July 2, 2011 – Catechism 920-927

The different types of religious life vocations and their vows are beautiful ways to witness to the world and to have that commitment to God. Many things you here about religious life orders are that they are failing and numbers are going down. What I hear is that the orders that have formed or adapted to allow for more flexibility to accommodate the new “world views” or to be “politically correct” or modern in order to bring more people in, are failing. Those that are more orthodox and have held firm to the teaching of the Catholic Church are doing much better, not bursting at the seams, but better. I would attribute this to the understanding that if the Catholic Church becomes flexible on its beliefs, it ceases to be Catholic and becomes more Protestant type church. The problem with this is that people do not feel a sense of commitment to those churches. They feel they can bounce from this to that because the teachings are basically the same and if there is something I don’t like I will seek another denomination or a non-denominational one where there is really no set standard. When there is no sense of commitment, people will not sign up for something like the religious life. It goes along the same lines as the reason the overall numbers are down in Catholic Churches. We have been lulled into a sense that the teachings are not something that are mandatory, but suggestions on what we should believe. As people get this sense, they feel they can jump ship at anytime because there are no repercussions for not believing in teachings. The sadness lies in the fact that many leaders in the Church have allowed this to happen by giving the Catholic faithful nothing but lovey dovey teachings for the last 40 years. The teachings have not changed nor the fact that they are obligations and not suggestions. Catholics who fully believe this will not jump ship for some “better way” because they understand that this is not out there, but right here.