Nearly 600 Gather at Apostolic Religious Life Symposium
October 01, 2008
In the afternoon, Sister Elizabeth McDonough, a Dominican and a professor of canon law and theology at Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, said the Second Vatican Council took place in a decade of assassinations, war protests, equal rights, and the feminist movement.
The hierarchy greatly underestimated the impact of the times and the extent of renewal in religious communities, she said, and adopted a principle of not intervening, which meant that crucial oversight was absent. Now that is changing, she said, as witnessed by the symposium and the number and variety of religious in attendance, including several bishops and Cardinal Rode.
"Hierarchical neglect seems to be changing, right here, right now," Sister McDonough said, and a new awareness has now emerged.
Father Kurt Pritzl, a Dominican priest and dean and associate professor of philosophy at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., related religious life to the Church's teaching on marriage and noted that the consecrated life is symbolic of the marriage of Christ to the Church. But he said that means congregations also have the responsibilities of family life.
Ann Carey, a Catholic journalist and author, offered her "view from the pew" by saying that lay Catholics expect religious men and women to reflect the teachings of the Church, yet some religious today do not accept teachings on several issues.
Many religious, she said, are also invisible to the laity, and although they are doing good work, that work is often for secular causes. One reason for the lack of new vocations, she said, is that religious life does not seem very different from the lay life, and young people are not attracted to religious orders that do not know what they are about and where they are going.
Members, she said, need to conduct themselves as religious and if they do, they will discover the keys to renewing their orders, and will draw the esteem of the laity.
In his closing remarks, Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin, said obedience is the basis for all of religious life. Attempts were made to redefine obedience in the 1960s, he said, as the emphasis was placed on following one's conscience. But he said conscience has to be shaped by the truths of Scripture and the teachings of the Church.
The symposium concluded with a Vigil Mass celebrated by Cardinal Rode with a number of concelebrants, including Cardinal O'Malley who was also the homilist.
Stonehill and the Diocese of Fall River sponsored the symposium in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Archdiocese of Boston. Stonehill President Mark Cregan, C.S.C. welcomed the participants and Bishop George Coleman of the Diocese of Fall River offered the opening prayer.
Following the event, Cardinal Rode was presented with an honorary degree in humanities from Stonehill. As an educator in the faith and a theologian, he was recognized for his nearly fifty years of service to Christ and his Church.
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