On February 2nd, Pope Francis preached for the 25th World Day for Consecrated life. His theme was patience: how Simeon was patient in waiting for the Lord and how those in religious life must be patient, too, whether personally, in community life, or with the world. Read Francis's full homily [...]
Koningshoeven Abbey in the Netherlands has introduced a new idea for those discerning entrance into their Trappist monastery: an electronic, or virtual, novitiate, which they call "eNovice." This system does not seem to be a replacement for the in-person novitiate, but rather is a tool that those interested in the monastery [...]
On February 2nd, the Conference of Major Superiors of Men, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the Religious Formation Conference, the Religious Brothers Conference, and the National Religious Vocation Conference held a meeting to discuss religious life through the lens of Pope Francis's new encyclical, Fratelli Tutti. The event was [...]
The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (CICLSAL) released a letter on January 18th, 2021 in honor of the upcoming World Day for Consecrated Life on February 2nd, 2021. With this letter, we wish to lessen the physical distance imposed on us for so many [...]
“Fratelli Tutti: To see what really matters” was a talk originally delivered to men and women religious in the United States as a webinar sponsored by the Conference of Major Superiors of Men on January 21, 2021. Given the time constraints of the talk, Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, could only [...]
Fratelli Tutti: To see what really matters Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J. Under Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development Address to the Conference of Major Superiors of Men January 21, 2021 This was a talk given the men and women religious during a webinar sponsored by the Conference [...]
Dr. Peggy Delmas recently published a qualitative account of three early scientific pioneers, all of them women religious. She found their experience in scientific research to be marked by marginalization and religious discrimination, but they also enjoyed remarkable support from their congregations and often saw their work as extension of [...]
A number of religious orders or leadership bodies associated with religious orders issued statements or offered prayers in the aftermath of the violence at the US Capitol building on January 6th, 2021. Links: Leadership Conference of Women Religious Sisters of St. Joseph, US Federation Congregation of the Sisters of St. [...]
Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk who famously documented his conversion and entrance into the monastery in the Seven Storey Mountain, also wrote about race during the 1960s. Those writings now seem especially relevant given the racial tensions the United States experienced in 2020. Although it may seem odd that a largely [...]
Fr. Reginald Foster, OCD, the longtime Latinist for the Vatican's Secretariat of State, passed away on December 25th, 2020 at the age of 81. Obituaries and remembrances: New York Times First Things Vatican News Catholic News Service Smithsonian Magazine Aleteia.org National Public Radio Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0, Link