order of Friars Minor from 2003 until his April 2013 curial appointment, said that the majority of cases occur at a “relatively young age.” The causes, he said, include “absence of spiritual life,” “loss of a sense of community,” and a “loss of sense of belonging to the Church” – a loss manifest in dissent from Catholic teaching on “women priests and sexual morality.” [read: LCWR]

Other causes include “affective problems,” including heterosexual relationships that continue into marriage and homosexual relationships, which are “most obvious in men, but also present, more often than you think, between women.”  [No more often than I thought!]

The world, the prelate continued, is undergoing profound changes from modernity to postmodernity – from fixed reference points to uncertainty, doubt, and insecurity. In a market-oriented world, “everything is measured and evaluated according to the utility and profitability, even people.” It is “a world where everything is soft,” where “there is no place for sacrifice, nor for renunciation.” [The problem, however, is not just that the "world" has gone that way, but that the world's way as been permitted wholesale into the Church and into these religious institutes with virtually no resistance at all.]

In a culture of neo-individualism and subjectivism, he added, “the individual is the measure of everything,” and people feel “unique in excellence.” “Modern man talks a lot” but “cannot communicate in depth.[Yes. Yet another reason for me to call for, once again, a deeper theology of communication, beginning with Christ as the true communicator.]

The solution, he said, is a renewed attention to the centrality the Triune God in religious life, which in turn “brings with it the gift of oneself to others.” There must be a clear emphasis on the “radical nature of the Gospel,” rather than the “number of members or the maintenance of works.” [Your Excellency... until we have our LITURGICAL WORSHIP squared away again, no other effort of renewal can be effective.]



TOPICS: Catholic
KEYWORDS: catholic; religiouslife
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1 posted on 10/30/2013 1:57:06 PM PDT by markomalley
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Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: markomalley

I’d assume this is just in America. Worldwide, both Islam and Christianity are growing exponentially. This is in countries with birth rates above replacement level, and religious people have more children. Just look at the ultra-orthodox in Israel.


3 posted on 10/30/2013 2:00:51 PM PDT by Viennacon
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To: PapaNew

That is...”They’re TIRED of the law...”


4 posted on 10/30/2013 2:01:35 PM PDT by PapaNew
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To: markomalley

If “leaving religious life” includes the departure of postulants and novices who did not persist until full profession, that’s what is to be expected. People enter a religious foundation, initially, to “test their vocation.”

Not every seminarian becomes a priest, and not everyone who essays religious life is going to stick with it.


5 posted on 10/30/2013 2:04:15 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("The heart of the matter is God's love. It always has been. It always will be."~Abp. Chaput)
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To: PapaNew

“Catholic Caucus.”


6 posted on 10/30/2013 2:04:54 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("The heart of the matter is God's love. It always has been. It always will be."~Abp. Chaput)
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To: Tax-chick

Was that not a good post for the Catholic Caucus (not sure what that means)?


7 posted on 10/30/2013 2:16:09 PM PDT by PapaNew
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To: Viennacon

The statement is made by a curial official so it means world wide. I’d say most of those who leave are young mena dn wmoen who haven’t taken final vows. That’s what discernment and a noviate period are all about.


8 posted on 10/30/2013 2:18:07 PM PDT by pgkdan
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To: PapaNew; Religion Moderator

Did you see that this was a Catholic Caucus?


9 posted on 10/30/2013 2:27:46 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: markomalley

St. Paul wrote in Corinthians that not all have received the gift of Celibacy. In a global talent pool, 3000 people who determine it’s not for them is probably not out of the ordinary.


10 posted on 10/30/2013 2:42:04 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Salvation

What does “Catholic Caucus” mean?


11 posted on 10/30/2013 2:42:08 PM PDT by PapaNew
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Life isn’t all about *******. There are certainly people who enter religious life and find that poverty or obedience, as observed in a specific order, is not their vocation. There are seminarians who don’t take to the academic rigor.


12 posted on 10/30/2013 5:57:41 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("The heart of the matter is God's love. It always has been. It always will be."~Abp. Chaput)
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To: PapaNew
This thread is posted on the Religion Forum. Here threads may be labeled as "caucus" "prayer" "devotional" or "ecumenical." All other threads are "open" by default.

If the thread is labeled "prayer" or "devotional" then no debate of any kind is allowed on the thread.

If the thread is labeled "ecumenical" then antagonistic reply posts are not allowed.

If the thread is labeled "caucus" then only currently active members of the caucus are allowed to post. Since this thread is labeled "Catholic Caucus" if you are not currently, actively Catholic then do not post on this thread.

Anyone may post for or against deities, religious authorities, beliefs, etc. on "open" Religion Forum threads.

Click here for more guidelines to the Religion Forum.

13 posted on 10/30/2013 7:27:17 PM PDT by Religion Moderator
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To: Tax-chick

Consider the number of people who “leave married life” each year. Perhaps this has to do with a misunderstanding of vocation. Maybe the view of marriage as “a vocation to ****” is inadequate or even deceptive, given the level of failure.

Every Christian’s vocation is to deny himself, take up the Cross, and follow Jesus to Calvary.


14 posted on 10/31/2013 2:29:33 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("The heart of the matter is God's love. It always has been. It always will be."~Abp. Chaput)
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To: markomalley

over 3,000 religious leave consecrated life each year


Lets hope that most or all of the three thousand excepts Jesus after they leave religion.


15 posted on 10/31/2013 6:11:12 AM PDT by ravenwolf
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To: ravenwolf

You guys are like “seminar” callers spamming a conservative radio program.


16 posted on 10/31/2013 6:15:53 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("The heart of the matter is God's love. It always has been. It always will be."~Abp. Chaput)
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To: Tax-chick

You guys are like “seminar” callers spamming a conservative radio program.


Sorry, did not see that it was a Catholic caucus.


17 posted on 10/31/2013 6:37:36 AM PDT by ravenwolf
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To: ravenwolf

Really? It’s right there in the title in ALL CAPS. You saw something in the title that triggered the spambot response, so why not [CATHOLIC CAUCUS]?


18 posted on 10/31/2013 6:41:48 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("The heart of the matter is God's love. It always has been. It always will be."~Abp. Chaput)
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To: Tax-chick

Really? It’s right there in the title in ALL CAPS. You saw something in the title that triggered the spambot response, so why not [CATHOLIC CAUCUS]?


Really, really, but even though i was not supposed to comment i probably would not have gotten any reply from you had i made a favorable one, would i?

I apologized so now should i do?

At any rate you are now asking for comments.


19 posted on 10/31/2013 8:19:16 AM PDT by ravenwolf
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To: ravenwolf

Nobody’s making “positive” comments - just discussion.

Anyway, I was just curious. You can stop replying now :-).


20 posted on 10/31/2013 8:21:51 AM PDT by Tax-chick ("The heart of the matter is God's love. It always has been. It always will be."~Abp. Chaput)
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